Nationalization: What Does Treasury Really Think?

Andrew Leonard makes a good point today: most of the people who aren't supporting nationalization can't support nationalization, because they have important roles in government, and if anybody in government talks about nationalization, they have to do so as part of a very detailed policy, naming the names of the banks to be nationalized, and making it clear that the rest of the banks won't be. Otherwise you risk a generalized and self-fulfilling stock-market rush to the exits, as far as banks are concerned.

Leonard also picks up on the phrase at the very end of the Treasury statement:

The consistent reiteration from the White House "that banks should remain in private hands" doesn't tell us what the Obama brain trust's true position on nationalization really is.

This is how the world has changed: it used to be that the Treasury secretary was forced to regularly and meaninglessly recite the phrase "a strong dollar is in the national interest". Today, the Treasury secretary is forced to regularly and meaninglessly recite the phrase "banks should remain in private hands". Even -- especially -- if he doesn't really believe it.