IT'S AN ATTACK ON ALL FRONTS

I said it from the very beginning: once the trough was opened, the pigs would never stop coming and, further, they would bring their friends:

DETROIT (AP) - Billions of dollars in government loans to prop up General Motors and Chrysler won't be enough. The companies, which have received $17.4 billion so far, filed plans with the government more than doubling that request to a staggering total of $39 billion.

LET. THEM. GO. BANKRUPT. Force them into restructuring.

Former FedRes Chair Alan Greenspan thinks it's a good idea to nationalize our banks:

The US government may have to nationalise some banks on a temporary basis to fix the financial system and restore the flow of credit, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, has told the Financial Times.

Further, now some on the GOP side had bought into this:

Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator for South Carolina, says that many of his colleagues, including John McCain, the defeated presidential candidate, agree with his view that nationalisation of some banks should be “on the table”.

A good idea, says Mr Obama:

Barack Obama, the president, who has tried to avoid panicking lawmakers and markets by entertaining the idea, has moved more towards what he calls the “Swedish model” – an approach backed strongly by Mr Graham. In the early 1990s Sweden nationalised its banking sector then auctioned banks having cleaned up balance sheets. “In limited circumstances the Swedish model makes sense for the US,” says Mr Graham.

Germany has now gone this route:

The German cabinet approved a law on Wednesday letting it nationalise banks, setting aside a reluctance to seize private property in the latest government intervention worldwide to tackle the financial crisis. Germany said it was not planning to extend the role of the state through the bill, which it described as a last resort and could lead to the forced nationalisation of struggling German lender Hypo Real Estate (Xetra: 802770 - news).

But it nonetheless set aside a postwar commitment to respect private property, becoming the latest government to edge away from free market policies, instead using state support to prop up flagging banks and industries.

Read this: German private property can now be seized.

"We are all Socialists now," says Newsweek magazine.

At this rate, you think your property can't be seized in the future?

BZ