elfs | Brains: Too Big To Fail! (Reply)

Switzerland: Unsalvageable: Felix Salmon shows us that UBS and Credit Suisse, two companies headquartered in Switzerland, have balance sheets ten times the size of their host country's GDP, and leverage rates between 40 and 64 times. As Felix says, a 16% drop in UBS's assets could wipe not only only UBS's equity, but all of Switzerland's GDP. It's too big to save.

Oh, and let's be happy we dodged the bullet, even if the artillery shell eventually gets us: UBS's Vice President for US Operations and one of its chief lobbyists in Congress? Phil Gramm, John McCain's financial advisor. The article linked to notes with "hilarity" that Gramm is proud of his association with UBS, which at the time of the article in June had already lost 70% of its value.
Citigroup: A Lousy Deal for Taxpayers: Steve Benen brings us links to a variety of people who think the Citigroup bailout is, in Paul Krugman's words, "a lousy deal for the taxpayers, no accountability for management, and just to make things perfect, quite possibly inadequate, so that Citi will be back for more. Amazing how much damage the lame ducks can do in the time remaining."
6 Indispensible CSS Tricks: I'm keeping this one only because I've used both overclear and image replacement before, and the others look equally useful.