That should probably be viewed as rhetorical question, but it might have been worth mentioning the track record of the unnamed official giving the NYT assurances that the banks are in good shape. We are being treated to a bizarre situation where the government is giving trillions of dollars of subsidized loans to the banks at the same time that it is assuring us that the banks are in good shape. This raises the obvious question, if the banks are in such good shape, why not take away the training wheels and let them fend for themselves in the market? It is remarkable that this question is never raised in this article.
--Dean Baker
