U.S. banks are up to their eyeballs in financial derivatives…
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Financial Weapons Of Mass Destruction: Top 25 US Banks Have 222 Trillion Dollars Derivatives Exposure ZeroHedge, May 17, 2017 Excerpts:
Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
The recklessness of the “too big to fail” banks almost doomed them the last time around, but apparently they still haven’t learned from their past mistakes. Today, the top 25 U.S. banks have 222 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives.
As long as stock prices continue to rise and the U.S. economy stays fairly stable, these extremely risky financial weapons of mass destruction will probably not take down our entire financial system. But someday another major crisis will inevitably happen, and when that day arrives the devastation that these financial instruments will cause will be absolutely unprecedented.
During the great financial crisis of 2008, derivatives played a starring role, and U.S. taxpayers were forced to step in and bail out companies such as AIG that were on the verge of collapse because the risks that they took were just too great.
The following numbers regarding exposure to derivatives contracts come directly from the OCC’s most recent quarterly report (see Table 2), and as you can see the level of recklessness that we are currently witnessing is more than just a little bit alarming…
Citigroup – Total Assets: $1,792,077,000,000 (slightly less than 1.8 trillion dollars)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $47,092,584,000,000 (more than 47 trillion dollars)
JPMorgan Chase – Total Assets: $2,490,972,000,000 (just under 2.5 trillion dollars)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $46,992,293,000,000 (nearly 47 trillion dollars)
Goldman Sachs – Total Assets: $860,185,000,000 (less than a trillion dollars)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $41,227,878,000,000 (more than 41 trillion dollars)
Bank Of America – Total Assets: $2,189,266,000,000 (a little bit more than 2.1 trillion dollars)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $33,132,582,000,000 (more than 33 trillion dollars)
Morgan Stanley – Total Assets: $814,949,000,000 (less than a trillion dollars)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $28,569,553,000,000 (more than 28 trillion dollars)
Wells Fargo – Total Assets: $1,930,115,000,000 (more than 1.9 trillion dollars)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $7,098,952,000,000 (more than 7 trillion dollars)
Collectively, the top 25 banks have a total of 222 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives.
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Note – The system is only as strong as the weakest link(s). And when one or more of the under-reserved counterparties fails, things can, and will, unravel.
And then Central Banks will again open up the liquidity transfusion channels for another massive bailout for the global financial industry. And ordinary ‘citizens’ across the globe will ultimately pay – for the inevitable degrading of the fiat currency system.
It is time to enact a preventative economic ‘back-fire’ event with a massive, ground-level debt elimination plan. It is time to grant U.S. citizens the same direct access to liquidity that was provided to Wall Street’s financial sector during the last great financial crisis.
The Leviticus 25 Plan 2018 – $75,000 per U.S. citizen
The Leviticus 25 Plan 2018 (2488)