September 24, 2010

The Credit Meltdown and the Shadow Banking System: What Basel III Missed

The Credit Meltdown and the Shadow Banking System: What Basel III Missed
By Ellen Brown
The Huffington Post
September 24, 2010

While local banks are held in check by the new banking czars in Basel, Wall Street's "shadow banking system" has hardly been curbed by regulators at all; and it is here that the 2008 credit crisis was actually precipitated. The banking system's credit machine is systemically flawed and needs a radical overhaul.

On September 13, the Bank for International Settlements issued heightened capital requirements that will make lending even more difficult for local banks, which do most of the consumer and small business lending today. The new rules are ostensibly designed to prevent a repeat of the 2008 credit collapse, but they fail to address its real cause, which involves a "shadow" banking system that has largely escaped regulation.

Continued. . .