For all of you adherents to the Paul Krugman/Joe Stiglitz world of "just nationalize the banks already" school of thought, I give you AIG.

AIG and its myriad counterparty contracts, insurance contracts and credit default swaps is the poster child of nationalization.  We the Taxpayers own virtually all of it and will continue to pour endless billions down a black hole in order not to let it fail.  As Eliot Spitzer rightly notes, these billions are the outrage; not the piddling, by comparison, bonuses wrongfully paid which are also an outrage.

Can you imagine what a takeover of Citigroup or Bank of America would look like?  As much as it is easy to trash Geithner and Summers over this whole affair, maybe their carefully slow approach and hands off style aren't as disastrous for us in the long run as rushing headlong into the "nationalize everything" answer that seems to be the conventional wisdom.

Oh and trashing the Obama Administration over this will easily produce exactly the results the obstructionists in Congress desire:  No EFCA, No Health Care Reform, No Carbon Taxes, No Major Reform of Government or Wall Street.

Be careful what you wish for because it just might end up in a new Republican Majority.