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J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon
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Apr 15, 2009 05:01 PM

List of Top Banks in the World by Bankersalmanac.com

These World and Country Rankings offer an excellent indicator of how financial institutions are performing in the industry. Below you can see the top 10 banks, top 50 banks and best banks ranked on total assets in US Dollars. If you are not already a subscriber to Bankersalmanac.com, you can access a full listing of the world’s top banks (over 3000 banks) if you register for a trial.

* These bank rankings are compiled from

balance sheet information included on Bankersalmanac.com available

at 14th February 2012.

The information available at this date is used to compile the full world and country rankings.

Listed below is a selection of the top banks worldwide ranked on total assets in US$. Our World and Country Bank Rankings are based on the total assets of a bank calculated from year end figures gained from submitted balance sheets. Bankers’ Almanac World and Country Bank Rankings are updated each quarter.

These World and Country Rankings offer an excellent indicator of how financial institutions are performing in the industry. Below you can see the top 10 banks, top 50 banks and best banks ranked on total assets in US Dollars. If you are not already a subscriber to Bankersalmanac.com, you can access a full listing of the world’s top banks (over 3000 banks) if you register for a trial.

MIT professor Yasheng Huang talks about the potential dangers of
China’s shadow banking system (CSBS).

麻省理工教授談中國銀行業潛在的危機。

Globally, a study of the 11 largest national shadow banking systems found that they totalled to $50,000bn in 2007, fell to $47,000bn in 2008 but by late 2011 had climbed to $51,000bn, just over its estimated size before the crisis. Overall, the world wide SBS totalled to about $60 trillion as of late 2012

The shadow banking system is a key component of the U.S. economy, but the financial crisis has frozen it solid. Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch explains what shadow banking is and why it’s important enough to warrant its own bailout, called the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF.

Shadow Banking Explained in Detail

NO CHINA BUBBLE OR DOES THE FACTS SAY OTHERWISE?

Graphic Source: nextbigfuture.com

China’s Shadow-Banking System

China’s entire shadow-banking system is bigger than just underground borrowing and lending, totaling about $2.4 trillion, a third the size of China’s official loan market, according to Societe Generale SA economist Yao Wei. In addition to informal lending, it includes the off-balance-sheet activities of banks, trust companies, and businesses lending to each other, Yao said. The amount is almost the size of U.S. consumer debt, which exceeded $2.5 trillion as of January, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Ordinary Chinese savers also fuel the country’s shadow- banking system. They have few legal options if they want to earn a return that beats inflation, which hit 5.4 percent in 2011. The government sets China’s current ceiling for savings account interest rates at 3.5 percent, a figure that has trailed inflation for two straight years as of January. Wu offered interest rates of as much as 0.5 percent a day to attract investors, according to Xinhua.

Source Bloomberg

U.S. SPENDING PROJECTIONS THRU 2055 AS REVENUE THEN WON’T EVEN COVER DEBT INTEREST COSTS

[Source Peterson Foundation]

WHAT IS DEBT? A HISTORY OF DEBT OVER THE PAST 5,000 YEARS!

GROSS DEBT, AS OF GDP, PER CAPITA STATISTICS FOR THE TOP 20 WORLD’S MOST IN DEBT COUNTRIES

[DATA SOURCE...]

5. John Paulson: Paulson & Co. $30 billion under management.

4. Bill Ackman: Pershing Square Capital Management oversees about $9 billion.

3. Mark Spitznagel: Universa Investments

2. David Einhorn: Greenlight Capital

1. Jim Chanos: Kynikos Associates

SOURCE: 5 hedge-fund managers to watch in 2012

Guest host Betty Liu of Bloomberg Television, Nouriel Roubini of New York University and Richard McGregor of the Financial Times on the China currency debate.

. . . .

“Nouriel Roubini says that the unemployment problems of America are not to be blamed on the trade or on China : …the unemployment rate is nine percent including discouraged workers and partially employed workers 16.5 percent including people in jail is 20 percent among young and minorities it is close to thirty percent , half of the unemployed are long term unemployed , but a very little fraction of this problem has to do with China and exchange rate it has to do with the policy that led to the house boom and the housing bust about the fact that we are not invested in productivity and long term economic growth , so blame it on the Chinese does not make sense , of course in a situation where you have high unemployment rates you have social and political malaise people blame globalization people blame trade people blame China but the fundamental problems of the US are much deeper much structured” [Via: nourielroubini.blogspot.com]