UK Bank Debate A Reminder Bailouts Worked

Britain is preparing to return to private ownership the banks bailed out during the 2008 financial crisis.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne wishes to consolidate the bailed out banks into a major player that can provide effective competition to Britain's oligopoly of surviving banks.

Liberal Democratic leader Nick Clegg is urging that shares in the privatized banks be given direct to the public rather than sold on the open market.

Clegg's approach seems to me a mistake, one that could result in under-valuing the privatized banks and thus depriving the Treasury of revenues that could be used for tax relief (or at least the avoidance of tax increases).

Still -- it's a nice debate to have. And a reminder that the financial bailouts of 2008 did not pour money down the drain, but instead saved the world from a likely second Great Depression at ultimately very limited (if any) cost to taxpayers.