The United States has become dangerously dependent upon the whims of foreign investors, to help finance its massive budget deficits -

monetary base rise - money printing - inflation

- and prevent a surge in long-term interest rates, which would have a devastating impact on the US economy.

If bond or currency traders detect that big investors in US government bonds, such as China, Japan, OPEC, Russia, and Brazil, have ceased to buy US Treasury debt, or worse yet, are becoming net sellers, it could spark a sharp slide in US Treasury notes, sending yields sharply higher, and ignite a free-fall in the US dollar.

http://www.seekingalpha.com/article/138966-is-the-u-s-dollar-headed-for-a-mighty-crash-part-i?source=quickread

..right We all know this.

How AIG Became Too Big to Fail. Years of unregulated and risky deals exposed the insurance giant to catastrophic losses.

Roky bez regulace, riskantni kroky vedly ke katastrofickym vysledkum. Cena bankrotu? 3.5 bil Kc.
Paying bonuses to the same people who created the mess. With our money. A look at why a dark corner of the global economy is costing taxpayers $170 billion

www.time.com
http://time.chtah.com/a/hBJwjBMBASRffB7SaZ6$hvkna6O/time17-0

AIG, new loss of $62 bill in 4th quarter of 2008. Governement already owns 80% of AIG

As result of the earlier interventions, which included a $60 billion loan, a $40 billion purchase of preferred shares and $50 billion to soak up the company’s toxic assets, gov owns 80% of AIG.
Now the deal would have the government commit another $30 billion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/business/02aigweb.html?hp

CitiGroup, Bank of America nationalized?

"It may not be de jure nationalization but I think it’s de facto nationalization"

The U.S. government’s decision to pledge billions of additional dollars with strings attached to Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. may be nationalization by another name, according to former bankers and regulators.

Citigroup, based in New York, tumbled 56 cents, or 15 percent, to $3.11 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. Bank of America plunged 97 cents, or 15 percent, to $5.71. The 24- company KBW Bank Index has dropped 38 percent in 2009, following last year’s 50 percent decline.

While avoiding steps taken by the U.K., which this week acquired a 70 percent stake in Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, U.S. regulators are no longer passively injecting capital into the nation’s biggest banks.
Investors have fled, sending Citigroup and Bank of America down by more than 50 percent this year, on concern that tougher U.S. oversight is coming

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ayHp841RcKAY&refer=worldwide

Credit Suisse, Madoff scheme loses.

Credit Suisse clients may have lost up to 1 billion Swiss francs ($925.9 million) on investments connected to accused swindler Bernard Madoff.

http://www.reuters.com/article/
newsOne/idUSTRE4BR19920081228

$50 billion Scheme

The list of investors who say they were duped in one of Wall Street's biggest Ponzi schemes is growing, snaring some of the world's biggest banking institutions and hedge funds, the super rich and the famous, pensioners and charities.

The alleged victims who sunk cash into veteran Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff's investment pool include real estate magnate Mortimer Zuckerman, the foundation of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, and a charity of movie director Steven Spielberg, according to The Wall Street Journal.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081215/
ap_on_bi_ge/wall_street_arrest

Some of the biggest and best-known names in global finance are calculating they may have lost nearly $2 billion in an alleged $50 billion pyramid scheme that led to the arrest of a New York financier last week. Bernard Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq exchange market, was arrested on a single securities fraud charge, CNNMoney reports
http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/15/news/newsmakers/
Madoff_exposure/index.htm?postversion=2008121508