Monday, October 6, 2008

SO MUCH FOR EUROPEAN TIRADES AGAINST AMERICAN GREED

It took a weekend to shatter the complacency of German finance minister Peer Steinbrück: "American problem," the fruit of Anglo-Saxon greed and inept regulation that would cost the United States its "superpower status."

Pleas from U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for a joint U.S.-European rescue plan to halt the downward spiral were rebuffed as unnecessary.

However: [long list of EU bank failures in one week... snip]

The drama has exposed Europe's dark secret for all to see: EU banks took on even more debt leverage than their U.S. counterparts, despite the tirades against ''le capitalisme sauvage'' of the Anglo-Saxons.

It turns out that European regulators have allowed even greater use of "off-books" chicanery than the Americans - and that Paulson may have saved Europe, says the Daily Telegraph.

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