Lukendog I am not in the habit of throwing about arbitrary figures, o as the economic position of any country is the most important factor in it's policy making.
Despite months of assurances by the Rudd government and the regulatory agencies that Australia’s banks are sound—unlike their US and European counterparts—a prolonged credit freeze-up will have serious implications for the banks, which depend on the international money markets for up to 60 percent of their funding sources. Since October 2006, the International Monetary Fund has issued several warnings about the fragility of the Australian banks. Just two weeks ago, the IMF said the global turmoil had “highlighted their vulnerability to rollover risk associated with short-term wholesale funding” and “the protracted loss of access to international short- term debt markets”. Last week a Freedom of Information request by the Australian revealed that the federal government’s $64 billion Future Fund, set up in 2006 from accumulated budget surpluses and the privatisation of Telstra, secretly lent unknown amounts to three of the big four banks—Westpac, the ANZ and NAB—shortly after the global crisis intensified with the collapse of the US investment bank Bear Sterns on March 16. While the total amount of these loans is unknown, they potentially expose the Future Fund to further losses. According to calculations by the Australian, the fund, which the previous Howard government claimed would “future-proof” the Australian economy, has already lost $2 billion through investments on stock exchanges and other money markets. In effect, behind the backs of ordinary people, the Future Fund has been bailing out the banks, together with the Rudd government and the Reserve Bank, which has been pumping billions of dollars into financial markets for months. The RBA last month reported that the banks had “off-balance sheet business” of $13.8 trillion at the end of June, compared to $5.8 trillion in June 2003. While financial analysts say most of this is not risky, if just 1 percent defaulted, it would wipe out Australia’s banking system. According to the Australian’s Adele Ferguson: “A big concern is the exposure of Australian banks to collateralised debt obligations, a fancy term for structured products based on bonds backed by mortgages and other consumer debt. Because they are off the balance sheet they lack transparency.” With the lies we have been told since the first crash last August and the subsequent unprecedented unwinding of the markets over the last two weeks, you are not suggesting that any faith whatsover should be given to any assurances made by governmental reprobates? On Oct 12, 12:37 am, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Lone Wolf wrote: > > <snip>> It is > > estimated Australia's four major banks, have $13.8 trillion sub-prime > > loan investments. Even if only 1% of these loans default it will wipe > > out the Australian banking sector, as it has in Iceland. > > <snip> > > Hmmm, let's see... 13.8 trillion divided by the population of > Australian (21 million) is around $620,000 for every person in the > country. You're kidding, right? > > According to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), the five major banks > currently have a total exposure of around $3.1 billion dollars to bad > debts including sub-prime loan investments. That's 4000 times less > than the figure you quoted. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
