> As far as we know, it never works. That's not true at all. Almost every bank in the western world did this in the past six years. They became technically i

> As far as we know, it never works. That's not true at all. Almost every bank in the western world did this in the past six years. They became technically insolvent due to losses in the housing bubble, but through, for example, huge piles of free money given to them by the U.S. government, were able to keep on trucking until they could earn enough money and get back into solvency. That was the entire theory behind the bailout. Not all banks that were insolvent managed to keep on going; many failed. But many survived. So this strategy works perfectly well if you have the ear of the Federal Reserve or another entity that can provide very large amounts of money. It works well when the amount you are insolvent by is small compared to your revenue stream. It does not work well if you are a Ponzi scheme operator and if you have stolen ALL of the money.