Credit Relief May Not Last Long

Interesting to read what happened to the big banks after the rise in interest rates from 1977-1984. This is inside the article below

In 1980, recalled Henry Kaufman, who then was Wall Street’s most influential economist as the bond market guru at Salomon Brothers, “the financial malaise was in the big institutions, because they had been lenders to Latin America, but it was not as widespread as it is today.”

In the end, many of the big American banks of that era were replaced by a crop of growing regional banks that had not made the same mistakes. The old Bank of America was folded into NCNB, which took the old name but not most of the old management. Wachovia, another North Carolina bank, grew to be a major player. Citicorp was absorbed into Travelers, becoming Citigroup. Now Wachovia is gone, absorbed into Wells Fargo after it faltered, and Citigroup survives as a government ward.

In baseball terms, the financial system had a good crop of minor leaguers available when the big league stars went onto the disabled list in the 1980s. Now the minor leaguers are also battered and bruised.

You can read the whole article below.

Credit Relief May Not Last Long

May 29, 2009, 7:20 am
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/credit-relief-may-not-last-long/