Home pagePress CenterIn the Media Arnaud de Borchgrave, a CSIS senior advisor, published a commentary in the United Press International, "Boom to bust."
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Arnaud de Borchgrave, a CSIS senior advisor, published a commentary in the United Press International, "Boom to bust."
WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- Borrowing $2 billion to $3 billion a day from other countries to maintain the world's highest standard of living, based on conspicuous consumption, in an age of growing world shortages, while fighting two wars whose costs will soon ring up a $1 trillion tab, is tantamount to living on borrowed time. Valium and Tylenol sales are up, and Viagra down, in the banking world. So far, the subprime tsunami has wiped out half a trillion dollars from the books of major financial institutions in the United States and Europe.
At first, the Union Bank of Switzerland, one of the world's three most prestigious, figured it had lost $19 billion. That's when Singapore's pension fund kicked in $11 billion, figuring UBS was still a sound investment over the long haul. UBS then revised its loss estimate to $40 billion -- for one bank!
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