And the more you peel back the onion, the uglier it gets. As one analyst noted: "...quite a bit of money went to the Arab Banking Corp., in which the Libyan Central Bank owned about a third of its stock. This occurred while Libya, a declared state sponsor of terrorism, was under strict economic sanctions! How erratic the US must appear when we shower a dictator alternately with dollars and bombs!... This would not be the first time the covert activities of the Fed have undermined not only our economy and the value of the dollar, but our foreign policy as wellâ¦"
You can't make simple analogies using onions. Tuh! It's far more complicated than that. Far more. "There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns â the ones we don't know we don't know."
The answer is, most certainly, a resounding "No"... Actually, screw that. I am Colonel Gaddafi and I personally got a suitcase full of cash from the Fed. Crispy new bills, all of 'em ! So I guess we're saying that the Fed should apply the law selectively? 'Cause, if remember correctly, it was the US Congress in 1980 (Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act) that voted to allow branches and agencies of foreign banks access to the Fed's facilities, including the discount window. Again, this is barking up the wrong tree. If you have a problem with a particular bank, freeze its assets and take away its banking license. Otherwise, it's presumed to have the same rights that US law guarantees all such institutions.
You might enjoy (for lack of a better term) reading this article from NYT. It gives more insight than the usual piece about why the lack of convictions from the financial crisis: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/business/14prosecute.html?partner=rss&emc=rss I really wish they would have nailed Mozillo though
Debaser, sorry, looks like your favorite bank might be going down after all... There's all sorts of rumors flying arnd now.
Martinghoul, the French and the Belgian government are the biggest stockholders in Dexia + Belgian's biggest union has a 14% stake in it. They all bought at +9 Euro's a share, it's at 2.40 today. I'd say buy the stock! Seriously, the suspension of today is not debt crisis related, it's a verdict on an old court case concerning a failed tech company in the early 2000's. At least that's the latest info people have here.
Yeah, looks like a false alarm, but the mkt is very easily spooked today (esp with ZH doing the usual rumor-mongering).
They are in bad shape though no doubt and governments will have to step in at some point in time I would suspect. It's a mess. Luckily we sold Fortis, that's at least one worry less.