Roger Nightingale, left, and Ian Morley have differing views on the global economy.(Picture by Adrian Miller, 0676523)

IF A bank is going to fail, the government should let it, according to global economist Roger Nightingale.

The outspoken financier made the statement at Old Government House Hotel as he went head-to-head with Corazon Capital chairman Ian Morley in an entertaining debate on the current economic situations affecting the world.

‘The concept of capitalism is that you allow the successes to grow and you let the unsuccessful fail,’ said Mr Nightingale. ‘If not, you stifle the success of the good.’

He said if countries wanted a good economy, it was absolutely essential that you let the bad fail.

‘If you reward a criminal for bad behaviour, you get more bad behaviour. What we have done by keeping the bad banks in place is we have ruined the banking system and if you ruin the banking system, you ruin the rest of the economy. You don’t want bad banks, you want good ones.’

Mr Nightingale said poor politics had led to the situation, but Mr Morley, another economist, who, like his counterpart, regularly appears on news channels such as CNBC, Bloomberg and the BBC, said no matter how much banks were to blame, you simply could not operate without them.