One would expect that a staunchly liberal newspaper like yours would be very uneasy about the growing threat of nationalization of failed or troubled banks around the world, but in your last issue you went ballistic about this threat from the main leader onward (“Inside the Banks,” January 24, 2009). The dreaded N-word is everywhere (”To the Barricades,” “Shorn Bank Shares, Shaven Poll Ratings, Shredded Nerves,” “The Ties that Bind,” “Another Fine Mess,” “Fishy Stock,” and “The Specter of Nationalization,” for instance). It also lurks behind the bulk of your special report on the future of finance (“Greed and Fear”). Although nationalization of institutions that lie at the very heart of capitalism is undoubtedly a measure of last resort, some form of state capitalism is surely needed at this stage since it is the taxpayers who will ultimately have to bail out the crumbling financial system. This much you, too, will have to concede before you can focus on the new rules of the old game. For trusting the financial markets will not come easily to the taxpayers for many years to come, perhaps even an entire generation.