It's easy to understand why the United States is considering an apparently indiscriminate reward for those who took too much risk. The stakes are very high, and a disorderly deleveraging would be worse than an orderly one, even if the orderly one isn't perfect.

The debate about whether or not the United States will need a huge intervention of public capital into its banking system and wider economy is over. The crisis requires a huge outlay of public funds, both to clean up after the many banks that will fail and to soften the blow to homeowners and consumers.

Banking is a confidence game, even if done soberly and responsibly.