Nationalizing banks won't fix money problems

President Obama seems to have survived his first week in office with little trouble, but it doesn't seem like this good fortune will continue, at least not with the Republicans or me. With the obvious economic troubles looming before him, the nation is waiting for their answers and billions promised in stimulus checks. However, Obama's cure for Wall Street's scars may not turn out to be as great as expected. I don't think many Americans planned to welcome socialism alongside the first black president.

Socialist fingers have already been pointed at Obama during the election, and now in the Oval Office he is planning the nationalization of America's banks. Sounds a bit socialist to me. But if you ask any of Obama's staff or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, their plan can hardly be described as nationalization. She is quoted in a New York Times article saying that they are "not talking total ownership" after she brushed off the term nationalization by saying, "well, whatever you want to call it."

The reason the Obama administration gives for nationalization is simply to pull the banks and other financial institutions out of this gigantic hole. If the government takes over, they can fire unfit management and run the banks in a responsible manner during this crucial time. They have never admitted to trying to gain full ownership of all the banks, only a "large minority," which of course does not sound anything like an oxymoron to Obama's officials - but I beg to differ.

If the government gains control of any sizable portion of America's financial institutions, when will the banks be "ready" to run themselves again? How will any federal officials have enough objectivity to decide when the economic situation is back on track? Obama plans to fire all the current management in these institutions because they have failed with the rest of the economy, which is not the answer at all. Many, many Americans had a hand in the economic crisis. It wasn't just Wall Street, or the big greedy businesses, or the irresponsible homebuyers, it was all of us, including Obama and every member of his cabinet.

Nationalization is not something America needs right now. The government cannot be the savior in this situation, not for a while anyway. This crisis is something we all need to ride out the best we can. Billions of tax dollars have already gone to businesses that have failed, and Obama's plan to nationalize the banks is supposed to help the taxpayers by producing better results through implementing new management, supposedly. However, they realize how difficult it will be to find new management that will work for such low pay. And even if they do find people to run the banks, what makes the government think these new people will do any better than the old workers? All of the financial institutions are in trouble because they all messed up, and now everyone is in trouble. Thanks, Wall Street.

But what I don't understand is why anyone would allow Obama to implement a clearly socialist system with nationalization of financial institutions and billions in stimulus checks. Regardless of his promises to only own a part of each company and only for as long as necessary, no one knows just how long that will be. It will be years before the deficits get back to a normal level - even looking at Connecticut's budget, the deficit gets worse before there is any hope of getting better. The same is true for the rest of the nation. When will the government be happy enough with the state of the nation's economy to let go of the financial institutions? How do we know that they won't suddenly decide that their nationalization plan was so perfect that banks and companies should always be partially - or completely - nationalized?

There is little, if any, good that can stem from nationalization of any sort. Economic times are going to continue to be miserable until the system rights itself again. Neither Obama, nor the rest of the nation can fix this with any plan, no matter how complex. If Obama's plans keep going in this direction, someday we will also have to implement plans to turn our nation back to capitalism from the socialist path we are stumbling down.