I read today that on Monday the IMF urged banks to disclose their exposure to the sub-prime markets in the US.
LMFAO!!!!!
After multiple write-downs, bad earnings, guidances for low year end bonuses and multiple CEO departures, we still have no idea how badly affected banking balance sheets are, how much earnings will be affected over the next year and how widespread the problem is (whether it will affect earnings in Asia or not).
There are only 2 possible reasons for this:
1 Investment bankers either can’t count or have no ability to calculate how their products and services affect their balance sheets;
2. There is no incentive to dig deeper and unravel the numbers. They’d rather find a scapegoat and start pointing finers.
Doesn’t feel good does it? These institutions are supposed to contain the best and the brightest all over the world and it’s sad to see them scrabbling around trying to respond hopelessly doing everything except the right thing (reminds me of our local politicians and government beaurocrats). No wonder the markets are discounting banks right now.
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