Herman
Cain
Read Herman's bio and previous columns
October 20, 2008
Far from
Nationalization, Purchase of Bank Stocks Is a Win-Win for Taxpayers
Earth to taxpayers! Owning stocks in banks is not nationalization of the
banking industry. It’s trying to solve a problem.
The unprecedented financial crisis has caused the Treasury of the United
States to take unprecedented measures to help solve the problem of
frozen credit and cash flow for U.S. businesses.
Most of us had dreams of what we wanted to be when we grew up as
children. Some of us wanted to grow up and become a fireman, a
policeman, a doctor, a nurse, a lawyer, a teacher, an actor, an
engineer, a writer, a dancer, a chef or any number of other professions.
But some of us wanted to own a bank because that’s where the money is!
Wake up people! Owning a part of the major banks in America is not a bad
thing. We could make a profit while solving a problem.
But the mainstream media and the free market purists want you to believe
that this is the end of capitalism as we know it. It is not for several
reasons that they have conveniently not explained.
First, instead of buying toxic mortgage-related assets of banks as
originally proposed, the Treasury has changed tactics and will buy
equity positions called preferred stocks, which gives us as taxpayers an
ownership stake in their success for a limited period of time.
Preferred stock means we get paid a dividend before any other
stockholders get paid a dividend when they make a profit. You got a
problem with that?
Second, the purchase agreement between the Treasury and the
participating banks has an incentive for the banks to re-purchase the
stock back from the Treasury within five years.
If
the banks do not re-purchase the stock in five years then we get a
bigger dividend until they do re-purchase the stock. That’s a good deal!
The free market purists’ objection to this is that it smacks at
government control of the banking industry, which is called
nationalization. They are correct. It smacks, but it is not
nationalization because that would require the government to own at
least 51 percent of the entity for an indefinite period of time.
The ownership by the taxpayers is going to be relatively small and
nowhere near the amount needed to be called nationalization. So what’s
the problem?
The problem is economic illiteracy and media incompetence. Some people
want to continue to fan the flames of anger and outrage over how we got
into this mess in the first place. Anger and outrage will not solve the
problem.
Unprecedented problems require unprecedented solutions. The actions by
the Treasury are a win-win for the taxpayer. But the mainstream media
does not get brownie points for reporting win-win solutions for the
taxpayers. Their focus is doom and gloom.
These actions by the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank and the actions
by the Federal Depositors Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are all intended
to help solve an unprecedented financial crisis. Unlike steps taken
prior to and during the Great Depression, these actions have a high
probability of success.
In
order for these collective actions to work, the media needs to calm its
crisis rhetoric, and Congress needs to just shut up with its political
rhetoric.
Now don’t tell Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, but if this works, and I
believe it will, the Bush Administration will have gotten this one
right.
As
we say in the South, y’all hush!
© 2008 North Star
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