Bartiromo: Everyone wants to know how it is possible that a 31-year-old trader at SocGen was able to cause the largest banking crisis ever.
Lagarde: Largest banking crisis ever? I don't know about that. ...
OK, maybe Maria meant to say "trading scandal" not "banking crisis." Or maybe she forgot about the S&L crisis or the Great Depression's bank holiday or any of a dozen other systemic banking crises. Still, it takes a real star to forge forward in print and admit that you said something terrifically stupid. Either that or someone at BW has it out for her. - Robert Teitelman
See the story in BusinessWeek
Comments
Odd little exchange in the new BusinessWeek between Maria Bartiromo and Christine Lagarde, France's finance minister, on the Societe General SA scandal. 
Interesting that the Wall Street Journal Europe 4 February edition struggled to explain how such massive trades could slip by a robust internal control system of built in checks and balances. May not be the cause of one of the largest banking crisis ever but it is certainly sympomatic of wider problems of control and oversight in the banking sector. Why only a year ago I read an headline article in the Financial Times: "The City paying out GBP 5 billion in 2006 bonuses" and explained how all the bankers were buying up luxurious apartments in London. WHere are those headlines now? Are those same bankers receiving pink slips this year?