Meltdown losses of '$4 trillion'

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that potential losses from the credit crunch could reach $4 trillion (£2.75tn) and damage the financial system for years to come.

It says that even if urgent action is taken to clean up the banking system, the process will be "slow and painful", delaying economic recovery.

It says that banks may need $1.7 trillion in additional capital.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8009734.stm

[truthisfreedom]

1. Ugh.

What bush hath wrought.

[KansDem]

2. Here's what a trillion dollars looks like...

Notice the man standing over at the left. And "4 trillion" would mean four of these...

on edit: And these are $100 bills.

More at:
gemssty.com

Oh, and can any DUer spare a fin for my lunch today?

[tomm2thumbs]

3. (wishing that wee man was me - picturing jumping in and swimming to the end)

... with the notion that a few bills get stuck in my socks and pant sleeves of course.

[KansDem]

4. Hell, I'd go one better...

I'd show up with a bogus camera/sound crew and claim that I was directing a reenactment of the missing $10 billion that disappeared off pallets while sitting on the tarmac at a military base in Iraq.

Then I'd go to work...}(

[populistdriven]

5. So where did all the money go? I know - it was never "real" money so isn't the "meltdown" just

paying our debts for the excess of the Bush years where the top 400 wealthiest families in the US doubled their wealth compared to the rest of us peons?

[Winterblues]

6. Where did all the money go,,,hmmm Cheney's Net Worth increased DRAMATICALLY

over the last eight years and i would imagine so did Bush*'s. In fact I think one would be hard pressed to find anyone that served in the Bush* Administration that didn't see a very sharp rise in their Net Worth over those eight years...and they all have lots and lots of friends that have suddenly gotten much wealthier.

[mbperrin]

7. So let the banks go to the market and get the capital - if they can't,

they can go out, and FDIC will pay the depositors' insurance.

No government agency paid my electric bill this month...

[ardvark]

8. Money 'lost' was money that never existed - the real crash started in 2000

the housing bubble was pure fake wealth via artificial inflation as a vehicle to steal the savings of prudent savers, via dollar devaluation, and bailouts, where banksters got their fake 'wealth' 'restored'

wealth that never existed

[CountAllVotes]

9. I agree with you - it all began in the year 2000

:hi: and welcome to the DU btw! :D

:dem:

[ardvark]

10. housing bubble - degenerate bear rally number 1

bailout bubble - even more degenerate rally, number 2

'and welcome to the DU btw'

thanks

had greenspan just let the fall 1998 crisis run it's course, and had both parties addressed globalism honestly, we would have had a fairly lackluster 11 years

but we wouldnt have anywhere NEAR the problems we have now

[Igel]

11. Yep.

Short-term thinking. There's been quite a lot of that. Unfortunately, nobody engaging in it actually calls it "short-term thinking"--often they say they need to resolve a crisis, or better manage things, or need to "bear responsibility."

The political system is rife with short-term thinking, the corporate system if rife with short-term thinking, and it's all because the underlying culture has come to be focused a bit to narrowly on the short-term.