European Banks Growing Bigger. ~wild capitalism failing. Euro governments provided $5.3 trillion of aid to banks in 08 and 09.

15 European banks now have assets larger than their home economies. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s assets ballooned 2,914 % in the 10 years through 08 as it made acquisitions, boosted trading and increased lending.

Edinburgh- based RBS spent $140 billion on takeovers during the period. that triggered the world’s biggest bank bailout- 45.5 billion-pound rescue of RBS.

Paris-based BNP Paribas, the world’s biggest bank by assets, increased its balance sheet by 59 percent to 2.29 trillion euros ($3.5 trillion)London-based Barclays jumped 55 percent to 1.55 trillion pounds ($2.6 trillion), or 108 percent of U.K. GDP.

Santander’s rose 30 percent to 1.08 trillion euros, about the size of Spain’s GDP.Britain, with an economy one-fifth the size of the U.S.’s, faces widening budget deficits, rising unemployment and increased taxes after four bank bailouts, including the 45.5 billion-pound rescue of RBS.”

Zurich-based UBS AG has reported 57.5 billion Swiss francs ($57.8 billion) of losses and writedowns since the credit crisis began, the most in Europe, and received a 6 billion-franc bailout from the Swiss government. The bank has reduced its assets by 37 percent since the start of 2007..

The five biggest U.S. lenders -- Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. -- held $8.3 trillion in assets as of Sept. 30, an amount equal to about 60 percent of GDP and more than three times the $2.5 trillion in assets held by the top five financial companies in 1999.

European Banks Growing Bigger ‘Sowing the Seeds’ of Next Crisis - Bloomberg.com

Banks that didn't take government bailout TARP are in better shape than peers

Banks that didn't take government bailout billions - take your money there. No to AIG, Citi or Bank of America.

http://BailoutSleuth.com,

54 public banks refused gov bailout TARP money.

AIG became a ward of the state.

People now own a third of Citigroup.

Bank of America received $45 billion in funding.

BANK WITH Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK),

People' United Financial (PBCT)

Commerce Bancshares (CBSH),

BOK Financial (BOKF) and

NY Community Bancorp (NYB)

Shares of the 54 banks that didn't want a bailout are, on average, down just 16% since last September. That's compared to a 30% drop for the KBW Bank Index and 36% plunge for the S&P Regional Bank Index..

Banks that didn't take TARP are in better shape than peers - Sep. 11, 2009

Banks that didn't take TARP are in better shape than peers - Sep. 11, 2009

Nano-thermite took down the WTC. 9/11 Controlled Demolition.

"THERE IS no doubt THAT 3 TOWERS WERE demolished ON 9/11 WTC"

"a masterpiece of demolition" - 9/11 science verdict

US Deficit grew by $181 billion in July 09, to a record of $1.3 trilllion. Helped by billions to financial firms bailouts and recession revenue loss.

Spending through July 09 rose to $530 bill, 21% increase over last year 08.

The bailout money for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae accounted for almost half of the spending increase.

Unemployment benefits have more than doubled, Medicaid spending has grown by a quarter and Medicare spending has increased by 11 percent.

Tax revenue for the first three quarters of 2009 has fallen by approximately $350 billion, or 17 percent compared to the same period last year 08.

The independent budget scorekeeper has projected the deficit to reach $1.8 trillion by the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, 2009.

The deficit in 2008 reached $455 billion, which was a record at the time.

TheHill.com - Deficit grew by $181 billion in July

Top Ten Best National Parks You Don't Know About

Top Ten Best National Parks You Don't Know About

National Parks USA - http://NPS.gov

9/11 WTC is a controlled demolition - per irrefutable scientific evidence - http://ae911Truth.org - http://wacla.org - http://911Blogger.com - http://911Truth.org

Bank Of America Workers Organize Against Closures As Execs Get Big Bonuses

Bank Of America Workers Organize Against Closures As Execs Get Big Bonuses:

"Bank of America issued $3.33 billion in cash and stock bonuses to executives in 2008, despite receiving $45 billion in bailout funds from the government"

Treasury to Auction $104 Billion In Debt Next Week, a Record - Bonds and Treasuries * US * News * Story - CNBC.com

US bond market will see a mammoth $2 trillion worth of new debt issued this year 09.

The U.S. government posted a $189.65 billion budget deficit in May 09

Treasury to Auction $104 Billion In Debt Next Week, a Record - Bonds and Treasuries * US * News * Story - CNBC.com:

Crisis continues - 5.1 million jobs lost since 2008. 633 000 in March 09. More big job losses likely lie ahead. 6000 bankruptcies a day in March 09.

Unemployment rate climbed to 8.5% in Feb 09. And it is well known that this number is severaly distorted, it is just "initial claims" for unemployed.
The real number is up to 100% higher. People just stop looking for work, and so stop being counted as unemployed.

An average of 5,945 bankruptcy petitions were filed each day in March 09, up 9% from Feb 09 and up 38% compared with a year 08.
In all, 130,793 people filed for bankruptcy in March 09.

There also was an increase in the number of people working part-time jobs who want to get a full-time job. A record 9 million Americans were "underemployed" in March 09.

The government's so-called underemployment rate stood at 15.6% in March


Widespread nature of the job losses may only make the recession worse. Such increases suggest that the impact on those losing jobs will be longer and more severe. Therefore we expect greater financial stress, credit delinquencies and foreclosures.


