The Dexia Bank story in the

artappraiser — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:01:11 +0000

The Dexia Bank story in the EU news is highly related to these troubles and could exacerbate the situation; that's why the markets were freaking out about it:

European bank's woes hit home in U.S.

Marketplace, American Public Medica Radio, October 04 2011

Franco-Belgian bank Dexia, hobbled by Greek debt, backs billions of dollars worth of U.S. municipal bonds that pay for schools, sewers and airports.

[....]

Amy Scott: What does the Greek debt crisis have to do an ice skating rink in a Seattle suburb? To help pay for the rink, the city of Everett, Wash., issued bonds. The bonds have an interest rate that can change every week and investors can sell them back on short notice.

Jeff White advises municipal bond issuers with Columbia Capital Management. He says that's where the French-Belgian bank Dexia stepped in.

[.....]

What Dexia's troubles can teach us

Marketplace, American Public Media Radio, October 05 2011

The European bank Dexia was on the brink of being broken up, until it was saved by France and Belgium. What happened, and how will this affect the bank industry's future?

[.....]

Vigeland: So Dexia is this Belgian bank. Europe bailed it out once already. Why do we care?

Moore: Dexia does play a big role in municipal bonds. So when cities here in the U.S. try to raise money, Dexia helps guarantee that debt; it helps make sure that they can actually get the money that they want. And the other problem is that there are a lot of banks in this same situation as Dexia. They hold a lot of debt from Greece, Italy; these countries that Europe derisively called "P.I.G.S." -- Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. So you can tell what they think of them, right?

[.....]

Wow. Will someone post this

artappraiser — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:03:26 +0000

In reply to California and Bust

Wow. Will someone post this on the doors of the White House and Congress or at least give Lewis a Pulitzer or something.

The lede is misleading, one thinks it's going to be about the financial world, which of course has been one of Lewis's subjects in the past. It's not, it's about governing this country now and for the foreseeable future, why the politcians aren't getting things done, not to mention about another big ticking bomb everyone is ignoring. In the process of reading it, I kept picking out better excerpts to quote, to tempt others to read it, but before I knew it I was nearly copying the whole article.

At minimum should be required reading for every blogger on the public employee topic if not every blogger on U.S. politics across the spectrum. I for one am not going to take anyone seriously on the state public employee topic and state budget topic unless it's clear they are pretty cognizant of what he covers in it.

Hey did I also say its a fun read? The whole Ahh-nold section is just plain juicy.

dagblog - Comments for "California and Bust"

The Dexia Bank story in the

European bank's woes hit home in U.S.

Marketplace, American Public Medica Radio, October 04 2011

What Dexia's troubles can teach us

Marketplace, American Public Media Radio, October 05 2011

Wow. Will someone post this