Fulfilling my duties as a citizen, I am now confined to the Southwark Crown Court as a juror, so have little time to update the blog. However the effective insolvency of two US government sponsored banks or enterprises (GSEs) – Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac – will now impact not just all those US individuals, institutions and local governments that may have invested in these banks; not just on US taxpayers who are expected to bail them out; but also on you and I (our banks may well hold Fannie and Freddie securities); the central banks of the world that have bought their debt – confident that it will always be repaid.
Their insolvency now threatens a global systemic financial crisis, and their taxpayer-funded bailout of shareholders, bondholders and an incompetent management exposes the hypocrisy of much neo-liberal cant.