More or less bunk

The past is holding back the future of Hypo Real Estate. The German real estate and infrastructure lender has been struggling since last September. The state’s support has escalated from E35bn of assistance, after wholesale funding markets first dried up, to more than E100bn of debt guarantees and credit lines. A comprehensive bailout plan seems long overdue. At least part of the delay is rooted in history. The last time the German government nationalised a bank was in 1931. Bank runs followed,...