Dexia Bank's Collapse and the European Financial Crisis
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/2011100...ial-crisis
(PS: If you own S-chip, better to relook at them. Take for example Qing Mei, why is there a block sale at a discount yesterday if P'E' is already so low?(I hypen the Earning), why is there scrip dividend? To protect cash? For significant shareholder to increase stake? If so then the seller for the married trade should have approach the significant shareholder. I am sure he would be glad to buy if he is issuing scrip dividend to increase stake. If he choose cash instead of scrip dividend....good luck.....These are questions that shareholders got to sort it out themselves.)
China premier urges help for debt-laden businesses
05:33 PM Oct 06, 2011SHANGHAI - China must do more to support the small businesses that provide the bulk of new jobs but are struggling due to tight controls on credit, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Thursday.
Mr Wen made the comments while making an inspection tour of Wenzhou in a visit that reflects growing concern over surging bankruptcies in a city famous for the vitality of its mostly small and medium-sized private businesses.
Mr Wen also suggested China might adjust some policies aimed at excess lending and combating inflation, noting that the economy, growing at a rate of about 9 per cent, remains robust.
"We should maintain the continuity and stability of our policies while giving them more foresight, relevance and flexibility," he said.
China has ordered its state-run banks to keep record amounts of reserves to reduce excess lending, adding to the usual difficulties smaller businesses have in borrowing. That has prompted many to rely more on underground, informal lending, often at usurious rates.
"Effective measures should be taken to contain the trend of usury, crack down on illegal fundraising and properly handle the problems of collateral and capital shortage in order to prevent risks from spreading and evolving on a regional scale,'' Mr Wen said in comments posted on the government website.
"Small businesses play an irreplaceable role in creating jobs and boosting economic growth," Mr Wen said. "It is of overall and strategic significance to support their development," he said.
According to local officials, a lack of cash has forced one-fifth of Wenzhou's 360,000 small and medium-sized businesses to stop operating. In some cases, factory owners have fled, leaving millions of dollars in debt behind.
Mr Wen reiterated the government's call for banks to lend more to smaller companies. Most big banks have tended to shun the private sector, instead preferring to lend to state-invested companies that hold more political sway.
The dichotomy between the cash shortages in the private sector and the relatively easy credit for state industries highlights imbalances in the world's second-largest economy that are hindering the government's effort to create jobs and stimulate more private consumption.
Mr Wen said banks should relax their tolerance for non-performing loans - contrary to the lenders' efforts to better contain risks, reduce costs to borrowers and set targets for expanding lending to the private sector.
Lending to the private sector has surged, jumping nearly 27 per cent from a year earlier to 9.85 trillion yuan (S$2 trillion), state media reported Thursday, citing figures from the China Banking Regulatory Commission.
But the increase has been overshadowed by concern over the explosion in non-bank lending, often at rates far above the legal limit of four times the central bank's benchmark rate of 6.56 per cent. AP
http://www.todayonline.com/Business/EDC1...businesses
http://icapital.biz/lib/viewvideo.asp?id=67&lang=en
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