Fed to buy $600B in mortgage-related debt, boost lending

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve said Tuesday it will buy up to $600 billion in mortgage-backed assets in another attempt to deal with the financial crisis.

The Fed said it will purchase up to $100 billion in direct obligations from mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as the Federal Home Loan Banks. It also will purchase another $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities, pools of mortgages that are bundled together and sold to investors.

The $600 billion effort on mortgages came as the Fed also unveiled a new program to help unfreeze the market that backs consumer debt such as credit cards, auto loans and student loans.

The program on consumer debt will lend up to $200 billion to the holders of securities backed by various types of consumer loans. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had said recently that the government was working on the new program, which will be supported by $20 billion of credit protection provided by the $700 billion bailout fund.

The Fed said that the $600 billion effort to support the mortgage market was being taken to reduce the cost of home mortgages and increase their availability. It said the purchases of the mortgages and mortgage-backed securities would take place over a number of months.

The severe financial crisis that is rocking global markets at the moment began more than a year ago with rising defaults on subprime mortgages, loans provided to borrowers with weak credit histories.

The billions of dollars of losses financial institutions have suffered on their mortgage loans have caused banks to stop making new loans of various types, which almost certainly has helped push the country into a deep recession.

受全球经济低迷影响 谷歌证实将大规模裁员

中新网11月25日电 据国外媒体报道，受全球经济低迷影响，美国搜索引擎巨头谷歌已经开始裁员，预计将有1万名临时工受到影响。8月至今，谷歌已裁员数百人。

谷歌在提交给SEC的文件中称，公司拥有员工20123人，但实际情况是，谷歌员工数量约为30000人。之所以有如此大的差别，是因为有10000名员工被谷歌视为“临时工”。对于这10000名临时工，谷歌联合创始人塞吉·布林(SergeyBrin)认为：“该数字并不是很高。”

在此次裁员行动中，这10000名临时工将直接受到影响。据悉，8月至今，谷歌已经裁员数百人。

裁员消息一出，谷歌股票最近被罕见地评为“卖出”，投资银行MerrimanCurhanFord分析师里查德·费泰克将谷歌的短期目标股价下调为200美元至240美元，并建议投资人卖出。分析师认为，面临经济危机，谷歌也难独善其身。但他仍对谷歌的未来表示乐观。

// US bailout: $1.5 trillion ($700 billion + $800 billion)

Economy shrinking, home prices drop by record amount

WASHINGTON – The economy shrank more than expected in the third quarter and home prices fell to levels not seen since early 2004 as the government announced new plans to provide $800 billion to boost consumer spending and home buying.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said key markets for consumer debt such as credit cards, auto and student loans essentially came to a halt in October, and that the new programs are aimed to get lending back to more normal levels.

Meanwhile, data released Tuesday provided further proof the country is almost certainly in the throes of a painful recession.

The Commerce Department's updated reading on the economy's performance showed gross domestic product shrank at a 0.5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, weaker than the 0.3 percent rate of decline first estimated a month ago, and the worst showing since the third quarter of 2001.

GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced within the U.S. and is considered the best barometer of the country's economic fitness.

Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller national home price index released Tuesday tumbled a record 16.6 percent during the quarter from the same period a year ago. Prices are at levels not seen since the first quarter of 2004.

In an effort to increase the availability of home loans to borrowers, the Federal Reserve said it will purchase up to $100 billion in direct obligations from mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as the Federal Home Loan Banks. The Fed also will purchase another $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities, pools of mortgages that are bundled together and sold to investors.

The $600 billion effort on mortgages came as the Fed also unveiled a new program to help unfreeze the market that backs consumer debt such as credit cards, auto and student loans.

The program on consumer debt will lend up to $200 billion to the holders of securities backed by various types of consumer loans. Paulson said recently that the government was working on the new program, which will be supported by $20 billion of credit protection provided by the $700 billion bailout fund.

The government, while looking to reduce fear in the credit markets, is eager to see lenders like credit card companies resume more normal levels of lending to help stimulate the economy. Since September, when credit markets first froze, financial institutions have been hesitant to hand over money for fear they won't be repaid.

That, in turn, has made it harder for businesses and consumers to borrow.

