Just a very short note – I have to catch a train – but before I go, take a look at what is brewing in Korea. Zerohedge has been following this one from the beginning reporting on the run on and closure of Busan II bank. They followed up with this one on how the run was spreading. This article from the Korean Times yesterday says it’s now 7 banks that have gone down and the reason?
The nation’s financial regulator said Tuesday that it has suspended one more savings bank reeling from massive construction financing loans defaults.
Massive construction loans – who’d have guessed.
Question – were the loans all for construction in Korea or might some of them have been for a construction in China as well? Either way the Koreans are not on top of this yet and the run is not contained.
The story of the collapses is sadly familiar. The banks were not holding even the minimum capital. The question is why? Where had it all gone. And of course the answer is they were leveraged and had lent that money out to deals that are now failing.
That the banks ran out of liquidity means that the banks had lost faith in each other and were not willing to lend on the interbank market leaving each of them short of overnight cash.
The plan to ‘save’ the system is also familiar. The central bank is having larger banks provide cash for the failing banks by buying up ‘assets’ or by acquiring the banks outright (buy the lot) . Of course this neither makes the bad loans go away it merely moves them to a bigger vault where they can rot in more luxurious surroundings.
And this isn’t the first time this has happened, Which hilariously is cited as evidence not of incompetence but to suggest it will all be fine because – we’ve done this before’.
Oh great.
Yup. This is how the world works. They've had three years' warning and didn't put a sensible plan in place (debt-for-equity swaps).
I know a fair few cornershop owners and during the last recession they would split pallets from the cash and carry so they all had something on their shelves, or they would borrow stock off each other from day to day. They were all on the verge of going under. Under normal circumstances they do their own shopping.
The banks run their businesses in normal circumstances like cornershops going under.
As you missed it G. Matt Taibbi's latest rant at the banks HERE
Libya placed billions of dollars at U.S. banks-WikiLeaks
LIA, the umbrella body for Libya's sovereign funds managing oil windfall revenues, is estimated to manage assets of around $70 billion with stakes in European bluechips such as Italian bank UniCredit and British publishing group Pearson.
The Korean banks and all the big industrial conglomerates are interlinked.
It is bad enough that some banks are going down but this will spread much much faster than in the West into their industrial base.
Apocalypse, if not now but very soon
I know its off immediate topic but for anyone feeling down in the dumps about the possibility of resistance you got to watch this… I know how dour Libya was under Gaddafi the people so down and generally unsmiling and here… The joy of Liberation!
Thanks wirlpit, they don't seem to be suffering from the effects of a contagion.
World's Largest Pension Fund Needs to Sell Japanese Bonds; Japan's Demographic Time Bomb Officially Goes Off
I's now official. Japan's demographic time bomb has gone off. However, don't look for a big crater, at least just yet, because this has started off with a whimper and not a bang.
G, in the honour of off topicness..
A video of Rage Against The Machine guitarist singing 'This Land Is Your Land' at Wisconsin. Before the song he reads a letter of solidarity from one of the organisers of the tahrir Square protests HERE.
Their even getting Pizza HERE
Shame Murbarak, sorry Gadaf.., sorry, Walkers such a "£$"
The global fight for democray is joined. And we are called to fight it.
Found this fascinating documentary on the system we live in, well worth a look, sorry I don't know how to post the link properly, but it's well worth a look. http://www.documentarywire.com/our-system-our-structure-our-illusion/#
Stevie, how to post hyperlinks HERE
That documentary was great. John Harris was really good and the guy with the megaphone! Is it just me that finds that tempting? They're pretty cheap you know UK Price
Thanks 24K, I could do my Tom Waits Chocolate Jesus impersonation, or maybe not.
Another instruction Stevie, how to post hyperlinks HERE
Golem have you given up, where are you ? have you taken parental leave ? Are you on a course? Are you long term sick ? Have you been dissuaded from doing this ? Have you not had any thoughts lately as there is nothing going on in the world ? Why not say goodbye before you go ?
reneecharles,
I apologize for the silence. I't's been a mixture of things which have conspired to leave me hardly any time to think.
We did a series of talks and Q&A in London, Manchester and Liverpool. Then I had to write up a couple of documentary proposals. After Waves went out I found myself on the 'acceptable person' list again. These moments of being popular with the broadcasters never last longh so you have to get your ideas together and submit them fast.
The last one went in today.
Then I got sick – just a really unpleasant cold – but it has slowed up my remaining neurons. So though I am reading and pondering along with you, I have not felt up to writing anything.
All of which is just excuses.
Never fear I do really enjoy writing this blog, putting up ideas and thoughts and reading yours. Sometimes life gets crowded that's all.
But I am sorry for the silence.
golem
i thought prehaps you were in ireland for the election
nice to see that a few inderpentants get elected and that some of them will stand up for the irish people, i don't know what to make of shin fein but they scare the establishment so it can't all be bad
but sadly the bailout parties won. i wonder how long before the riots start
Golem — you take it easy and stop apologising …:)
Ace vid here from MSNBC's Dylan Rattigan. keeping up the good work .
Take it easy and don't apologise
Hope you caught Mervyn Kings comments on thinking there would be more protest against banks
☮ La Nouvelle Économie. is the only plausible alternative against the rise of the authoritarian temptation due to the impoverishment of the People and the inexorable decline of his purchasing power and hence his confusion.
Everybody want the Political Elite Out but what is the alternative economic project?
☮ La Nouvelle Économie. is the only one that fills this deficit of ideas.
What is your risk?
What you got to lose?
What is your other option?
☮ La Nouvelle Économie.