The Swiss central bank chief, Jean-Pierre Roth, lashed out at the US economic system in an interview on Sunday. Roth was speaking about the ongoing credit crunch, that has caused volatility in the world financial system.
Roth said:
"Something unbelievable happened.
We're certainly not at the end of the story with developments in the US mortgage market. The source is bad loans.
People there who had neither income nor capital got credit with very attractive conditions that could only be tightened with time.
And now we're seeing that there isn't a market for such papers. Now reality is striking back. That leads to massive losses and there will be victims.
Fair comment, except that it should have been clear to senior bankers around the world that the sub prime market in the US was high risk; as such, to say that this was "unbelievable" doesn't ring true.
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