by Calculated Risk on 3/08/2009 02:22:00 PM

Transcript: 'This Week' Economic Debate

SHELBY: ... I think that they've got to close some big banks. They don't want to do it. We're -- we're going down the same road Japan was going down.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you're in the same place -- I had Senator Lindsey Graham on the problem a couple of weeks ago. He said we're going to have to close, nationalize some of the big banks.

SHELBY: I don't want to nationalize them. I think we need to close them...

STEPHANOPOULOS: So when you say "close," what do you mean by them?

SHELBY: Close -- close them down, get them out of business. If they're dead, they ought to be buried. We bury the small banks; we've got to bury some big ones and send a strong message to the market. And I believe that people will start investing in banks. People aren't...

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you're talking Citigroup?

SHELBY: Well, whatever. Citi's always been a problem child.
emphasis added

When the FDIC "buries a small bank" - they temporarily nationalize the bank, and then reprivatize the bank. So this just appears to be semantics problem. This is why I call the first step "pre-privatize" - to avoid the stigma of "nationalize" - then reprivatize the banks.

I'm not sure what else Shelby could mean by "bury some big ones".