US banking pregnant with crisis

It ain't just another crisis, nor has the US banking industry turned a corner on the subprime mortgage meltdown. The easy explanations no longer hold. America's big banks are in turmoil. The market feel almost 278 points yesterday [15 January 2007] as CitiGroup announced a us$9bn loss in 4q07 earnings, and a write off of close to us$20bn. And that's only the beginning, folks! Today Bank of America who just picked up the failing mortgage lender Countrywide, announced a cut back in investment banking activities and a further layoff of staff. Markets have tightened, credit is scare. So these titans of America's banking go like scurrying country mice in search of money outside the US. And there they find it for a price in very fat sovereign funds and countries living high on the hog on Petro dollars or Euros. Even the Japanese banks who have lived in the shadow of a zero sum growth economy for the last 15 years, have the wherewithal to become a purveyor of funds for a stake in Merrill Lynch.
Saying this, it is more than interesting to note that neither the IMF nor the World Bank have pointed a school ma'amish finger at the US for living beyond its means. It is even more curious that no economist has thought it necessary to make a parallel between the crising in American banking and the 1998 Asian crisis. The Asians learnt a sad and sorry lesson and the fat purses of theirs is proof positive that have renovated and primed their economies which are humming with energy and vigour and what's more have swelled exchequers or treasuries. Meanwhilst the US falls deeper into recession, as the national debt balloons into the stratosphere of us$trillions, the country's infrastructure is failing, impoverishment of the populations spreads and deepens, and foreign wars have become a way of life.
In the end, the knell has rung on America's unilateralism, and the country is sinking to a bleak future.