Good morning! How about converting the government's preferred stock holdings in the banks to common stock? That's the idea administration officials ran up the flagpole in today's New York Times.
So far, no one seems to be saluting.
The move, according to these unnamed officials, would provide the banks with more capital without the government having to provide more capital (and thus delaying the painful trip to Congress to ask for more bailout money). Sounds good. Except some say it's not clear what it would accomplish. And it would make the money taxpayers have already invested in the banks more vulnerable to losses.
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