Sweden's solution to their banking crisis in '91 involved the taxpayers getting ownership instead of simply ponying up the cash.
From the nytimes article about sweden's financial crisis:
"Sweden took a different course than the one now being proposed by the United States Treasury. ... It extracted pounds of flesh from bank shareholders before writing checks. ...
That strategy held banks responsible and turned the government into an owner. When distressed assets were sold, the profits flowed to taxpayers, and the government was able to recoup more money later by selling its shares in the companies as well."
I think it's simple: if I pay for it, I want to own it. We have a system for trading money for ownership...it's called stocks. I think they're familiar with the concept of 'stocks.'
I saw someone on the colbert report trotting out the "well, shareholders have already lost x% of their value!" argument (where x is some number chosen to cause shock and dismay. Ninety! Ninety-nine! Almost eighty percent! Nearly three-quarters!).
It's like: yeah, and I coulda been a contender, too...but that's not a possible world anymore. What is the value today of these stocks? Roughly .... zero? so anything we pay for them is already a gift. But at least sell me the stock and don't expect me to just help you out because i'm nice. welcome to financial markets, boys. you have to offer something up for trade. You've heard of "trade," right? You know, system of exchange &c?
Friggin' fairweather freemarketeers. They disgust me.