How Chinese households serve the banks

A long post by Michael Pettis's about how China dealt with a banking crisis ten years ago, and how that crisis continues to affect economic policy serves as an interesting primer on the interaction of economic policy, banking, and the production and dissemination of real wealth. More specifically, it's a window into the tradeoffs between wealth production and wealth distribution.  The basic premise is that someone always pays for a banking crisis even when GDP growth is not long interrupted. 

Following the crisis, Pettis recounts, the Chinese government made the banks subsidize distressed lenders (by offering loans at very low rates) and in turn recapitalized the banks.  Pettis' main focus is on a third step -- forcing depositors (i.e., ordinary Chinese households) to subsidize the banks: