On Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:53:27 -0600, F. George McDuffee
wrote:
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It appears that the extent of major U.S. [and other] financial
institutional exposure [and thus taxpayer liability] to the Euro
zone sovereign debt problems and/or new bubble collapse through
direct investment, loans to speculators, and CDS/derivative
counter parties is totally unknown, but after a big loss most
gamblers "double down" or even go "all in" in an attempt to
recoup their losses.
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More s**t floats to the top of the financial septic tank...

Reuters article indicates that *DIRECT* US bank [US taxpayer]
exposure to the Euro zone sovereign debt bubble totals 176
Billion $US.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0911899120100209
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The FFIEC data shows that 10 U.S. banks -- Bank of America
(BAC.N), Citigroup (C.N), JPMorgan, Wells Fargo (WFC.N), Bank of
New York (BK.N), State Street (STT.N), Goldman Sachs (GS.N),
Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and the U.S. branches of Deutsche Bank
(DBKGn.DE) and HSBC (HSBA.L) -- hold 96 percent of the risk,
Barclays said.

The banks have $86 billion in exposure to Ireland, $68 billion to
Spain, $18 billion to Greece and $9 billion to Portugal, Barclays
said.
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A major problem is that the amount of CDS counterparty liability
is unknown [think AIG], as is the amount loaned to bond/hedge and
other funds/speculators, where the main or only collateral is
Euro zone sovereign debt bonds. The amount of US Pension funds
invested in these bonds is also unknown but the higher returns
and high ratings [when sold] would have caused many pension fund
managers to load up.


Unka George (George McDuffee)
...............................
The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author.
The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).