Debt Rattle February 9 2015

[Raúl Ilargi Meijer]

NPC Ezra Meeker’s Wild West show rolls into town, Washington DC May 11 1925 • The Swiss Leaks (60 Minutes) • HSBC Files: Swiss Bank Helped Clients Dod
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle February 9 2015]

[Professorlocknload]

Best the Greeks can hope for is they owe some Wall Street banks a boat load of money. Yellin would likely be happy to drop a $trillion or two on an economy smaller than greater Seattle to help things along?

And what of the proposed abandonment of austerity measures? There is suddenly a treasure chest of new wealth to be found with a simple swapping of one corrupt government for another?

Or is it the populist saviors ordered up a new printing press, and won’t be afraid to use it?

[rapier]

HSBC bought US corporation Household International, the former Household Finance which was a consumer loan purveyor, in 2002. Household Finance started in 1895 as a lender to risky borrowers and so was always held in somewhat low repute before the days of easy credit for everyone. Still it was miles above today’s payday lenders and was on the up and up. Then their standards slipped and slipped some more and they were a pioneer in risky mortgage lending. I don’t recall the details but they got into trouble and made a $486 million settlement with 46 states for predatory lending.

It was not going to survive but then HSBC stepped in. HSBC at the time had no US presence. I recall this as it happened by the way. A little looking showed that HSBC was essentially a criminal organization. No matter the US government the Treasury and the Fed welcomed them with open arms and a US branch was opened and a new US bank was born and the Fed made it a Primary Dealer.

I knew at the time this all represented something big. The deal which was no surprise and was anticipated was coincident with the bottom of the dotcom bust bear market but admittedly there was a retest of the low early in 03.

https://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/q10.png

Then a mere 7 years later the NY Times gets a clue

[Nassim]

Funny thing. I just opened a HSBC account yesterday. In Australia, one of their accounts can hold up to 12 currencies.

A long time ago, Hong Kong and Shangai Banking Corporation was very big in China.

“After the British established Hong Kong as a colony in the aftermath of the First Opium War, local merchants felt the need for a bank to finance the growing trade between China and Europe (with traded products including opium). They established the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company Limited in Hong Kong (March 1865) and Shanghai (one month later).”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hongkong_and_Shanghai_Banking_Corporation

[Author]

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