A Recapitalization Plan

Greg Mankiw:

Here is an idea that might deal with these problems: The government can stand ready to be a silent partner to future Warren Buffetts.

It could work as follows. Whenever any financial institution attracts new private capital in an arms-length transaction, it can access an equal amount of public capital. The taxpayer would get the same terms as the private investor. The only difference is that government’s shares would be nonvoting until the government sold the shares at a later date.

This plan would solve the three problems. The private sector rather than the government would weed out the zombie firms. The private sector rather than the government would set the price. And the private sector rather than the government would exercise corporate control.

This would be an interesting compromise between the private and public sectors fixing the current crisis. It would encourage private investors to get involved because they'd have to put up less money, and it would prevent an overreaching government ownership over banks.