Wall Street fled to safe harbors of commercial banking status. They brought their junk products with them. Structured Credit reported:
Taxpayers now backstop credit bets for the drunk pirates of the investment world. Meanwhile, Treasury's Geithner previewed a public-private partnership treasure chest. "Any of you boys want a 25% rate of return? Arghh!"
The notational amount of derivatives held by insured U.S. commercial banks increased by $25 trillion in the fourth quarter to $200 trillion. The increase resulted from the migration of investment bank derivatives activity into the commercial banking system. Credit derivatives fell 2% to $16 trillion.
Taxpayers now backstop credit bets for the drunk pirates of the investment world. Meanwhile, Treasury's Geithner previewed a public-private partnership treasure chest. "Any of you boys want a 25% rate of return? Arghh!"
