Household HSBC Watch

Republicans and Democrats are at odds over the proposed US bank baliout, estimated to cost USD$700 billion. Both sides agree on one issue. Neither side likes the idea of foreign banks, like Britain’s Barclays, RBS and HSBC and UBS from Switzerland, being able to dip their hands in Paulson’s pot. One website asks “HSBC and RBS both run banking businesses in the US (HSBC’s is a real sub-prime turkey). Should this mean that just their US businesses should be bailed out by Paulson or the other parts too?” For instance HSBC’s credit card losses are staggering in India. Perhaps India would like to bail out HSBC. It is bad precedent, and bailouts of foreign banks reflects poorly on the United States.