Meanwhile, Wall Street was poised to extend its advance to a third day. The Dow Jones industrial average added more than 70 points in morning trading Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the New York-based Conference Board says its Consumer Confidence Index for November was 44.9, up from a revised 38.8 in October. Last month's reading was the lowest since the research group started tracking the index in 1967.

Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the November reading to slip to 37.9. Still, this month's figure hovers around levels not seen since December 1974, with Americans' views on the economy the gloomiest in decades as they grapple with massive layoffs, slumping home prices and dwindling retirement funds.

Billion-dollar gov't bailouts leaving the poor out in the cold

WASHINGTON – The government, still struggling to manage a severe financial crisis, unveiled two new programs Tuesday that will provide $800 billion to try to help unfreeze the market for consumer debt from home mortgages to credit cards.

The announcements by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department represented the latest modifications to the largest government bailout in history, a program designed to keep the troubled financial system from dragging the country into a deep and prolonged recession.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has been criticized for continually revising the focus of the government's response to the crisis.

Paulson on Tuesday defended all the changes, saying that there was no one response adequate by itself to deal with what he termed a once- or twice-in-a-century financial crisis. He said that was why the government was having to keep modifying its response.

"It is naive for any of us to think that when you are dealing with a situaiton of this magnitude that a bill could be passed or a single action taken to make all the issues go away," Paulson told reporters at a briefing on the new programs.

To try to increase the availability of home loans to borrowers, the Federal Reserve said it will buy up to $100 billion in direct obligations from mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as the Federal Home Loan Banks. The Fed also will buy $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities, pools of mortgages that are bundled together and sold to investors.

The program on consumer debt will lend up to $200 billion to the holders of securities backed by various types of consumer loans. It will be supported by $20 billion of credit protection from the $700 billion bailout package that was enacted last month.

The government, while looking to reduce fear in the credit markets, is eager to see lenders like credit card companies resume more normal levels of lending to help stimulate the economy. Since September, when credit markets first froze, financial institutions have been hesitant to hand over money for fear they won't be repaid.

On Wall Street, the new government efforts provided an early lift to stocks, but the Dow Jones industrials were down about 10 points in midday trading.

Meanwhile, data released Tuesday provided further proof the country is almost certainly in the throes of a painful recession.

The Commerce Department's updated reading on the economy's performance showed gross domestic product shrank at a 0.5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, weaker than the 0.3 percent rate of decline first estimated a month ago, and the worst showing since the third quarter of 2001.

GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced within the U.S. and is considered the best barometer of the country's economic fitness.

Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller national home price index released Tuesday tumbled a record 16.6 percent during the quarter from the same period a year ago. Prices are at levels not seen since the first quarter of 2004.

That, in turn, has made it harder for businesses and consumers to borrow.

Elsewhere, the New York-based Conference Board says its Consumer Confidence Index for November was 44.9, up from a revised 38.8 in October. Last month's reading was the lowest since the research group started tracking the index in 1967.

Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the November reading to slip to 37.9. Still, this month's figure hovers around levels not seen since December 1974, with Americans' views on the economy the gloomiest in decades as they grapple with massive layoffs, slumping home prices and dwindling retirement funds.

Consumers nationwide are reeling from job losses, tanking investment portfolios and sinking home values. They are expected to hunker down further in the coming months, making it likely the economy will continue to shrink through the rest of this year and into 2009, more than fulfilling a classic definition of a recession: two straight quarters of economic contraction.

___

Federal deficit could hit $1 trillion this year

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Budget hawks were aghast when the federal deficit hit a record $455 billion in fiscal 2008, more than double the previous year.

That figure could double again in 2009, to $1 trillion, but even balanced budget advocates are saying that may be the price we have to pay to revive the failing economy.

President-elect Barack Obama, at a news conference Monday, served notice that "we're going to see a substantial deficit next year, bigger than we've seen in a very long time."

But he stressed that, before putting Washington's financial house in order, "we've got to first focus on getting the economy back on track. We've got to first focus on making sure that we're creating those 2.5 million jobs."

While nobody likes a deficit, many economists agree that heavy spending by the federal government -- on food stamps or unemployment benefits or public works projects -- may be necessary to keep economies moving in times of recession or war.

The problem is that this time Washington was racking up massive deficits even before the current economic downturn.

The government recorded surpluses in the fiscal years 1998 through 2001, ending Sept. 30 each of those calendar years.

But that all changed once President George W. Bush was in office a year. Saddled with costs from the Sept. 11 attacks plus the tax cuts he pushed through Congress, Bush took the $127 billion surplus he inherited from former President Bill Clinton and turned it into a $159 billion deficit the following year. Then wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and more tax cuts swelled it to $413 billion in 2004, a record until $454.8 billion for the fiscal 2008 year that ended Sept. 30.

The White House Office of Management and Budget in July estimated the 2009 deficit at $482 billion, but that doesn't take into account possible losses down the road from loans and investments made under the $700 billion financial rescue plan enacted in October or other efforts to bail out stricken financial institutions.

The Congressional Budget Office put the deficit in October, the first month of fiscal 2009, at a staggering $232 billion. Its figure included $115 billion in bank stock purchases the Treasury Department made as part of the financial bailout.

Also not part of estimates are Obama's plans to push through in the first days of his administration a massive stimulus package, which could cost $500 billion or more.

The deficit, Mark Zandi, chief economist and co-founder of Moody's Economy.com, said at Senate Budget Committee hearings last week, "could easily exceed $1 trillion in fiscal 2009 and go even higher in 2010." He said borrowing by the Treasury could top $2 trillion this year.

Borrowing adds to the national debt, the money the federal government owes to states, corporations, individuals and foreign countries such as China and Japan who buy U.S. Treasury notes, bonds and other debt instruments. The debt, which stood at about $5.7 trillion in 2007, topped the $10 trillion mark in October and now stands at about $10.6 trillion.

Zandi said Obama's stimulus package should be at least $400 billion, equal to more than 2.5 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. That sum would be about equal to the direct economic costs of the financial panic, he said.

James Horney, director for federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, also said it was "pretty likely" that the deficit this year will approach $1 trillion. Big deficits can't be helped in bad times, he said, as the government is required to spend more to help the needy and stimulate the economy at the same time it is seeing a decline in tax revenues.

The national debt could rise even more than the deficit in the short term, he said, although the debt situation will improve as the government begins selling the assets it is now purchasing to help troubled banks and financial institutes.

"The question, of course, is what's the alternative?" Horney said. If the government doesn't move to stimulate the economy, "the outcome could be much worse."

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., a leading advocate for fiscal discipline, acknowledged at the hearing last week that "you have to have lift this economy. Only the federal government can do it because credit markets are still debilitated."

But he added that unless the government enters a process "to get us back to fiscal responsibility, we will lose credibility and we will have the danger of even greater long-term damage."

Fed rolls out massive new programs aimed at loosening credit

WASHINGTON – Rolling out powerful new weapons against the financial meltdown, the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve pledged $800 billion Tuesday to blast through blockades on credit cards, auto loans, mortgages and other borrowing. Total bailout commitments, loans and pledges of backing neared a staggering $7 trillion.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who has been criticized for constantly revising the original $700 billion rescue program, said the administration was considering even more changes in its final two months in office.

Reports on the nation's economic health weren't getting any better. The Commerce Department said the overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, declined at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in the July-September quarter, even worse than the initial 0.3 percent estimated a month ago as consumer spending fell by the largest amount in 28 years.

In Chicago, meanwhile, President-elect Barack Obama named his budget director and said they both will focus on the nation's soaring budget deficit — but only after economic revival is under way. Paulson stressed that Obama's transition team was being kept informed of the government's moves.

Investors digested it all and sent the Dow Jones industrials 36 points higher, a modest gain but still the first time the average had risen three straight days in more than two months.

Millions of Americans rely on the kinds of loans that were targeted in one of the new programs announced Tuesday.

The Federal Reserve will purchase $200 billion in securities backed by different types of debt including credit card loans, auto loans, student loans and loans to small businesses. That market essentially froze in October. These types of loans as a result have become harder to obtain and have carried higher interest rates

The Fed also announced that it would spend $500 billion to purchase mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and another $100 billion to directly purchase mortgages held by Fannie, Freddie and the Federal Home Loan Banks.

This would greatly expand an initial modest effort announced back in September in which Treasury spent $26 billion to purchase mortgage-backed securities. The current credit crisis was triggered by soaring losses on securities backed by subprime loans.

The announcement of the new programs had an immediate positive impact on credit markets Tuesday, sending demand up and rates lower. Analysts predicted the program could send mortgage rates down by as much as one-half to a full percentage point in coming months, helping to spur demand in the beleaguered housing market, which is suffering its worst downturn in decades.

The programs to buy mortgage-related assets and securities backed by consumer debt have the same aim: to boost demand for those assets. In doing so, the government hopes to lower the costs being charged for consumer loans. That would make loans on everything from mortgages to cars more available.

"This is one of the key actions we've been advocating," said Charles McMillan, president of the National Association of Realtors, referring to the purchase program for mortgage-backed assets.

The latest federal moves raised U.S. commitments to contain the financial crisis to nearly $7 trillion — though no one thinks the government will actually spend anything like that figure, which would be almost half the nation's total gross domestic product. The figures include loans that are expected to be repaid, loan authorities to back mortgages, purchases of stock in banks, guarantees to support loans among banks and pledges backing other transactions.

In the case of the Federal Reserve, the amount covers huge loans that financial institutions will have to pay back. In the case of the Treasury rescue effort, the government will at some point sell the stock it owns back to the banks, presumably when the banking system is doing better and the stock will be worth more.

As for Tuesday's actions, the mortgage-backed securities the Fed will buy will be investment-grade assets — not the toxic mortgage-related assets that the administration initially had said the $700 billion financial rescue program would buy.

By focusing on investment-grade securities, the Fed will be able to help provide a functioning secondary market. It will pay the prices for these securities that are being set by the market. Had the Fed needed to buy bad assets, it would have had to develop a mechanism to properly price assets that weren't being traded.

The use of Fed resources also gets around another problem Treasury faced: a limited amount of money in the program. The $800 billion being committed to buy mortgage-related assets and other assets backed by consumer loans will come from the Federal Reserve's vast resources. It will not count against the $700 billion rescue program.

The Treasury Department also announced Tuesday that the rescue program had spent another $2.91 billion in direct purchases of stock from 23 regional banks around the country. These institutions ranged from HF Financial Corp. in Sioux Falls, S.D., to Centerstate Banks of Florida Inc. in Davenport, Fla.

The government has now injected $161.5 billion in 53 institutions. The goal is to spend $250 billion of the $700 billion bailout fund to buy bank stock as a way of encouraging banks to resume more normal lending to bolster the shaky economy.

A boost to the overall economy is considered vital at a time when nearly every day has brought further evidence that the country is sliding into a severe downturn.

Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, said he thought the economy would shrink by an even more drastic 4 percent annual rate in the current quarter and keep falling through the middle of 2009.

"We are in the early stages of one of the worst recessions in the postwar period, even factoring in a massive stimulus program," Behravesh.

Obama is putting together a stimulus program with the goal of creating 2.5 million jobs over the next two years. It's an effort that many economists think will need to total between $500 billion and $700 billion to bring the benefits needed to help shore up the economy.

Obama pledged Tuesday to make deficit reduction a goal of his administration — but only after recovery from the financial crisis is well under way. "We are going to have to jump start the economy," he said.

At a news conference, Obama claimed a "mandate to move the country in a new direction," and promised to consult with Republicans as he goes about it.

The effort to restart the frozen market for securities that back consumer debt will get an assist from the government's $700 billion financial rescue fund, which Congress passed on Oct. 3. Paulson told reporters that the fund will supply $20 billion as protection for the Fed against losses in its purchases of securities for the program.

He also signaled that the program could be expanded to include asset-backed paper that covers commercial mortgage loans. Those loans are used to finance shopping malls and office buildings.

Paulson defended the administration against charges that it has made haphazard changes in the financial rescue program, sending confusing signals to markets. Initially, the effort was sold to Congress as a way to buy toxic mortgage-related assets off the books of financial institutions. The idea was to give them the capital needed to resume more normal lending.

When the financial crisis worsened and Paulson decided it would take too long to get the toxic purchase program operating, he switched to making direct purchases of bank stock with the rescue funds. Paulson announced that the first $350 billion installment of the rescue fund probably would not be used to buy any toxic assets.

"It is naive for any of us to think that when you are dealing with a situation of this magnitude that a bill could be passed or a single action taken to make all the issues go away," Paulson told reporters at a briefing.

Paulson declined to say whether the Bush administration would seek authority from Congress to tap a portion of the second half of the $700 billion fund before leaving office. That decision had not yet been made, he said.

