Should We Force Banks to Lend_

Should we? We’ve been bailing these banks out with taxpayer money for months. Shouldn’t they be made to lend money to us now that they’ve been saved? In Britain, the government announced a new round of bailouts but only if banks agreed to increase lending. Should we do the same thing in the U.S.? “Ordering the bankers to make loans is both simple and satisfying,” says Floyd Norris. “But it will not fix the economy or the financial system.” From Norris’ story:Once that takes place, the newly risk-averse bankers must be willing to lend money — not to anyone, but to those who are likely to be able to repay the loans. The supply of such borrowers depends in part on getting the economy moving again.It was foolishly easy credit that got us into this mess. A government-mandated return to such lending is not a viable solution.I don’t think that banks should lend willy-nilly, without standards, but they should relinquish (lend) some of the funds that were used to bail out their insolvent butts.