My view on the current financial crisis

Sven on September 24, 2008  ·  Log in to Reply

Compared to European banks, Lehman’s leverage of 30 doesn’t look much..

From http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2008/09/the_mother_of_all_bailouts.cfm

First, the largest European banks are too big to fail, but may also be too big to be saved by their national governments. Deutsche Bank’s liabilities, with its leverage ratio topping 50, amount to 80% of German GDP. Barclays’ liabilities (leveraged 60 to 1 on its capital), are larger than Britain’s GDP. Imagine what the numbers are for UBS and Credit Suisse compared to Swiss GDP.