Making The Cut Are The Fed's Stress Tests The First Step Toward Bank Nationalization?

摘要

Despite the U.S. govern-ment's efforts to convince investors and the public that it won't nationalize major banks, the Federal Reserve Board's decision to subject lenders to stress tests couldrnbe a milestone along that path. Given the severity of the economic crisis - and that the government decides what constitutes a passing grade - federal officials "are going to be pulled into it one way or another," asserts Simon Johnson, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a former economic counselor and director of the research department at the International Monetary Fund. Bank nationalization in the U.S is inevitable if global markets continue to deteriorate, taking down such industry sectors as insurance and causing credit spreads to widen even further, Johnson explains. "In a crisis situation, if things go wrong all at once, the only option becomes nationalization."