Zombie Banks Are Devouring Our Public Money with No End in Sight

By Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal
Posted on March 4, 2009, Printed on March 6, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/129732/

The following is a transcript from the Feb. 27 edition of Bill Moyers Journal.

Remember when economists poked fun at Ronald Reagan's voodoo economics? Well, now they are dead serious about so-called "zombie banks" - financial giants like Citigroup and Bank of America whose debts are greater than their assets, with stock worth less than zero, and they're only able to stay alive by devouring federal bailout bucks. Those banks, in turn, are terrified by talk that the government might come in and nationalize them. Well, some critics ask, why not? Given all this, I wanted to talk to a man with a clear-eyed perspective on the worldwide economic impact of this banking crisis.

Robert Johnson was once the Chief Economist of the Senate Banking Committee under the chairmanship of that fiercest of budget pit-bulls, the late Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire.