The US government warned that failure to pass the Paulson bailout plan into law would lead to disaster. In the worst-case outcome, that could mean wholesale nationalization of the finance industry. With Frannie and AIG, and a banking system that fails without dramatic Fed intervention, the Bush administration has already made a start.
IDEOLOGY MUST GIVE way to pragmatism. Around the world, the role of the state in financial and banking markets is set to grow and the private financial services industry will shrink. Let’s just get used to it. The programme of emergency bail-outs and nationalizations will roll on for some time.
There is a basic requirement for money to move from buyers to sellers, employers to employees, savers to borrowers. Where that system is fundamentally threatened, the state must always be ready to step in.