Nationalize the Banks. Please.

Thomas Friedman makes the case that we're still not doing enough to stop the banking crisis. That the stimulus was a good start, but we need to triple it, and we need a major bank smackdown that somebody's not going to like.

I formed most of my opinion listening to This American Life. They explain what the problem is, and the two main solutions - a bailout that consumers suck up, or a nationalization that bankers hate. Either we just give banks a pile of money to fix the problem - which means taxpayers just kiss that money goodbye - or we have the government take the banks over, which is what the IMF makes every other nation in the world do when their banks fail in exactly this way. That is also the approach with regional problems here, like when a bunch of banks in Texas and Oklahoma failed.

The objection to nationalizing the banks is that it's socialism. Which is a pathetic, ideological whine. After 8 years of ideology over policy leading to an unnecessary war and the destruction of an American city, I'd rather that people who won't accept a "socialist" solution on principle just shut up and sit down. But there probably is another critique.

The government taking over the banks is a big job. And while government is capable of many things, running an economy isn't something they've shown talent for, historically. But this critique is flawed, too. When other banking systems fail, the nationalization is temporary. Within a couple years, after all the problems are sorted out, the banks are sold back into the marketplace. And I like the solution of nationalization for another reason. The bankers are guilty, and deserve consequences.