Loose lips sink ... banks?

The Anniston (Ala.) Star: These are unnerving times, especially in the banking industry. One slip of the tongue, one bit of uncertainty, one wrong move can send stocks dropping like a brick.

Rumors circulated that the government was contemplating seizing, taking control of, taking over the assets of, or — as some are loathe to say — to nationalize some of the nation’s largest banks.

Citigroup and Bank of America were most frequently mentioned, but it was enough to spark a panicked, broad-based sell-off. The slide was arrested only after White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced that it was the belief of the Obama administration “that a privately held banking system is the correct way to go.”

Striking fear

Nothing, save perhaps the term “socialized medicine,” strikes fear into the hearts of most Americans than talk of nationalization.

Never mind that the federal government engages in it, albeit on a smaller scale, weekly. It happens every time the FDIC — an innovation of a previous economic collapse also known as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation — takes down a failing bank and resells it.