Re: Rescue the banks or the bankers
"Was the bail out, and partial nationalisation, of banks cheaper than simply letting some of them go bust and paying the depositors?"
Yes. The bailout itself looks like making a profit.
And we avoided the horrendous economic costs of millions losing banking (and their deposits) for a few months while we tried to clean it up, pay them back.
As I say in the piece, I wouldn't have minded some of the shareholders losing a bit more money but that's a different matter.
"Was billions really given to merchant bankers who made a bad bet and then paid themselves bonuses with the money?"
No, not really: the desks that made the bad bets didn't get any bonuses.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
