Brevity, wit and wisdom

Governments aren’t used to running banks. But the British authorities control Royal Bank of Scotland and their US counterparts now have more than $300bn of influence in their banking sector. How should they use their influence, and how will they use it? The first principle should be: “Brevity is the soul of wit”. Chris Cox, chairman of the often rightly maligned US Securities and Exchange Commission, correctly pointed out in a recent Wall Street Journal article that governments need exit strate...