Be careful what you wish for. A year ago, a major UK bank was not allowed to acquire Lehman Brothers which wound up in bankruptcy. The British Chancellor of the Exchequeur told his US counterpart, Treasury Secy. Paulson, “we do not want to import your cancer.”

    Perhaps in revenge, the bank in turn refused to accept British government bailout money, instead turning to shareholders and fatcats from the Middle East and Asia to build up its capital cushion. Most rival banks in the US and Britain did not dare say no the way our choice bank did.