Citigroup CEO blames bank's woes on deep dive into real estate

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Vikram Pandit on Tuesday blamed prior management for diving too deeply into real estate, causing losses that led to this week's massive government bailout of the second-largest U.S. bank by assets.

"What went wrong is we had tremendous concentration in the sense we put a lot of our money to work against U.S. real estate," Pandit said in an interview on PBS' Charlie Rose show. "We got here by lending money, and putting money to work in the U.S. real estate market, in a size that was probably larger than what we ought to have done on a diversification basis."

The government late Sunday rescued Citigroup by agreeing to shoulder most potential losses from a $306 billion portfolio of risky assets, and by injecting $20 billion of new capital, in its biggest effort to prevent a large U.S. bank from failing.

Citigroup has lost $20.3 billion in the last year, and many expect further losses from credit cards and other areas tied to the global economic crisis to pile up.

Since closing Friday at $3.77, Citigroup shares have risen 61 percent, and closed Tuesday up 13 cents at $6.08 on Monday. They have nevertheless tumbled 79 percent this year, after closing last year at $29.44.

Pandit said in the interview that short-sellers, as well as investors worried about Citigroup's asset quality, were among those who drove the bank's shares down in recent sessions, and that it was important "that we got control of the situation."

"I can completely understand how people on

Some wealthy investors have begun or pledged to begin buying Citigroup shares.

A Mexican brokerage controlled by Carlos Slim, one of the world's wealthiest people, spent about $150 million to buy nearly 29 million Citigroup shares between Nov 19 and Nov 25.

Meanwhile, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal last week said he plans to boost his stake in the bank to 5 percent from less than 4 percent.

(Additional reporting by Noel Randewich and Armando Tovar in Mexico City)

// give up bonus as well as temporarily 20-30% salary cut of all employees will help a lot to reduce total cost to let business survive.

Congress expecting more sacrifices from automakers

DETROIT – A list of job cuts, shuttered factories, canceled bonuses and commitments to fuel-efficient cars won't be enough next week when U.S. automakers get another shot to persuade Congress to give them $25 billion in loans.

Through the Thanksgiving weekend, teams will be tagging more meat to throw at skeptical lawmakers who vilified the automakers' top executives the last time they went to Washington. That means executive pay cuts, union concessions, and perhaps even higher fuel economy requirements and a glimpse at top-secret product plans.

At General Motors Corp., the largest of the Detroit Three and probably the most needy, teams are preparing a detailed plan, first for GM's board on Monday, then for delivery to Congress by a Dec. 2 deadline. The House Financial Services Committee plans to hear testimony on the loan requests Dec. 5.

Steve Adamske, a spokesman for committee chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said Tuesday that each company is expected to submit a report that will be made public to "give confidence to the people that we're not giving good money after bad."

People with knowledge of the plans being built by GM and Chrysler say they will contain more than just details of past restructuring. At GM, the company has slashed production and cut its U.S. payroll from 177,000 eight years ago to the current 104,000. Chrysler LLC's worldwide work force has been slashed from 123,180 10 years ago to about 66,000 today.

The person briefed on GM's preparations, who didn't want to be identified because of the plan hasn't been finalized, says it is likely to include new, more visible sacrifices from top executives, even working for $1 per year. Also on the table are concessions from the United Auto Workers, including elimination of the much-criticized jobs bank in which laid-off workers keep getting most of their pay.

Executive pay cuts are almost a certainty, given the language in a letter House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., sent to the automakers last week demanding detailed plans.

"In return for their additional burden, taxpayers also deserve to see top automobile executives making significant sacrifices and major changes to their way of doing business," the letter said.

The Bush administration, meanwhile, told Congress that the Detroit companies must show how they can cover their sizable labor costs and huge employee retirement obligations before they get a federal lifeline.

In a letter Tuesday to senior congressional Democrats, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the carmakers have to show they "have a product mix and cost structure that is competitive in the U.S. marketplace."

That includes addressing "labor, management and legacy costs," as well as how the industry will meet fuel efficiency standards, among other factors, the secretaries wrote to Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman.

During last week's congressional hearings, only Chrysler Chief Executive Robert Nardelli committed to working for $1 per year, while GM CEO Rick Wagoner and Ford's Alan Mulally didn't directly answer the question.

