There has been a great deal of concern in the markets that European banks have not recognized the toxic assets on their books to the extent that US banks have been forced to and that a day of reckoning still lurks around the bend.
Against that backdrop, it is somewhat ironic that SocGen’s profit warning today was spurred by write-downs on US toxic mortgage assets. Just imagine what will happen when the European banks fully recognize their European clunkers…
A bevy of Wall Street CEOs is being grilled on Capitol Hill over the origins of the credit crisis by a commission charged with getting to the bottom of the causes of the crisis.