Europe on the brink of currency crisis meltdown
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/3260052/Europe-on-the-brink-of-currency-crisis-meltdown.html
October 26, 2008
“Experts fear the mayhem may soon trigger a chain reaction within the eurozone itself. The risk is a surge in capital flight from Austria – the country, as it happens, that set off the global banking collapse of May 1931 when Credit-Anstalt went down – and from a string of Club Med countries that rely on foreign funding to cover huge current account deficits.
The latest data from the Bank for International Settlements shows that Western European banks hold almost all the exposure to the emerging market bubble, now busting with spectacular effect.
They account for three-quarters of the total $4.7 trillion £2.96 trillion) in cross-border bank loans to Eastern Europe, Latin America and emerging Asia extended during the global credit boom – a sum that vastly exceeds the scale of both the US sub-prime and Alt-A debacles.”
January 20, 2009
France turns to US investors for bail-outs
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2168435/posts
“A French state-controlled agency is looking to US investors for the first time to help raise several billion dollars of bail-out funding for the country’s banks.
Société de Financement de l’Economie Française (SFEF) – the French agency created to raise funding in the bond markets using a government guarantee for its banks – said selling dollar-denominated bonds would help diversify its investor base.
It is the first time France has sold government guaranteed bonds in dollars and highlights moves by European banks and agencies to diversify funding sources, ahead of a tidal wave of issuance that could weigh on the market.”
So Bush didn't cause the world's problems....