Banks are (should be?) quite good at valuing assets and deciding if they are going concerns or not. Governments generally aren't. I'm not sure its going to increase the value of any particular asset or save a company from eventual bankruptcy. Presumably the money would have to be repaid at some point and this may have a similar effect on their share prices as Centro's latest debt extension (i.e. none). If it avoids a lot of properties flooding onto the market in fire sale circumstances then it may do some good however I don't think that's the kind of problem we are facing. Its more that some assets are simply overpriced and some companies have too much debt - in some cases more than the assets are worth. The banks are going through their own process of weeding them out and if they don't get refinanced it may just be because they're worthless.
