"China now holds reserves of $2.3 trillion. It owns more US debt than anyone else.

China's savings sustain the US economy for better or worse. It is the financial equivalent of assured mutual destruction.

The Chinese underwrite America's lavish lifestyle.

Their family silver is kept in dollars.

One can not live without the other."

BBC News - World News America : Matt Frei's diary: Obama visits America's banker:

European Banks Growing Bigger. ~wild capitalism failing. Euro governments provided $5.3 trillion of aid to banks in 08 and 09.

15 European banks now have assets larger than their home economies. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s assets ballooned 2,914 % in the 10 years through 08 as it made acquisitions, boosted trading and increased lending.

Edinburgh- based RBS spent $140 billion on takeovers during the period. that triggered the world’s biggest bank bailout- 45.5 billion-pound rescue of RBS.

Paris-based BNP Paribas, the world’s biggest bank by assets, increased its balance sheet by 59 percent to 2.29 trillion euros ($3.5 trillion)London-based Barclays jumped 55 percent to 1.55 trillion pounds ($2.6 trillion), or 108 percent of U.K. GDP.

Santander’s rose 30 percent to 1.08 trillion euros, about the size of Spain’s GDP.Britain, with an economy one-fifth the size of the U.S.’s, faces widening budget deficits, rising unemployment and increased taxes after four bank bailouts, including the 45.5 billion-pound rescue of RBS.”

Zurich-based UBS AG has reported 57.5 billion Swiss francs ($57.8 billion) of losses and writedowns since the credit crisis began, the most in Europe, and received a 6 billion-franc bailout from the Swiss government. The bank has reduced its assets by 37 percent since the start of 2007..

The five biggest U.S. lenders -- Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. -- held $8.3 trillion in assets as of Sept. 30, an amount equal to about 60 percent of GDP and more than three times the $2.5 trillion in assets held by the top five financial companies in 1999.

European Banks Growing Bigger ‘Sowing the Seeds’ of Next Crisis - Bloomberg.com

Banks that didn't take governemnt bailout TARP are in better shape than peers

Banks that didn't take government bailout billions - take your money there. No to AIG, Citi or Bank of America.

http://BailoutSleuth.com,

54 public banks refused gov bailout TARP money.

AIG became a ward of the state.

People now own a third of Citigroup.

Bank of America received $45 billion in funding.

BANK WITH Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK),

People' United Financial (PBCT)

Commerce Bancshares (CBSH),

BOK Financial (BOKF) and

NY Community Bancorp (NYB)

Shares of the 54 banks that didn't want a bailout are, on average, down just 16% since last September. That's compared to a 30% drop for the KBW Bank Index and 36% plunge for the S&P Regional Bank Index..

Banks that didn't take TARP are in better shape than peers - Sep. 11, 2009

Banks that didn't take TARP are in better shape than peers - Sep. 11, 2009

between 1998 and 2004, senior executives at Fannie manipulated its results to hit earnings targets and generate $115 million in bonus compensation.

Fannie had to restate its financial results by $6.3 billion.

In the rescue operation, the Treasury agreed to pony up as much as $200 billion to keep Fannie in the black, coughing up cash whenever its liabilities exceed its assets.

Treasury will, by Sept. 30, have handed over $45 billion to shore up the company’s net worth

Almost two years later, in 2006, Fannie’s regulator concluded an investigation of the accounting with a scathing report. “The conduct of Mr. Raines, chief financial officer J. Timothy Howard, and other members of the inner circle of senior executives at Fannie Mae was inconsistent with the values of responsibility, accountability, and integrity,” it said.

Fair Game - They Left Fannie Mae, but We Got the Legal Bills - NYTimes.com

Top Ten Best National Parks You Don't Know About

Top Ten Best National Parks You Don't Know About

National Parks USA - http://NPS.gov

9/11 WTC is a controlled demolition - per irrefutable scientific evidence - http://ae911Truth.org - http://wacla.org - http://911Blogger.com - http://911Truth.org

Bank Of America Workers Organize Against Closures As Execs Get Big Bonuses

Merrill Lynch, which merged with BofA in January, issued $3.6 billion in bonuses despite having losses of more than $27 billion

Bank Of America Workers Organize Against Closures As Execs Get Big Bonuses:

Russia's Dmitry Medvedev hailed Barack Obama as "my new comrade"

Medvedev zertoval "Obama je muj novy soudruh (pritel, spojenec)."

The Russian president contrasted Obama as "totally different" to his predecessor George W. Bush.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20090403/twl-russia-us-g20-diplomacy-missile-7e07afd.html

Will US nationalize its banks?

Jan. 26, 09 (UPI) -- The debate over nationalizing U.S. banks is running from Washington to Wall Street as the new administration grapples with grim bank news.

On ABC's "This Week," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stopped short of a considering a full takeover of banks. "I'm not talking about total ownership," she said.

"Would we have ever thought we would see the day when we'd be using that terminology?" she asked.
"Nationalization of the banks?"

The government now owns 6 percent of Bank of America and 7.8 percent of Citigroup Inc.

However, it has also guaranteed toxic assets at these banks that could cost hundreds of billions of dollar, The New York Times reported Monday 1-26-09.

"The case for full nationalization is far stronger now than it was a few months ago," said Adam Posen, the deputy director of the Peterson Institute for International Economic.

"If you don't own the majority, you don't get to fire the management, to wipe out the shareholders, to declare that you are just going to take the losses and start over," he said.

The Obama administration is also considering a move to create a so-called "bad bank" that would serve as a repository for frozen assets until market conditions improve.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2009/01/26/Will_the_US_nationalize_banks/UPI-79971232982788/