The figures show blame game is not so simple Brian Caplen

摘要

In the US and the UK, politicians and the mainstream media continue to recite their favourite mantra - the banks took huge risky bets and collapsed; the taxpayers bailed them out; now governments are cutting public spending, hurting poor people. Ergo, the banks are the enemy.rnIt obviously makes it easier for governments embarking on spending cutbacks to blame the banks for the entire mess, but just because it sounds right doesn't make it entirely correct.rnThis month, investment banking and capital markets editor Geraldine Lambe and researcher Guillaume Hingel set out to analyse the true costs of the bailouts and discovered that governments might ultimately make a profit from them. To find out how, turn to our cover story on page 84.