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Bad Times for Bankers
Three of the largest U.S. investment banks, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs, had their credit ratings lowered by S&P on the concern that further writedowns lay ahead. Since the beginning of 2007, banks worldwide have written down some $387 billion and raised over $270 billion in new capital. Commercial banks also had a turbulent day with Wachovia's Chief Executive Ken Thompson ousted and Washington Mutual's Kerry Killinger stepping down from his position as chairman (he will retain his position as the CEO).
Snapshot asks, do you agree with the ratings agencies that financial institutions will face further trouble in 2008? Will it be less, more, or equal to trouble they faced in the past few months?
BNP Paribas - Financial Crisis: Banks in the Midstream
Bloomberg - Morgan Stanley, Merrill, Lehman Ratings Cut by S&P
Fitch Ratings - Securities Firms: 1Q08 Peer Data
Fitch Ratings - Subprime Mortgage‐Related Losses
Yea verily, the bankers shall inherit the earth
Hey - Let's get back to basics, take off the blinkers and look around a bit. Just how much real wealth have all these financial companies (banks, financial advisors, insurance companies etc) ever created? Quick answer - absolutely none. Everything, and I mean everything in this world that we judge our wealth by is made by the Producers. Yes, the guys who build the cars, the buildings, every electronic gadget on the planet, planes, clothes, grow and process food etc, etc. So ask yourself this; why is it that all the people who actually produce all the real wealth have to borrow from the banks in order to buy back the very things they produced in the first place.
The banks don't produce any real wealth, none, so where did they get all their money from that allows them to lend so much back to the very gullible public? Google 'Fractional Reserve Banking', the key to the world’s financial woes are clear for anyone to research.
The little investor? well he just represents around 25% of all investment, the rest is owned by the financial institutions of the world who spend their days playing around with the wealth originally created by the Producers. And since all the other financial institutions in the world have never created any real wealth, where did they get their money from? The financial markets around the world have gotten just a bit too big and the Producers of the real wealth just can't satisfy their greed - result, the so called Credit Crunch (and every other financial crisis there has ever been for that matter).
In reality the Producers should not need to borrow money to buy things, the credit society has been created by the banks, for the banks. It's time to reorganize the whole corrupt scene. The chances of it happening any time soon - Zero. The bankers have too strong a hold now, they control all the major Governments in the world and the others will follow soon. Beware of the bankers; remember you read it here. Just one other thing, you can’t deny that it makes for really great television, the continuous stream of red teletype along the bottom of the Bloomberg Television screen and scenes of Lehman employees exiting their ex-workplaces with their cardboard boxes is way better than anything Comedymax is screening right now.
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