Financial bailouts and the limits of market self-correction

¶ … Berman, Dennis. (22 Apr 2008). "The game: So far, so good on bailouts, but how long will they last; as more firms need capital, rules may need update to open way for hedge-fund and bank investments?" Wall Street Journal. pg.

It is said that it is an 'ill wind that blows nobody good.' However, recently it has proven more and more difficult to find good economic news. And this is not simply in the United States. Now, the IMF predicts a mind-boggling $945 billion of credit- related losses amongst banks. According to Dennis K. Berman, however, "mind-boggling part isn't so much the losses, but what's come after: That there has been enough capital to save dozens of banks and brokers from the brink of disaster....However fragile, the system has remained self-repairing, feeding capital where it is needed" (Berman 2008). In other words, according to the Wall Street Journal, at least the system proved capable of correcting itself in a way that it would not have been able to correct itself in the past.

However, even the Journal worries that there is no guarantee that the capital will be there for the next round of infusions for failing banks. It calls on the government to give private-equity firms more leeway in exerting control over a bank investment and changing the accounting rules for bank acquisitions, allowing the firm to write down the bank's losses down over time, rather than having to take them on immediately.