Why Can't We Let Banks Fail?

Planet Moneys Alex Blumberg of This American Life and NPR international business and economics correspondent Adam Davidson take another look at the financial crisis -- bad banks, toxic assets and taxpayer bailouts with Brian Lehrer. The video begins with a clip from "Bad Banks"

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2009/03/02/segments/125081

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• wnyc
• radio
• brian
• lehrer
• this
• american
• life
• planet
• money
• alex
• blumberg
• adam
• davidson
• toxic
• assets
• financial
• crisis
• economy

[chelihawk]

Wake up people, listen very carefully and you will find the real truth that no one speaks about. iit is extremeley wealthy people that would get crushed if we let the banks fail. the same people that have created the problem. Pension funds? Thats a joke, how much exposure does any pension fund have to the banks toxic assets. Dont get fooled. The 99 percent suffer more when the banks are bailed out.

[skykensok]

capital requirements.. if you loan money you don't have that's called FRAUD. Not only should the banks fail, they should be arrested and thrown in jail!

[MrBadgerful]

planet money is often insightful. just because they are not as definitive on points as political figures are, doesn't mean they can't help you form views

[mprat001]

I agree that we are no better off, but, sadly, we probably would have been much WORSE off if there had been no intervention. I share the concern about "fairness", but how "fair" would the results be if several major banks failed? Businesses would fail without credit to keep their daily operations going and innocent workers would lose their jobs. If the FDIC had insufficient cash reserves and manpower to handle all those bank failures, innocent depositors will lose their savings. What's fair?

[snortjeff631]

YUP

[mcc4m1sh]

Scaremongering by wall street to fool taxpayers into feeding the pigs. Banks should fail if they are failures.