Why not take investment all the way now?

One of the issues that is going to come out of the paer nationalisation of the Banking system is where does the government draw the line.

What in fact makes a bank different to any other business,a building company,a manufactoring company or even an individual who through no fault of their own have been victims of the crisis?

Seumas Milne writing in the Guardian this morning says of yesterday's actions

What seems certain is that government intervention is going to have to become bolder still, as the crisis unfolds both in the financial markets and the real economy. Even if yesterday's package eases the domestic credit squeeze in the short term, all the signs suggest we are heading into something that goes well beyond a normal business cycle downturn, as the IMF's warnings of the most serious global crisis for 70 years underline. The threat is now of depression, not simply recession.

Thus the banking sector must now be channeled into investing in

a programme of public housebuilding, home insulation and transport investment, along with intervention to control gas and electricity costs and action to turn repossessions into social renting.