Besides getting called out for flying to Washington on separate corporate jets, a lack of answers from the CEOs was a big part of the problem last week and a big reason why the CEOs were chastised by hostile lawmakers, said Aaron Bragman, an auto analyst with the consulting company IHS Global Insight.

"All of that information that was requested should have been communicated during the first round of hearings," Bragman said. "The communication job that they've done thus far to the public and the Congress to get the bailout has been very poor."

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said the companies need to talk about advanced vehicles under development and give a specific accounting of how much in loans they need and why.

"The image that they project is very important. It's important that they show at every level they understand how serious this is and that they're willing to make sacrifices as well," Stabenow said.

Automakers need to "rhetorically indicate the willingness to take whatever additional steps are necessary to protect their companies," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. "These are good people who are running these companies. They have a sense of fiduciary duty."

The person with knowledge of Chrysler's plans said the automaker will present a detailed outline of its restructuring efforts as well as plans for long-term viability, and all stakeholders, including the UAW, parts suppliers, creditors and upper management, are discussing what sacrifices need to be made.

Debt may be refinanced, said the person, who didn't want to be identified because the plans have not been delivered to Congress. The automakers also must work out terms with lenders so the government can move into the senior creditor position, something that Pelosi and Reid have said is a requirement to get government loans.

All three automakers are strapped for cash as U.S. auto sales have plummeted to a 25-year low, but GM is likely in the worst shape. It has burned through nearly $14 billion in the first nine months of this year and warned that it could reach the minimum amount of cash required to run the company by year's end. Chrysler LLC isn't far behind, but Ford Motor Co. says it can hang on through 2009 because of a huge loan it took out before credit markets froze up.

Detroit's carmakers employ nearly a quarter-million workers, and more than 730,000 others produce materials and parts for cars. If just one of the automakers should declare bankruptcy, some estimates put U.S. job losses next year as high as 2.5 million.

Bragman said the CEOs have to do a better job of explaining the massive restructuring they have undertaken, including a host of new vehicles and a historic new contract with the UAW that cuts wages for new hires and shifts billions in retiree health care costs to a union-administered trust.

// from citi, one may see how serious the problem is.

抢救花旗 突显危机未见底 - 柳浪藏莺

漫画：美国政府注资花旗银行3060亿美元。 中新社发 韩盈 摄

漫画：遭疯狂抛售“花旗号”面临倾覆。 中新社发 宋学海 摄

中新网11月25日电香港《明报》11月25日发表社评指出，连花旗银行也身陷严峻困境，说明全球金融危机远远未见底，其它银行、经济环节的问题，相信会陆续浮现，也就是说最坏的情况还未到来。在现阶段，香港特区政府宜暂且放下不切实际的寻觅经济机遇，应该密切掌握金融海啸冲击波对本港实体经济造成的影响，拟好紧急应对措施，以免事态猝发之时慌张失措，让本港可能遭到的损害和损失，减至最低。

社评摘录如下：

美国花旗集团资产和市值，曾经长期位居全球第一，它不但是美国最大的银行，也是全球最大的银行，但以上周五的收市价计算，其市值已经少过本港恒生银行。除了倚赖美国政府继续注资维生，也要美国政府以破天荒手段，为它的巨额不良资产提供担保，否则花旗银行就要走向“执笠”之途。

连花旗银行也身陷严峻困境，说明全球金融危机远远未见底，其它银行、经济环节的问题，相信会陆续浮现，也就是说最坏的情况还未到来。在现阶段，特区政府宜暂且放下不切实际的寻觅经济机遇，应该密切掌握金融海啸冲击波对本港实体经济造成的影响，拟好紧急应对措施，以免事态猝发之时慌张失措，让本港可能遭到的损害和损失，减至最低。

上周，花旗股价暴跌超过60%，跌破每股4美元，是16年低位，但是花旗集团行政总裁潘迪特等高层人员，仍然坚称股票下跌不会对公司造成威胁，因为花旗仍有足够资本和流动性云云。言犹在耳，花旗已要美国政府打救。9月中，美国财长保尔森决定不拯救投资银行雷曼兄弟，引发全球金融海啸之后，雷曼约 6000亿美元资产已搞到金融市场大乱，任由资产逾3万亿美元的花旗倒闭，后果更加不堪设想。因此市场早认定美国政府一定会救花旗，它太大了，牵连太广，不能死。

