When every news channel and talk show is devoted to reporting worldwide market moves, it’s impossible to ignore the global crisis whirling around us. We’re afraid to blink — we might miss something. We moan about low interest rates and investment losses. And yet, we also don’t want rising interest rates to cut off economic recovery.
The U.S. and many world nations are stuck between a rock and a hard place — balance the budget or aide recovery — can’t seem to have both. And many of the world’s banks are being tossed in the maelstrom. Some are suffering from investments in sovereign debt, burst real estate bubbles, high unemployment levels and the like.
And our savings and investments, purchasing power, healthcare options, retirement timeframes, social safety nets, the monetary stability of the corporations we work for — big things — are all connected right back to the financial infrastructure and ultimately the institutions we bank with. We’re scared about what the future holds. And we should be.
This fast paced, politically fraught financial zoo isn’t going to make it easy to keep our money safe. Or, make it easy to find opportunities for profit. If only we had a crystal ball … we could recognize the weak from the strong … we could find some market flaw, exploit it and enjoy the financial bonanza.
Instead, we are left to sift through a quagmire of information. And, to add to our anxiety, institutions we believed healthy announce losses or outright failure on a regular basis. It’s hard to know which way to turn.
But before we give into “overwhelming†anxiety, let’s take a step back and really look at what’s going on. Yes, globally financial institutions are struggling to regain stability. And as always there are the good, the bad, and the … ugly. So, which banks are which and where in tarnation are they?
We found the world’s weakest banks concentrated in Europe and Asia. And these weak banks are also alarmingly among the largest in the world. The U.S. can claim one of the largest on this infamous list too, the well-known Bank of America. Perhaps “too big to fail†means too big to manage in adverse times … maybe in good times too … we’ll have to watch and see.
This demographic concentration of weak banks underscores the severity of Europe’s financial crisis despite (or perhaps because of — depending on which side of the economic strategy fence you’re on) imposed austerity measures. And, with fears over a euro breakup mounting, …
