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Too Big To fail?

Those who write and govern, or who get by, have been living in an advancing 'phoney war' in Britain and the United States over the past year. Those who work, or who live in Ireland, or who have just managed to escape the credit monsters, have not.

I have an awful feeling that the 'phoney war' is about to end, quite soon. There are now credible signs that citibank, in the United States, is in trouble. It has been taking actions that are commensurate with a radical (and long-mooted) deterioration in its asset base. These actions, which include the withdrawal of credit lines from businesses, and the abrupt cancellation of card accounts elsewhere, suggest to me some serious financial strain, though I do not hold myself out as an expert in finance and nor should anyone take anything I write as anything other than comment. They could tip many American businesses, and many of the workforce, into bankruptcy. A bank nationalisation or suspension would then be on the cards.

Some are suggesting that the bank will only announce serious trouble after end-of year bonuses have been cashed; but with federal action to preclude those bonuses, it may be that the people running the banks have advanced to 'contingency mode'.

I also notice the very same things happening to LloydsTSB here, as do the share markets, and the beginnings of serious trouble in the commercial mortgage market.

I wanted just to record these impressions in what is, really, a sort of online diary to give a feel of what these times feel like to an individual looking at things other than from the accepted and mainstream scaffolding of information. Something is very rotten in the world's financial system and the overwhelming impression that I have is that the corruption will soon be impossible to ignore. Our troubles advance....

Have a look at this row--after about a minute, the speaker gets going and you almost feel sorry for the chinless wonder sent to argue with him.



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