Employers also cut the number of temporary workers by 72,000 in the month 02-09, taking the percentage of temporary workers in the overall work force down to the lowest level since 1994.
Employers have cut 20% of temporary workers in the last six months 08/08-02/09.


http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/03/news/economy/jobs_march/index.htm?postversion=2009040308

No End in Sight to Job Losses; 663,000 More Cut in March 09

Bankruptcies Rose to Nearly 6,000 a Day in March 09

Потоп - Flooded street :]

The most important global economic gathering since 1944. Serious systemic world economic crisis.

This may be April 2, 2009 meeting in London of the major world economies known as the G-20.
It was 1944 Bretton Woods conference which reshaped the old order near the end of World War II.

The problem today could be that USA is bankrupt. The regulation, the economic justice has been undermined. Globalization undercut democracies. It stopped working.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/17/news/international/smick_export.fortune/index.htm

How did the crisis, maybe bigger than the Great Depression, start? People to blame. Time.com

Fact Checking Time's List of 25 People to Blame,
but first,
How did the drop in lending standards play out?

Fraud and predatory lending took off. The primary participants of the fraud, the mortgage brokers and mortgage lenders, were not subject to any real regulatory oversight. Consumers went to mortgage brokers, who got bigger upfront fees from steering their customers to subprime mortgages. The loans were issued by mortgage lenders like Countrywide Financial, which then packaged and sold the loans to investment banks. Because there were no protections against predatory lending, consumers got mortgage loans that they could not afford to repay. Loans had teaser rates of 3% for the first two or three years, before the monthly payments doubled or tripled.

Banks relied on AAA ratings and credit default swaps. The subprime mortgage pools were sliced and diced into mortgage securities that were sold to various investors. About 80% of the securities were rated AAA by S&P or Moody's, and a huge chunk of those securities were held by American and European banks. Why? Bankers thought if a bond is rated AAA, they could always sell it at something close to par. Also, residential home values had held up fairly well during the Great Depression. Finally, because of rules related to regulatory capital, the mortgage bonds received a lower weighting on mortgage securities than on ordinary corporate loans.

The real estate bubble burst and bond prices collapsed. Most subprime mortgages were extended for 80% of the appraised value, but many home buyers in California and elsewhere financed 100% of their home purchase.

Because so many people were buying homes they could not afford, market discipline was lost. California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona experienced a real estate bubble. When the bubble collapsed, almost everyone who bought a home in those markets from 2005 onward saw their home equity wiped out.

Three years after private label mortgage securities took off, they started collapsing. Because of the non-standard documentation, the suspicion of underlying fraud, and the difficulty in restructuring the loans with the borrowers, the securities became very difficult to value and market for them dried up.

How did this steady deterioration suddenly become a global financial meltdown? The two-word answer is Hank Paulson.

9/12 2008 Changed Everything.
On September 12, 2008, just as Lehman entered into final negotiations to find a buyer, Hank Paulson announced that the government would not backstop Lehman's solvency. What was the difference between Lehman and Bear Sterns, or between Lehman and the other banks? The prices of mortgage securities had declined since the Bear Stearns bailout, so the level of government support for Lehman would have been higher. Also, Lehman's fiscal quarter ended one month earlier than the other banks, so the magnitude of its problems was disclosed before those of other banks.

Paulson's refusal to support Lehman was extraordinarily reckless, because there was no transparency in the financial markets, given that vast amounts of money tied up in hedge funds and credit default swaps. Markets became destabilized right after Lehman declared bankruptcy on September 15, 2008.

Lehman suddenly defaulted on 900,000 derivatives, hedge fund assets were frozen, and countless hedged positions suddenly became unhedged. Nobody knew who was solvent and who was not. The different capital markets started freezing up in succession: the interbank lending market, money market funds, the commercial paper market. Banks cut back on extending trade letters of credit, thereby slowing down shipping and the trade of raw materials around the world, and further pushing down commodity prices. Global trade declined for the first time since World War II.

Paulson's TARP bait and switch.
To stabilize the markets, Congress forked over $700 billion to Paulson, who then gave the banks another sucker punch on November 12, one week after Obama was elected. Paulson said he would not apply TARP funds to help abate the foreclosure crisis, and the prices of mortgage securities plunged further, effectively forcing the largest banks into insolvency.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-fiderer/emtimeem-rewrote-history_b_168503.html

US losses may reach $3.6 trillion

U.S. financial losses from the credit crisis may reach $3.6 trillion, suggesting the banking system is “effectively insolvent,” said New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini, who predicted last year’s economic crisis.

“I’ve found that credit losses could peak at a level of $3.6 trillion for U.S. institutions, half of them by banks and broker dealers,” Roubini said at a conference in Dubai today. “If that’s true, it means the U.S. banking system is effectively insolvent because it starts with a capital of $1.4 trillion. This is a systemic banking crisis.”

Losses and writedowns at financial companies worldwide have risen to more than $1 trillion since the U.S. subprime mortgage market collapsed in 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aS0yBnMR3USk&refer=home

Bailout of banks, Citigroup

Citigroup has received two lifelines from the U.S. Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, getting $25 billion in October 08 and $20 billion in November 08.

The second infusion involved an agreement by the government to share in some losses, in exchange for preferred stock and warrants.

http://www.reuters.com/article/
newsOne/idUSN1234412520090114

Is this a welfare for the richest? From the richest.