LOOK AT SWEEDEN

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/business/worldbusiness/23krona.html?em

 

That strategy held banks responsible and turned the government into an owner. When distressed assets were sold, the profits flowed to taxpayers, and the government was able to recoup more money later by selling its shares in the companies as well.

"If I go into a bank," said Bo Lundgren, who was Sweden's deputy minister of finance at the time, "I'd rather get equity so that there is some upside for the taxpayer."

Sweden spent 4 percent of its gross domestic product, or 65 billion kronor, the equivalent of $11.7 billion at the time, or $18.3 billion in today's dollars, to rescue ailing banks. That is slightly less, proportionate to the national economy, than the $700 billion, or roughly 5 percent of gross domestic product, that the Bush administration estimates its own move will cost in the United States.

 

LOOK AT SWEEDEN DAMMIT!