Germany’s HRE says rescue collapsed(German mortgage giant could go down)

FT ^ | 10/05/08 | James Wilson

[TigerLikesRooster]

Everywhere dominoes are falling or about to fall.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

What a misnomer! The HRE was neither holy, Roman nor an Empire.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

I loved how Germany and the euroweenies were screaming about how the US SHOULD fix the economy cause it affects the whole world!

But I thought we should be taking Europe as our model for social and economic role models. ha.

[Roccus]

Soon to be American taxpayer dollars at work.

[itsthejourney]

Soon to be American taxpayer dollars at work.

Part of our bail out is being giving to foreign investors/countries already.

[Boiling Pots]

Thank God Congress got involved!

Why should any other entity risk money bailing out BAD BUSINESSES when Congress has just given the Treasury Secretary the authority to do so!

We should all get in line, and “they” should give us whatever we ask for!

[dirtboy]

I loved how Germany and the euroweenies were screaming about how the US SHOULD fix the economy cause it affects the whole world!

The euroweenies conveniently forget that when Chris Cox and the SEC halved the margin requirements for US investment banks, they were following the lead of EU regulators.

[CPOSharky]

So, to whom are the euroweenies giving subprime loans? Muzzies?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Muzzies and other political constituents. Euro biggies have to play Santa Clause. Besides, some of them go into their hefty salary/bonus package. I heard that officials at Brussels are paid really well.

[HangThemHigh]

"So, to whom are the euroweenies giving subprime loans? Muzzies?"

One of the heavily cited reasons around here is the Community Reinvestment Act. I don't doubt that as a cause, government meddling will usually come to no good. But did Germany have it's own version? Did they have a housing bubble? Banks are failing in Britain, as well, that must be related.

It seems likely to me that the same forces causing our problems could be found to be at work in Germany & Britain, as well. What are they? Anyone?

[PoliticsAndSausages]

Most of the bad loans HRE owns are from the US of course. However, I don't see why they should be saved. And I have no idea why people here think they'll be saved with US money. That would be nice, but won't happen. The German government brokered a deal before, which did certainly not involve US money, and that deal seems to have failed, because HRE was unable to calculate their risk correctly even when facing bancrupcy. Begs the question why the hell such a cesspool of incompetence should ever get another chance to work on the German market, paid for by taxpayer money.

And finally, the subsidary which drew HRE into the crisis was an Irish one, working with the US loans from there to dodge taxes in Germany. Good riddance, I say. I hope they either get saved by the Deutschland AG or rather not at all, and no one wastes tax money on this.

[PoliticsAndSausages]

AFAIK they have been trading the same subprime US packages as everyone else. A bad loan goes around the world.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Thanks for your comments. I think I was off track on this issue.

[PoliticsAndSausages]

Especially Germany is basing their screaming on the Basel II accord which they implemented and the US did not, although they had announced they would.

[HangThemHigh]

"AFAIK they have been trading the same subprime US packages as everyone else. A bad loan goes around the world."

Global economy? What a great idea.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Adding this to the Timeline Project / Link List of Bailout History:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2093845/posts

[MichiganConservative]

Global economy? What a great idea.

Ha! We sure screwed them, didn't we? Here Germany, wouldn't you like to buy some mortgages? Ha Ha!

I don't understand why people don't look favorably on us.

[PoliticsAndSausages]

No really, they were just as greedy and as short sighted as everyone else who does that kind of speculation on grossly overblown bubbles without any second thoughts or appropriate securities. I don’t think anyone is making the USA responsible for the fact that banks are too greedy.

[jetson]

Here comes the Chinese / Russian backed AMERO to save the day. Old W is going to get his way after all.