German Finance Minister Blames “Anglo-Saxon” Banking Model

From Bloomberg:

Steinbrueck, in a speech on the financial-market crisis to lawmakers in Berlin today, set out an eight-point plan urging greater regulation and larger capital reserves for banks. He championed the German banking system over its U.S. counterpart, dismissing the “Anglo-Saxon” model as having “an exaggerated fixation on returns.”

Paul Kedrosky neatly fillets this comment with a good amount of contempt (“Right, as opposed to the Teutonic banking system’s fixation on what, nice drapes?”).
As for me, if the Germans are prepared to call our banks, “Anglo-Saxon” banks, then I consider it an improvement.

Posted by on September 25th, 2008 at 1:58 pm


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