Tuesday 11 December 2007

The Western Banking System - "Made it Ma - Top of the World!"

Yesterday, UBS reported a further $10 billion in losses from sub prime/cdo fiasco. This was after reporting $1.5 billion dollars recently. The banking tsunami is still in its early phase. We've seen nothin' yet! In order to stay afloat UBS had sell a major chunk of their business to get vast sums from Singapore and the Middle East to make up for these losses.Time will whether these investments will make any difference to the survival of this bank and several others.

Meanwhile one wonders just what is "holding up" some of the western and asian banks. I'm reminded of the 1949 movie, "White Heat" in which the gangster, Cody Jarret (James Cagney) is shot by the FBI inside man, Edmond O'Brien. The latter shoots Cody several times and wonders "What's holding him up?" Cody shoots into the gas tanks below and bellows, "Made it Ma - top of the world!" before blowing himself to kingdom come. The banks finally made it to "The top of the world" only to risk implosion at the peak of their success!
http://www.reelclassics.com/Audio_Video/Quotes7r/cagney_whiteheat_madeitma.wav

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About Me

I teach Film, Media and English Lit.