Wow, it is amazing that you ask this question. Where to begin? Letting the banks go under would have repercussion so severe (as if things aren’t bad enough), that our “modern” economies will grind to a halt. Comparisons to the prolonged depression of the late 20’s to the mid 30’s of the last century are not out of place. If banks stop the money from flowing, the trickle down will be very swift indeed. It would take way too much paper to explain it, if you don’t understand this. Please read some newspapers, and they will explain it for you.
If the governments don't step in to hold up the financial system you wouldn't have to worry about betting your mortgage.
Any rescue of Alitalia in the current climate has zero chance of succeeding. All it will mean is that they will be back in short order for more help (on top of the number of last chances they have already had). In isolation this is not a big deal. But the whole industry is struggling to find a way of surviving (how perfect does this storm need to be?). Leaving Alitalia in place will just mean the left over pie has to be divided over more mouths. And in the end it will weaken the left over players.
Among them many airlines that have done the tough things to be able to position themselves to be a survivor. Letting Alitalia shut down is a tragedy for the people concerned, and they do have my sympathies. On an individual basis you can’t blame them. But drawing comparison between saving whole economies (and millions of jobs, and trying to prevent a depression) with another injection of capital for a inefficient company shows a great lack of understanding. Letting Alitalia shut down would hardly register as a blip in our industry as a whole.
I am sorry if I have offended any Italians, that is not my intention. But this farce around Alitalia is harmful to our industry, it is not strictly an Italian issue, far from it, and people are paying attention. If other airlines are allowed to shut down because their business model failed, or their timing was bad, my question would be: What makes Alitalia so special, that it can operate under different laws than those other airlines?
Last edited by Otterman; 14th Oct 2008 at 06:22.