INTERNATIONAL FINANCE: "Foreign Firms Scoop Up Failed Banks: International Buyers Think the Worst Is Over for U.S. Banking; 'Cheaper Than Building Branches,'" by Robin Sidel, Phred Dvorak and Atsuko Fukase, Wall Street Journal, 23 April 2010.

Another one of those, tell-me-the-better-alternatives-given-the-situation stories: foreign firms buy up our failed banks. Would you prefer nobody want to buy them?

The movers are basically Canadian and Japanese, plus some Irish, Argentines, Spaniards and Portuguese. Some American banks like US Bancorp are also buying, but typically they focus on the bigger packages of branches.