Credit Market Writedowns: Our Toxic Export

Something Wall Street has done very successfully in the current crisis is export risk. Through syndication it was able to move a lot of toxic paper around the world, perhaps not as much it wishes it had, but a surprising amount.

Driving that point home is the following figure showing credit-related banking writedowns in the U.S. and Europe. The latter region leads in a big way, which helps explain the current pain being felt in regions otherwise  not connected to the U.S.

More here.