Corruption, greed, luxury villas in Dubai. And guess who's paying for it.
A few updates now included.
---
UPDATE: Treasury says there won't be a bailout. Yet, Treasury sent a team of "advisers" to Kabul to help out. Yeah, right. We'll keep you posted, but this sounds like damage control. You know they were itching to do a bailout.
UPDATE II: Apparently the Afghan Central Bank will help out.
UPDATE III: Kabul Bank has "stabilized," but the bailout of the bank will not involve US taxpayer funds. Translation: Kabul Bank is screwed and the fact that US taxpayers will fund the bailout will be obscured as best we can and for as long as possible.
---
By Dr. Pitchfork
It's September 2010, and the entire financial system is on the verge of collapse! If we don't do something, there could be a revolution...tanks in the streets!...financial armageddon!
Except this time, it's not Citi and Bank of America we're talking about -- we're talking about Kabul Bank and the financial system in Afghanistan. Of course, Kabul already has tanks in the streets, but if B of K doesn't get a massive (U.S.) taxpayer-funded bailout... Well, you know the routine, already. Crooked insiders need their bailout. If they don't get it, the world will end, the sky will melt, lions will frolic with lambs, etc., etc. And when (not if) they get their bailout, you get the bill.
Naturally, this one's got all the usual parts to the story -- abysmal risk management, sweetheart loans to bank insiders, political corruption, leveraged speculation in Dubai real estate (really?), assurances from government officials that the bank is sound... Yeah, this is going to end well. Below is a collection of links on Kabul Bank and the coming bailout.
##
---
Get your bailout ice cream...
DailyBail
