Stiglitz Points Out the Obvious

Here's a piece from the New York Times on the new private-public partnership:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/opinion/01stiglitz.html

What's interesting is not that he doesn't like it, as the reasons he doesn't like it.  Namely, that the upside is all for the investor and the downside is all for the taxpayer.  What I don't understand is how that isn't a factor in just about every other bailout scenario.  Moreover, it seems like an interesting criticism for a program that isn't drawing many "takers."  Ultimately someone has to overpay for those assets, or else no one's going to buy them.  So it's no surprise that the taxpayer is going to make up the difference.  I'm not sure how short-term nationalization overcomes that problem.  Of course if the government want to run the banks for 15 years and then sell them, they might make a profit.