Loans to Cash-strapped Companies

There's hope that government provided loans will help those cash-strapped companies facing failure. You might brush aside the thought of violating free market principles. You might declare, "whatever is necessary to spare us of financial pain and suffering" but there is something far deeper than simply helping to mend a financial calamity. Most governments, worldwide, are finding it necessary to help their private sectors. Putin and the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have pledged to provide loans to cash-stapped companies too. Oh, but, how about this tidbit from the Bloomberg article?

The $50 billion that the prime minister and President Dmitry Medvedev have
pledged to lend cash-strapped companies will extend state control over business
leaders. Billionaires seeking bailouts -- including Oleg Deripaska,
Russia's richest man, and Mikhail Fridman -- will
have to give authorities veto power over their companies' financing decisions.
``This will give the state more leverage over the country's biggest
companies and main industries,'' said Chris Weafer, chief
strategist at UralSib Financial Corp in Moscow. ``In 2008, there is only one
real oligarch: the state.''

Sound familiar?