in the UK “private” means not owned by the government. It has nothing to do with shares being tradeable.
Just wanted to add an update which directly addresses the crowd that thinks people should just get another bank because banks are private institutions anyway. It looks like RFK addresses exactly this and I think he is absolutely spot on. They are absolutely central to the payment system which is a public good. And as he also rightly points out, if banks want to cut people off because of their political beliefs, then they should lose their special privelages that they have with the FED. This guy is absolutely on fire! (and did you all see how be bought 2 bitcoins for each of his 7 grandchildren??)
Where do you think Robert F. stands on regulating BTC? He seems to be in favor of having Government control the banks.
He is very pro, and even wanted to back up, I forget what though, with 1% bitcoin. He has already mentioned that what we have is crony capitalism, which is so true. Its always privatize profits and socialize losses. This BTFB program to keep banks afloat is exactly that.
Words have multiple meanings and implications in English regardless or the county. If someone's intent is to communicate clearly they'll use enough words to make their meaning unambiguous. Someone here was being deliberately misleading by try to imply that a privately traded company meant independent from government. It means no such thing. For example, the UK equivalent of the FAA is a public private partnership. https://www.nats.aero/about-us/company/ The stock is privately traded. Someone like @Drawdown Addict would use that to imply it would be ok for NATS to block people whose politics they disagree with from using air travel.
Well, you know what else the retail investor doesn't need? HF-trading! Why make a few people rich, only to cause socialized losses when it blows up?