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Philip Copeman, answers renouned economist Chriostopher Carrol and his analogy of the US Bank Bailout to Nero fiddling. See original article in the Financial Times here

Christopher Carrol, the problem with your analysis is that you have your Classics wrong. The Eruption of Mounts Versuvius was correctly, AD 79. Unfortunately Nero died in 68 AD and Marcus Crassus only lived until 53BC . Crassus died in battle in Syria and legend has it that his captors poured molten gold down his throat to satisfy his lust for money.

The more important point that we all seem to have missed here is what we learned in classical economics. We seem to regard the banks as businesses separate from the rest of the capitalist economy. The whole point of the free market is to let the strong prosper and leave the weak to bleed to death, as long as they don't drip into the aquaduct.