Do Not Worry Comrades, This Is For The STATE!

From the New York Times, found at Mish's

Everything is straight from the NYT, except for my comments in brackets, until the ********. Emphasis is mine.

WASHINGTON — The chief executives of the nine largest banks in the United States trooped into a gilded conference room at the Treasury Department at 3 p.m. Monday. To their astonishment, they were each handed a one-page document that said they agreed to sell shares to the government, then Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said they must sign it before they left.
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[the Fed lends them money at 5%, increasing to 9% later, or they can make money on it if they lend. To whom will they lend? The smart are not borrowing and the defaulters are no longer considered credit-worthy]
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Mr. Paulson announced the plan Tuesday, saying “we regret having to take these actions.” Pouring billions in public money into the banks, he said, was “objectionable,” but unavoidable to restore confidence in the markets and persuade the banks to start lending again.
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All told, the potential cost to the government of the latest bailout package comes to $2.25 trillion, triple the size of the original $700 billion rescue package, which centered on buying distressed assets from banks. The latest show of government firepower is an abrupt about-face for Mr. Paulson, who just days earlier was discouraging the idea of capital injections for banks.
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Mr. Kovacevich of Wells Fargo objected that his bank, based in San Francisco, had avoided the mortgage-related woes of its Wall Street rivals. He said the investment could come at the expense of his shareholders.
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With the discussion becoming heated, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, who was seated next to Mr. Paulson, interceded. He told the bankers that the session need not be combative, since both the banks and the broader economy stood to benefit from the program. Without such measures, he added, the situation of even healthy banks could deteriorate.

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So here we go, taking "regrettable" actions, because the economy needs it.

You know, I bet Stalin regretted some of the actions he had to take in the beginning, too. And Hitler. And Chavez. And Mao. And Castro.

Deeply regrettable, but not for the reasons they think.

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme" -Mark Twain
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History, my friends, is beginning to rhyme.