Collateral Damage

Banks have to stop anticipating that the governement will bail them out when trouble comes around. In the case of Lehman Brothers the policymakers wanted to make a statement that sick banks must not fiddle while Rome burns. Not all banks can and will be rescued by the governement and some of them will go bankrupt in times of financial crisis. Although the governement now made clear that banks have to be self-reliant when there is doom and gloom, they have to make sure that markets do not break and that the financial system remains healthy on the long term.

Arne Van den Bossche

source: http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342689