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by "weakness", I mean the kind of total loss of trust in the market that prevents the entity from working. And you are right that this should apply only to banks that are systematically important, but when you look at Europe, the large majority of banks are systemically important to their home market, given that they are often active in other countries as well and thus their balance sheet is bigger.

And nationalisation need not mean subsidizing one - see the example of Fortis, where the governments have taken over and sold off various bits quite quickly, without a loss to them

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Wed Oct 8th, 2008 at 07:47:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]
... in Continental Europe, commercial banks tend to have a larger share of the finance sector than in Anglo Disease countries, and are relatively concentrated compared to the US banking sector, which has been rapidly concentrating, but which started from a position of nearly 50 state banking markets.

The upside is that to a much greater extent than in the US, getting the banking system through the current financial turmoil will on its own leave continental Europe with most of the bits and pieces of a functioning Finance sector.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Wed Oct 8th, 2008 at 02:35:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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