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Let's Try To Keep Good Banks In Business

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 14, 2009

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States:

The (Nashville) Tennessean, on nationalizing America's banks:

The debate is raging over the approach to struggling American banks, in part because of a much-misused word: nationalization.

Some Republican leaders say that is what the Obama administration is trying to do: a complete government takeover of banks. Obama's treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, his White House spokesman and others deny it, insisting that they know government officials make bad bankers. ...

The biggest mistake would be to let such labeling get in the way of trying to do something about the situation banks are in. A look at the major banks' balance sheets, even after billions of taxpayer dollars have been handed to them from the Troubled Assets Relief Fund or other programs, should make us consider a variety of options as the nation tries to dig out of a deep recession. ...

Rather than paint any federal intervention as "nationalization," the best course may be to let the administration offer constructive support to keep good banks in business, while the justice system roots out those individuals who are found to have manipulated the system for personal gain.

The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, on recovery and the Gulf Coast:

The Obama administration inherited the Gulf Coast in mid-recovery and at a point when many of us are completely frustrated with government. The distress Americans feel about job losses and declining home values is magnified here by the devastation left by broken levees and hurricane-force winds. We are fixated as a community -- understandably so -- on the question of where the rebuilding of greater New Orleans will rank in the new president's agenda.

On the administration's first post-inaugural visit, there were hopeful signs. Like so many visitors before them, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan undoubtedly benefited from seeing the ruins and rebuilding first-hand. ...

"What we have seen today makes us disturbed -- angry, even -- to see the numbers of families living the way they have, " Mr. Donovan said after touring parts of St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward Thursday. ...

Mr. Donovan and Ms. Napolitano both took the opportunity to announce federal recovery initiatives that made their visit more than a look-and-listen tour. That is smart politics. ...

Mr. Donovan and Ms. Napolitano possess a refreshing optimism about what their agencies can accomplish here. ...

The proof will come with time. But the attitude is certainly appreciated.

San Antonio (Texas) Express-News, on progress in Iraq:

No issue was more important to the candidacy of Barack Obama than the war in Iraq. ...

And his pledge to remove combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office resonated strongly with the American people.

Making decisions as commander in chief is far different from making promises on the campaign trail. ...

Which is why President Obama shouldn't be concerned about the criticism he is catching from some anti-war activists about the fine print in his recently announced Iraq policy.

That policy, created in consultation with military leaders, will largely remove combat troops over 19 months, not 16 months. ...

A 50,000-man residual force will remain in Iraq beyond Aug. 31, 2010, far larger than opponents had expected. ...

A decent end to the American intervention in Iraq is now within sight. It would be a foolish and costly mistake to allow the rhetoric of a candidate to hamper a president and jeopardize a positive outcome.

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