European governments rescue more lenders - International Herald Tribune
PARIS: Regulators in Britain, Belgium and Iceland swooped in Monday to engineer emergency rescues of three banks with heavy exposure to soured mortgages, echoing moves underway in the United States. In the latest sign of trouble to hit Europe from the global credit crisis, the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments announced a partial nationalization of the troubled Belgian-Dutch financial conglomerate Fortis, involving a combined injection of €11.2 billion from the three governments, which take a 49 percent stake. Prime Minister Yves Leterme of Belgium, who was joined Sunday by the European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet in an unprecedented appearance, unveiled the accord after a weekend of emergency talks in which the governments had tried to broker a whole or partial sale of the bank to private bidders. These talks fell apart after BNP Paribas of France pulled out of the bidding, according to reports.
PARIS: Regulators in Britain, Belgium and Iceland swooped in Monday to engineer emergency rescues of three banks with heavy exposure to soured mortgages, echoing moves underway in the United States.
In the latest sign of trouble to hit Europe from the global credit crisis, the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments announced a partial nationalization of the troubled Belgian-Dutch financial conglomerate Fortis, involving a combined injection of €11.2 billion from the three governments, which take a 49 percent stake.
Prime Minister Yves Leterme of Belgium, who was joined Sunday by the European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet in an unprecedented appearance, unveiled the accord after a weekend of emergency talks in which the governments had tried to broker a whole or partial sale of the bank to private bidders.
These talks fell apart after BNP Paribas of France pulled out of the bidding, according to reports.
I was aware of these possibilities about 10 weeks ago. I did a voiceover for a Glitnir bank service, and then had to redo the same ad with a new owner name about 10 days later. Anecdotal as ever.... You can't be me, I'm taken
Iceland is a Hedge Fund operating with diplomatic immunity, it seems to me.
They will be the first country to go into Chapter 11 as things unwind further...... "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
I have to find an article I wrote on Iceland a few years ago - I interviewed Kaupthing execs at length then. You can't be me, I'm taken
It's based upon my ex-fraud investigator's smell test, really....ie
"If something looks too good to be true, then it probably is".
Which has long described Iceland, financially, anyway.
Seriously, I can't see how Iceland Investment Plc's capital base - in terms of "real" productive value or "money's worth" which is exchangeable with the rest of the world - comes close to supporting the vast pyramid of financial claims it has been creating or acquiring on productive assets elsewhere.
I think that it will be the deflation of the Private Equity bubble - where Icelandic corporate vikings and banks have been so prominent - that will do for the Icelandic banks, and call the central bank into question.
Jon Moulton of Alchemy has been very good on this recently
Bankruptcies loom for Private Equity
- he's seen the writing on the wall for some time....
Solveig's instinct is that there is maybe also some distinctly non-kosher money swilling around in the background, too. If so, not every Icelandic corporate raider will keep his kneecaps intact, or maybe will be "sleeping with the fishes" rather than catching them..... ;-)
Anyway, when Iceland does sink, it will be their fellow Scandinavians who fish them out, that's for sure.... "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
ET needs a humor section! In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
I can't recall at the moment.
The fierce protection of the cod fisheries in and around Iceland may become the most important action their government has taken since Independence.
