Didn't say we should privatize the gains. I just don't think that it's useful to tear down a bunch of infrastructure on principle. I would not have minded just nationalizing as much as would have been needed either. And of course bailing out a bunch of homeowners would be extremely ideal.
Gov't intervention when systems are falling apart are not a bad thing (well, at least when they actually do helpful things).
Most of the commentary about the 2008 bank bailouts presumes all the money was spent or given to banks. Banks paid everything back. A couple billion dollars in opportunity cost because of inflation is definitely worth preventing a collapse of the financial system.
Yes, but you insisted that the loans were profitable, not that they had "a couple billion dollars in opportunity cost". There is a difference between profit and loss.
You’re describing as profitable lending by an entity funding itself by issuing Treasuries and then ignoring the cost of the interest paid on those Treasuries when deciding if the use of the money was profitable.
"Guys, we would actually have been richer instead of poorer if six years worth of inflation hadn't happened! Let's celebrate!"
If I can buy n units of goods and services for the money before the investment and n-1 units of goods and services after the investment, I've lost. I don't see how the particular numbers you print on currency enter the equation. How is nominal profit at all interesting?
Gov't intervention when systems are falling apart are not a bad thing (well, at least when they actually do helpful things).