According to Bloomberg, the vast majority of the Big Five banks’ profits consisted of a taxpayer subsidy — the Too Big To Fail guarantee. If the Too Big To Fail banks had to lend at the rates offered to their non-Too Big to Fail competitors, their profits would be severely shrunk (in some cases, to a net loss):
What does that mean?
The Telegraph reports that George Osborne thinks big banks are good for society:
The Chancellor warned that “aggressively” breaking up banks would do little to benefit the UK and insisted the Government’s plans to put in place a so-called “ring fence” to force banks to isolate their riskier, investment banking businesses from their retail arm was the right way to make the financial system safer. “If we aggressively broke up all of our big banks, I am not sure that, as a society, we would benefit from it,” he said. “We don’t have a huge number of banks, sadly, large banks. I would like to see more.” His comments came as he gave evidence to the parliamentary commission on banking standards where he was accused of attempting to pressure members into supporting his ring-fencing reforms. “That work has been accepted, as far as I’m aware, by all the major political parties. We are now on the verge of getting on with it,” he said. Several members of the Commission have argued in favour of breaking up large banks, including former Chancellor, Lord Lawson.
Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White, a cash-strapped, suburban 50-year old high school chemistry teacher, who following a life-changing cancer diagnosis hooks up with his drug-dealing former student, Jesse Pinkman, to cook and sell crystal methamphetamine. Immediately thrown in at the deep end, White undergoes a vast personality change; from mild-mannered Father into the lying, murderous gangland drug lord Heisenberg; first cooking methamphetamine wearing an apron in a winnebago, then working in a high-tech underground laboratory for the Chilean gangland kingpin Gustavo Fring — who White eventually kills — and finally amassing a multi-hundred-million-dollar pile of cash.
But really, truly, the last thing we need to worry about is whether the Chinese love our bonds.
— ShitKrugmanSays (@ShitKrugmanSays) August 31, 2012
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob a country.
Those are the very true words that two weeks ago had a man in Pennsylvania arrested. His purported crime? Terroristic threats, and the attempted robbery of the bank he was protesting!
Simple equation:free, open uncontrollable Internet versus shackled newspapers equals no newspapers. Let’s get real.
— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) August 26, 2012
A beautiful post from Murdoch disclosing fully and unashamedly the big media agenda; the use of state power to shut down more efficient and better competition.
A quick reminder of the facts; newspaper advertising revenue is falling off a cliff:
Stacy Summary: Latest from Nomi Prins at her blog. This fits in with the trend of mass confusion about truth, lies, spin, fact, fiction, up, down, value, fiat, etc. etc.
