Tuesday, June 24, 2008

US Banking System is Doomed

How's that for an attention-grabbing title?

A very interesting article in The Age posits exactly that - that the banking system in this country, fed by numerous bubbles of bad credit and faulty deals, is about to go into the tank.

But don't take my word for it. Read the whole article, for which these few bits will suffice:

"The US banking system as it exists now will not survive and its death throes will be painful. Details of its demise are in evidence everywhere you look. The fall of Bear Stearns, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and rumours circling the future of market super-heavyweight Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch attest to the end of the broker-dealer form of banking that cannot survive without securitisation, a system essentially built on kickbacks, big bonuses and the movement of money dressed up as industry."

"The US, like all of us, conditioned itself to believe in economic cycles and the inevitable bounce. But each correction has seen the creation of a new and less stable bubble. On this fact, several authorities are now coming to the same conclusion."

"Increasingly, independent analysts like Whalen and Hudson are blaming deregulation, especially the repeal of the 1930s Glass-Steagall Act that was passed to prevent a recurrence of the practices and results we are seeing today, and repealed by Bill Clinton, leading, as Hudson observed, to insufficient, or non-existent, oversight."

In matters economic, I defer to experts such as The Dark Wraith to confirm the arguments made in this article.

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