October 4, 2008 – 12:09 am
Governments in America and Europe scramble to rescue a collapsing systemAFTER lurching robotically into their worst crisis in more than three-quarters of a century, the fundamental weakness of banks in America and Europe has now become horribly clear. With funding markets frozen and American plans to remove toxic assets from banks' balance-sheets in limbo for much of this week, confidence in a raft of institutions evaporated. Between September 28th and 30th, governments on both sides of the Atlantic shored up or split up six banks threatened by failure. Other institutions remain on high alert. Observers scratch their heads to think of any other industry that has been reshaped so quickly or so dramatically. In America, where the authorities have helped to shovel failing banks into the hands of bigger ones, the retail-banking landscape now has three towering figures. On September 25th JPMorgan Chase overtook Bank of America as the country's ...
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