美国政府除了再向花旗注资200亿美元，连之前250亿，已经先后注资450亿美元，不过最具“创意”者，是为花旗的巨额不良资产提供担保。过去美国政府挽救金融机构，都未用过此招，因此美国市场人士认为这是破格的做法。这次金融危机，由美国次按及其相关衍生产品引起，那些日益贬值的衍生产品，是银行等金融机构卸不下、抛不掉的噩梦；美国政府担保部分花旗的不良资产后，表面上花旗可以轻装上路，不过，花旗是否彻底告别危机，还是未知之数。

首先是经济衰退，银行其它业务预期会陆续出现问题，例如全球消费业务急速萎缩，花旗信用卡及消费银行业务盈利，占总盈利近七成，今年第三季花旗全球信用卡业务已经急跌四成，其它按揭拖欠比率仍在节节上升。

其次，花旗的资产约3.23万亿美元，在资产负债表中的只有2万亿美元，在表外的另有1.23万亿美元，据知其中一些(约6670亿美元)与抵押货款有关，如果这部分资产纳回帐目中，会否给花旗带来巨额亏损，值得关注。现在美国政府为花旗3060亿美元不良资产提供担保，但这些“隐藏”的表外资产如何处理，未明确，这是引发花旗股价暴跌的原因。

花旗银行品牌，全球响当当，它在106个国家、地区拥有2亿个客户，其64%存款来自海外，虽云全球大多国家、地区都对存款提供了全保，若花旗倒闭，牵连还是十分巨大。这样叱咤风云的大银行，陷入严峻困境，主要因为大约10年前开始“不务正业”，大力发展把按揭债务重新包装出售的所谓金融创新产品的CDO业务，在美国政府疏忽监管，内部风险管理因为财迷心窍，形同虚设，种下祸根，最终沦为要由政府打救的“坏银行”。

花旗银行经此一役，能否再起，主要还看美国能否渡过这次危机。美国以7000亿美元巨资拯救银行，但是至今仍然明灭未定，其它行业也陆续告急，要求当局打救，例如汽车业要求巨额注资、建筑商寻求政府援助250亿美元，接相信钢铁业等困境也会浮现，需要援手。一些新兴市场也在酝酿金融风暴，例如亚洲一些国家近期货币急速贬值，爆煲风险被认为已经到了临界边缘，新兴市场大面积出事，会否反过来影响欧美成熟经济体，值得密切关注。

不到半个月之内，国际间已经有两次大型会议，包括本月中的华盛顿G20峰会、近日在秘鲁举行的亚太经合会议(APEC)，都讨论到金融危机及应对方法。这两次会议，特区政府都有官员与会(G20是财政司长曾俊华、金管局总裁任志刚以中国代表团成员身分参加，APEC则由行政长官曾荫权亲自参加)，有了第一身参与经历，我们希望官员对金融危机有更深刻的了解，有更周详的对策，因为香港三大发钞银行之中的两间，昨天都有新发展──渣打集团宣布供股集资；汇丰控股主席葛霖亦一改口风，表示不排除增加资本。

渣打突然宣布供股集资约200亿港元，其一目的是用以提高一级资本充足比率。我们不认为渣打经营出了问题，但是它的突然集资，正好说明特区政府要金睛火眼、打醒十二分精神，慎防有什么突发事故，冲击本港的金融稳定。上月英国政府宣布计划向国内主要银行注资时，渣打宣称资本水平符合监管机构的要求，拒绝注资。据知6月底时，渣打的一级资本率为8.5%，符合巴塞尔协议的规定。但随着经济衰退在全球范围内扩散，情况容易有变。

美国是今次拖累全球的金融海啸的罪魁祸首，当局长期疏于监管，酿成大祸；出事之后，救市举措又思虑不周，财长保尔森连番出尔反尔(例如7000亿美元救市措施，原为要购买金融机构的不良资产，后来改为先向银行注资，近期干脆宣布不买不良资产了)，朝令夕改，使得市场无所适从，救市效果大打折扣。

特区政府必须从美国的覆辙中汲取教训，加强金融基建、做好监管工作，把已经订定的应对举措，从头检视一遍。这次是百年一遇的金融危机，无人经历过，危机的广度、深度难测，特区政府绝对有必要假设更多状况、更多沙盘推演，做好充分准备，以免临时周章。