by Laura Conaway

I'm just catching up to this link from @tyoungs: "France to take controlling stake in merged bank."

Politicians in France generally do not find it difficult to say the word
nationalization." So as two French banks struggle to weather the financial turbulence, Paris has decided to accelerate their merger, take a controlling stake in the combined company and install a management team of its own.

Quite a contrast to the scene on Capitol Hill yesterday, with Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and lawmakers doing the nationalization dance.