The United States alone has put the equivalent of twenty percent of the world’s economic output into an attempt to haul the economy back from the brink. The US is the world’s strongest economy, but can we stop the problem? After all, we started it.

The nation’s five largest banks — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wachovia and HSBC — have increased their exposure to defaults. At the end of 2007, their average credit exposure to derivatives was 264% of their capital, already extremely dangerous. Nine months later, it had risen to 317% of their capital.

OpEd News has a great article that provides more detail. It is called Are we still headed for financial catastrophy

Related posts:

1. HSBC’s white elephant is laughable
2. HSBC may need cash as customer anger mounts
3. HSBC exposure to subprime
4. HSBC Consumer Lending is largest subprime lender in America