Edward Luce,Financial Times
Obama looking to Sweden for help
Long regarded in the US as a folly of Europeans,nationalisation is gaining rapid acceptance among Washington opinion-formers – and not just with Alan Greenspan,former Federal Reserve chairman. Perhaps stranger still,many of those talking about nationalising banks are Republicans.
Lindsey Graham,the Republican senator for South Carolina,says that many of his colleagues,including John McCain,the defeated presidential candidate,agree with his view that nationalisation of some banks should be “on the table”.
Mr Graham says that people across the US accept his argument that it is untenable to keep throwing good money after bad into institutions such as Citigroup and Bank of America,which now have a lower net value than the amount of public funds they have received.