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by mrzimmerman 1183 days ago
How was Credit Suisse bailed out? It seems like they were closed and sold, as happens with a bank that fails.

Bailouts, by 2008 standards, would have been giving money to Credit Suisse so they could continue operating and avoid the fallout of their bad choices.

2 comments

Not the greatest term I agree. But how do we call what happened ?

Shareholders still got some money (~3B$). If it wasn't for government intervention, the bank would be dead very soon.

The thing with banking and finance is that incentives are very bad - you play with other's people money, on thin margins - you're de facto encouraged to take risks. If they pay off, you get big bonuses, if they don't - you just change the bank you work for.

The SNB provided government guarantees to the tune of 260B Swiss francs. That's a bailout.