"To the victor belong the spoils." - Senator William Marcy
How stupid some small banker aspiring to be a bigger banker must be feeling right now. He lended with prudence, and avoided the call of short term profits. He was unable to accrue large bonuses do to the inflated performance. But now, the worm has turned -- and he is the victor, and to him belong the spoils.
But now we are changing the rules, allowing the losers to claim rights previously unimaginable. The small banker has practiced prudence - but others hide behind the facade of the consequences of a major dislocation of systemic player.
Much of the news of the past couple of days has been on the creation of a "bad bank" that would take the bad assets of current banks and hold them, freeing the banks to lend freely because their balance sheets would be unimpaired.
The idea that the government must create a "bad bank" is ironic. We don't need to create bad banks -- we already have bad banks. What we need are good banks. So let's allow people to create new banks, or allow the good bankers the opportunity pick up the assets of the current bad banks.
We are faced with a decision: Choose the harder right or easier wrong.
Either choice will have far reaching implications.
How stupid some small banker aspiring to be a bigger banker must be feeling right now. He lended with prudence, and avoided the call of short term profits. He was unable to accrue large bonuses do to the inflated performance. But now, the worm has turned -- and he is the victor, and to him belong the spoils.
But now we are changing the rules, allowing the losers to claim rights previously unimaginable. The small banker has practiced prudence - but others hide behind the facade of the consequences of a major dislocation of systemic player.
Much of the news of the past couple of days has been on the creation of a "bad bank" that would take the bad assets of current banks and hold them, freeing the banks to lend freely because their balance sheets would be unimpaired.
The idea that the government must create a "bad bank" is ironic. We don't need to create bad banks -- we already have bad banks. What we need are good banks. So let's allow people to create new banks, or allow the good bankers the opportunity pick up the assets of the current bad banks.
We are faced with a decision: Choose the harder right or easier wrong.
Either choice will have far reaching implications.
