Comment & Debate
“Obama’s bank tax will only work if there’s a master plan in place.” Telegraph. January 14, 2010: “The Obama bank levy is intended to do more than punish banks. It will, if it works, not only make banks pay retrospectively for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) but change their behaviour in the future. The message that state bail-outs will not be cost free should act as a deterrent and the favourable treatment of deposit-taking institutions is designed to make some sorts of business – those the government wishes to encourage – more desirable than others.”