Barrel Strength

The MSM is focusing on SocGen trading fiasco and asking questions about why this fiasco wasn’t interrupted sooner. We here at Barrel Strength don’t know the answer to that question but as the Latin Scholar, Sen. Edward Kennedy, is fond of saying when stumped, “that is a good question, but a better question is” how was this information disseminated to the central banks?

Our informed banking sources tell us that all banks have historically had to disclose material risk positions to the central bank and regulators on a daily basis. Under Basle I there was some discretion as to how the reporting occurred and what was disclosed. Under Basle II this is not an option. Reality has to be reported.

Given that, it is obvious that Monsieur Jean-Claude Trichet, must have been rudely interrupted by one of his colleagues, as he toasted Martin Luther King Day, to inform him of this. How is it then that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was unaware of this? Are the haughty French still treating the uncivilized and uncouth Yankees with disdain?