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Avoiding 'Maximum Pain'?

Statman, meanwhile, argues that if the government's bailouts delay the credit markets' hitting bottom, that might not be such a bad thing. It could, he said, avoid a wider panic.

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"It's like administering a treatment that is painful," Statman said. "You can either do maximum pain for a short time or you can do smaller amounts of pain for a longer amount of time. It's not always the case that you want to get it over with with maximum pain."

If you choose the "maximum pain" option, he said, "the patient can go into shock."