French Banks Are Much More Dangerous Than American Banks

The French like to denounce American capitalism and mock its excesses and instability, especially in the financial sector. The last financial crisis – the sub-primes, in 2008 – came indeed from the United States, and such an event seems unthinkable in France, so proud of its “universal banks” and its regulatory instances. Nevertheless, when one looks at the data from the large banks on both sides of the Atlantic, it becomes clear that the most risk is actually with France. First of all, we know that the two economies have much different weights, since the United States’ GDP is 7.5 times that of France, even though their four main banks are of the same size! The balance sheets of JP Morgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup total 8,671 billion dollars, while those of BNP Paribas, BPCE-Natixis, Crédit Agricole and Société Générale total 8,330 billion dollars (these numbers are from Jean-Pierre Chevallier’s blog). This means that the four largest American banks rep...

from GoldBroker.com https://www.goldbroker.com/news/french-banks-are-much-more-dangerous-than-american-banks-1245