The N-Word

Alternatively, the government could seize--i.e., nationalize--the troubled banks, taking control of both bad assets and good ones. Once again, the rot would be cleaned out and housed in a separate entity, with the hopes of recouping its value later on. Before that, the government would pump up the banks with the necessary capital, then sell them back to the private sector. In this case, the bank's owners--that is, its shareholders--would see their stakes wiped out. But their contribution, in the form of the banks' remaining assets, would defray the cost of nursing the financial system to health.

The N-Word