Capital Commerce

Name That Country

By Matthew Bandyk

Posted: October 15, 2009

In today's Financial Times, David Pilling gives a good overview of how the "dead hand" has returned to American economic policy:

Much of the banks’ money has been lent not to small private enterprises, but to big [state-supported financial institutions], many of which do not really need the cash. Some are putting loans straight back into the bank. Much is leaking out into real estate and equity investments, creating concerns about asset bubbles. If, as many suspect, the rash of lending eventually leads to a leap in non-performing loans, most banks probably expect the state to wipe the slate clean.

But oops, I made a mistake. Find out after the jump...

Pilling isn't talking about the U.S. at all. That paragraph is meant to describe the People's Republic of China. My only edit was that I changed "big state conglomerates" from Pilling's original to "big state-supported financial institutions."

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Powerfulcomparison of @ Dec 05, 2009 19:21:41 PM

Well

We could have skipped AIG, Fannie, Freddie, GM, Chrysler, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and the structured deals of Merrill and Bear-Stearns---and some other money to other banks. We could have skipped the Fed backing the money market accounts and buying Treasuries. WHAT do you suppose would have happened? Dow 10,000 faster?

Instead of comparing the USA to China, perhaps we could do with a few articles on the evils of our political habit of privatizing the profits and socializing the losses in America.

Muser of NM @ Oct 15, 2009 21:20:03 PM

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Capital Commerce

Capital Commerce

U.S. News business reporter Matthew Bandyk examines the issues, people, and debates that shape the nexus of political and economic life in the nation's capital.

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