WASHINGTON -- The United States, having expanded its proposed rescue of the financial sector to include foreign banks, has not yet found any other country willing to join the landmark bailout. The Treasury Department still hopes to marshal a worldwide effort to cleanse the balance sheets of banks. But Europe and Japan have signaled that they are not ready to mount a rescue of the kind being debated here. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. continues to solicit support from foreign governments. His department plans to prod them by giving preference to banks from countries that show a willingness to help the American effort, a senior administration official said Monday. "We expect other countries to do their part, but we're not insisting their programs be exactly like ours," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We're certainly not prepared to put ourselves in a position where there's a free-rider problem." Given that the mortgage collapse began here and that most of the distressed debt is held by American banks, specialists said it was not clear that the United States had much leverage in forcing others to take part. "There's a view in Europe that this is a U.S.-made problem, and that it should be solved in the U.S.," said Charles H. Dallara, the managing director of the Institute for International Finance, a group of 340 global banks.
The Treasury Department still hopes to marshal a worldwide effort to cleanse the balance sheets of banks. But Europe and Japan have signaled that they are not ready to mount a rescue of the kind being debated here.
Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. continues to solicit support from foreign governments. His department plans to prod them by giving preference to banks from countries that show a willingness to help the American effort, a senior administration official said Monday.
"We expect other countries to do their part, but we're not insisting their programs be exactly like ours," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We're certainly not prepared to put ourselves in a position where there's a free-rider problem."
Given that the mortgage collapse began here and that most of the distressed debt is held by American banks, specialists said it was not clear that the United States had much leverage in forcing others to take part.
"There's a view in Europe that this is a U.S.-made problem, and that it should be solved in the U.S.," said Charles H. Dallara, the managing director of the Institute for International Finance, a group of 340 global banks.
"We're certainly not prepared to put ourselves in a position where there's a free-rider problem."
Bankers are not free-riders, they are a vital part of the economy (the one that holds the gun to your head) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
paulson makes a great 'dr. doom', straight from central casting, better than chertoff even, hell, better than rudy!
'we've cracked it, the blame is too diffused to haunt us, we've taken the world's savings hostage, and we're holding an ak-47 to the head of anyone who wants to threaten our getting away with the hooch...(evil cackle)
the other phrase that recurs to the point of agony, is 'too big to fail'...
the images engendered by that are surreal.
the most recent and compelling is an elephant stepping out onto thinning ice!
i mean really, they were too big to fail, they failed anyway, so the recipe for success is to hand them a fat cheque, (just for aperitivo), unlimited political over-ride power, and total freedom from accountability by rule of law.
makes total sense, huh?
the sopranos were such amateurs... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
He took them to the city of London and gave a speach, which was sampled into a late 80's dance track. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
Polychronicon of Adeeva: Two thieves and a liar
"I've done a few dealings in the citymet a number of stockbrokers and i can tell you in all my life that i've never seensuch dishonesty and greedit's like a big betting shop a bookies a casinowhere the're all screwing each other and the rest of the world"
"when the jews and italian communities went to america rightthey landed in a new country that was ripe for organisation and for racketsnow in this country thats not possible because the real power the real money the real rackets have been going on over here for hundreds of yearsall stitched up and passed on from generation to generationand the american gangsters right, theyr'e still struggling to get the respectability that theyr'e afterbut we've had three centuries headstart on those buggersand look haven't we done a beautiful job of it an' alli bet you there are millions of people right that thinkthat the blokes who work here in the city are really good blokeshard working who have got the economy of this nation deep in their heartswhat a load of cobblers it's the best confidence trick in history"
