The year has started with six weeks of turmoil in the stock markets – and,just like in 2008, the banks are back in the spotlightStock markets in turmoil. Nervous investors seeking out safe havens for their money. Rumours swirling approximately the vulnerability of some of the world’s biggest banks. February 2016 is starting to smell suspiciously like early September 2008 and the days before the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
To be sure, and the comparison between now and that September seven-and-a-half years ago,when the global financial crisis came to a head, is not exact. The big banks say they are better equipped to withstand losses now, and a view supported by their official regulators. Rising energy prices were squeezing genuine incomes in the summer of 2008,but nowadays consumers and businesses are getting fairly a windfall from the drop in the price of crude.
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Source: theguardian.com