What are they waiting for?

Obama will never have greater political capital, at least until he shows he can feed the multitudes with a couple of fish and some stale bread, so, as Simon Johnson asks, let's do this thing already.

Why have we de facto nationalized? Because the private credit system - particularly large banks - is weakened and not getting any better. Attempts to deal with the problem banks are apparently blocked by the political power of influential bankers.

How then do we really privatize? By exercising leadership: take over insolvent banks and immediately reprivatize them. The new controlling owners can replace the boards of directors (tell me: why haven’t they resigned already?), and these boards can decide who to keep and who to let go from existing management. The taxpayer retains a significant number of shares (or the option to buy common stock) as a way to ensure upside participation - the economy will one day recover, and that will be a very good day for owners of the remaining banks.