only last year, I got a call from a headhunter looking to fill a position at Anglo Irish Bank, doing mezz real estate loans. I was thinking, your gonna do mezz at the ****ing peak of the market? I believe Anglo Irish got bailed out by big brother.

Laswyguy - you're right Anglo Irish were nationalised last month.
I did a short stint there and their delusions of ever-rising property values were disturbing and sure to end in tears. Most humorous was when I worked with the head of treasury risk - a woman who had simply ended up the head of risk because she'd been there the longest. Stuck on a large post-it beside her monitor was a big lettered, hand-written note:
"Calls are an option to BUY.
Puts are an option to SELL"

..... the head of treasury risk... I could have cried.

Quote:

Stuck on a large post-it beside her monitor was a big lettered, hand-written note:
"Calls are an option to BUY.
Puts are an option to SELL"

And that was just her password!

300% increase on insurance in a week sure seems like buyers are expecting the default VERY soon...like within 30 days soon.

Jonathan, no offense, but you don't sound like you understand the magnitude of the losses the banks are hiding off balance sheet.

The U.S. Govt. doesn't have the means to cover the losses. No govt. in the world does. In this particular economic collapse...

Nationalize = 100% guaranteed sovereign default.

>No govt. in the world does. In this particular economic collapse.

Exactly. A hole in the wall in London cost close to 1 million USD paid by banks. Now count all the holes in London alone and you will see no govt. in world can pay for them. Now count all those holes in eastern europe and the world.

What happens if a country Defaults on its Debts in relation to deposits being held in the banks of that country?

Wontbackdown: Civil war.

Would the deposits be taken over by the government and used to pay off the Debt..

Who the hell knows. But if deposits are taken away from the people, there is no real alternative to civil war. The government won't get a chance to spend them.

No country in the world would stand for that. Not even china/NK. There would be absolutely BRUTAL attempts at control, but in the end, they couldn't win. Although, in at least china's case, I doubt enough people keep money in the bank to actuall cause a full scale revolt, though there would be some localized ones.

Doing that would mean anybody who trusted the banks with their FOOD money will starve. Starving people will do anything neccesary to feed their family and being willing to die is one of the lesser things they would be willing to do.