Quote Originally Posted by Hazir View Post
Wow, this shows such an utter lack in insight that a normal person would end this conversation with a 'whatever'.

First of all, the financial crisis was not two to three years ago, it broke out three years ago and it is still ongoing. The fall-out of it is so fucking unpredictable that nobody, and I mean really nobody, could predict how big the damage from that crisis will be. If it can be contained at all it is still questionable if it won't wipe out all the benefits of modern financials vehicles thought up since the beginning of the 90s.
No, the financial crisis was 2-3 years ago, now we're in an altogether different crisis. The current crisis is and should be called a sovereign debt crisis, it is a crisis in governments not a crisis in banks.

Financial vehicles were the problem under Lehman, today's crisis is far simpler: Can people [in this case governments] pay their debts.
This is NOT a cyclical crisis Randbland, this crisis is systemic, and the outcome can be uglier than anything any of us could imagine today. My hope is that it won't be quite that bad, but I would not put any money on a good outcome. Good meaning that we can more or less get back to where we thought we were.
I never claimed it was cyclical did I? Its a systematic problem of too much debt and expenditure though, one that I've always warned about. The banks are a mere distraction here.
Quote Originally Posted by Hazir View Post
Interestingly enough banks did not give a shit about whether or not those credits could be serviced, pretty much as with the sub-prime crisis. What counted was not sound business practise but short term balance sheet bloating as THAT delivered bigger bonuses.
Actually they did. The crisis is in part made worse for the governments now by the precautions the banks take: Loans are not indefinite but instead rolled over. Much in 10 or 3 year loans, any 3 year loans made prior to the financial crisis have already been repaid.