A damage or a deal? The question is legitimate after that the papal encyclical Laudato si' who criticized "the bailout of the banks at any cost, making the population pay the price". And the answer goes in the opposite direction to that apparently desired by Pope Francis. The crisis and the bailouts of the banks have in fact proved to be an opportunity for profit for the United States (and not only for them) which have earned a little money by saving both the credit institutions from the crash but also many jobs.
Starting from the 2008 crisis which hit, among others, AIG, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley , the rescue operation, to date, has brought into the coffers of US Treasury about 15 billion in assets. Indeed, the bailout program launched by George W. Bush in 2008 and continued with decision by Barack Obama, amounted to 426,4 billion dollars, over a third of which dedicated to the giant Aig. Six years later, after the new privatization of the rescued banks in 6, the United States has collected almost 2008 billion dollars, going 442 billion in surplus. Above all, the bailouts of AIG (+15 billion), Citigroup (+24,7 billion) and Bank of America (+13,4 billion) were positive. On the other hand, investments in the automotive sector were bad with GM (-4,5 billion) and Chrysler (-10,5 billion).
So the banking crisis has even turned into an opportunity for medium and long-term earnings for the United States. It is enough that public finances have cash to invest. And it is above all for this reason that Italy has not followed the same path: above all due to the enormous public debt which weighs on our country and on our possibilities for growth. In addition to considerations of a more political nature, fundamentally linked to the difficulty of getting public opinion to accept measures to support the banks. As also eloquently demonstrated by the hornet's nest created (treasury minister Saccomanni) by the revaluation of the assets of the Bank of Italy. The cost of restructuring Italian banks has fallen on shareholders (in some cases public, as for Mps). The US case, on the other hand, can also be extended to Great Britain and Ireland.
But beyond the figures spent and then recovered by the States, there is the impact generated on the GDP to consider and also in this case the balance is positive: since 2008, the US GDP has grown by 18,9%, the UK by 20% and the Irish by 10,1% overall. Values which are undoubtedly also affected by other factors but on which it is legitimate to think that the bailouts carried out by governments have had a positive influence.
