Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Japan poised to rescue Wall Street banks

Bottom rail on top now, boss.
-Emancipated slave, upon seeing
former master as P.O.W.
quoted in Ken Burns "The Civil War"

From the Times of London:

The three wealthiest Japanese finance houses are set to step into the worsening sub-prime carnage as the “silent investment partners” of Wall Street and Europe's stricken banking titans.

Senior sources at the “big three” Tokyo megabanks told The Times that they had readied a combined cashpile of as much as $10 billion (£5 billion) and were open to negotiation with any struggling Wall Street bank that approached them for a cash infusion.

Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFJ), Mitsui Sumitomo Financial Group (SMFG) and Mizuho Financial - banks that have been scarred only very lightly by the sub-prime crisis in the United States - are understood to have already opened preliminary talks with several American firms....MORE