United States of America Visa Card Coming to a Bank Near You_

That’s the first thing I thought when I saw the New York Times headline about the federal government taking an ownership stake in U.S. banks. From the Times story: U.S. Considers Cash Injections Into Banks (link to story here)The proposal resembles one announced on Wednesday in Britain. Under that plan, the British government would offer banks like the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC Holdings up to $87 billion to shore up their capital in exchange for preference shares. It also would provide a guarantee of about $430 billion to help banks refinance debt.And this one:“The core problem is that the smart people are realizing that the banking system is broken,” said Carl B. Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. “Nobody knows who is holding the tainted assets, how much they have and how it affects their balance sheets. So nobody is willing to believe that anybody else isn’t insolvent, until it’s proven otherwise.”I was already pining for a Goldman Sachs Visa card. Perhaps a U.S. Visa card isn’t far off. Just another reason to keep my inquiries down.