Not just "an American problem".

[randomness]

Last week in the German parliament, finance minister Peer Steinbrück declared, "The financial crisis is above all an American problem."

Guess not.

Over the weekend, he was scrambling to organize a €50 billion rescue package to save Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, one of Germany's biggest housing lenders. To try to stop a bank panic, the German government also had to match the Greek and Irish governments and announce a national guarantee on all consumer bank deposits.

Maybe he should have waited a bit before indulging in schadenfreude.

Comments

[babasyzygy.livejournal.com]

I think we're well past the point where this is an emotional issue of mass psychology more than it is a mathematics issue. As people say whatever they can to fight the panic, they make silly claims - and then when those claims are revealed as silly, the panic cranks up another ratchet.

I expect that the next chance we'll have for a reversal is November, after Obama/Biden are elected (which is not a result that I necessarily am thrilled about, but at this point it's inevitable). I would not be surprised to see a big "new deal" kind of package, focusing on rebuilding US infrastructure and achieving energy independence - we're at the point where we need to understand as a society the difference between capital investment on credit and using credit for operations.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Steinbrück really went farther than he should have in his remarks, talking shit about the American and British banking model, when German banks were arguably in bigger trouble. (See http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2008/09/25/germany_the_tro.html for some snark on this.)