BerkeleyBob

Why This Isn't Financial Armageddon

I wonder if there has not been sufficient recognition of international interdependence and if it is not time to review from the ground up the flow of capital. I suspect that much of the malaise in foreign economies (and I wouldn't take the poster's version of the high life as typical) comes from the export of toxic debt, whether characterized as CDO's or whatever other euphamism dreamed up by investment banks. If our commercial paper is loaded with fraud (phony ratings) and our corporations concealing non-performing "assets", why should a foreign national bank or institutional investor put full credence in, say, government debt? This may mean a painful re-examination and standardization of accounting standards globally. Some countries have their own, possibly malign, agenda, but the reality is that the world has grown too small not to try to bring everyone in under the same tent. Just my thoughts, no conclusion.