Posted on 07/11/2010 7:34:09 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
FRANKFURT The sovereign debt crisis would seem to create worry enough for European banks, but there is another gathering threat that has not garnered as much notice: the trillions of dollars in short-term borrowing that institutions around the world must repay or roll over in the next two years.
The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund have all recently warned of a looming crunch, especially in Europe, where banks have enough trouble raising money as it is.
Their concern is that banks hungry for refinancing will compete with governments which also must roll over huge sums for the bond markets favor. As a result, credit for business and consumers could become more costly and scarce, with unpleasant consequences for economic growth.
There is a cliff we are racing toward its huge, said Richard Barwell, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland and formerly a senior economist at the Bank of England, Britains central bank. No one seems to be talking about it that much. But, he added, its of first-order importance for lending and output.
Banks worldwide owe nearly $5 trillion to bondholders and other creditors that will come due through 2012, according to estimates by the Bank for International Settlements. About $2.6 trillion of the liabilities are in Europe.
U.S. banks must refinance about $1.3 trillion through 2012. While that sum is nothing to scoff at, analysts seem most concerned about Europe because the banking system there is already weighed down by the sovereign debt crisis.
How banks will come up with the money is an open question.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
obama and his nobel prize winning stooges are eagerly knocking over the remaining walls that have held back the tide,
our elected leaders now hate the constitutional and economic freedoms and military capability that have stood as a beachhead against these days.
“Why do I suspect some backdoor, secretive deal will be made by the Federal Reserve to fund all these liabilities?”
I have the same suspicions. If certain companies are “too big to fail” then for sure we will bail out a country or two, on the backs of our children. I am sure the U.N. will demand it.
Obama and his misfits will think this will endear the other nations to us.
It won’t.
Giving foreign countries money, no matter which president does it, has never lead to any meaningful relationship, with one exception, Israel, in my opinion.
The more you throw at these welfare whores (be it people or countries) the trend shows the more likely that they will feel entitled.
If the US goes any deeper, and say these countries were in sound financial shape, they would be doing their best to take us down.
As it was, when our depression was first announced, I was flabbergasted by the comments on other blogs from Canadians, Brits, Spanish, Greeks, everyone that basically said “FU America!” They thought they had the upper hand, that it wouldn’t happen to them. Many of the comment posters were Euro socialists I’m sure, which means they were over-educated to the point of being stupid, and couldn’t fathom that their economy was tied to ours.
Many in the world hate us, not because of what the dems painted as “cowboy politics” but for the exact opposite reason, we were cowards. Buying off friends and allies. We were no longer leaders, we were just a cookie jar, and we weren’t giving them enough cookies.
“Maybe the world just needs an economic reset, just like in the Bible days. LOL”
Let’s declare a year of Jubilee!
For quite some time I've been trying to envision what would happen if a million of Africans driven, say, by drought, were to embark in small boats towards the southern shores if Europe. Would the have the resolve and the means to stop such a flotilla?
Envision also 100,000,000 Chinese, less than 10% of the population, migrating into the presently Russian Siberia. The Soviet regime would nuke them without hesitation, but what would happen in the present-day world?
$700 trillion is $100,000 per person on earth; somehow I don’t get the concept of the balance sheet there. It has to be that as I’m taking wheelbarrows full of money out my front door over to my neighbor, he’s bringing sacks full of money in my back door , doesn’t it?
He’s been whining about derivatives, without knowing what he’s talking about, for years.
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