We’ve heard a ton about how some American banks got carried away with the availability of easy credit and started dishing out money to practically anyone who asked for it.Emphasis in the original.
But it’s a similar situation in Europe. Austrian, Swiss, German and Italian banks own a majority of banks that do business in Eastern Europe. And these foreign banks have lent boatloads of money to countries such as Poland and Romania.
Not a good predicament to be in, to say the least… not for anybody.
According to The Economist, Austria has lent $230 billion euros to the region, which is equal to about 80% of its GDP - a mind-blowing amount.
And the chickens are coming home to roost now, with Austria’s finance minister, Josef Proll quoted thus in Vienna’s Der Standard newspaper: “A failure of 10% would lead to a collapse of the Austrian financial sector.”
It's the same story all over the place.
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