Le banche internazionali sfruttano la crisi per mietere massicci profitti

Banche e Finanza, crisi, profitti
Wsws 090731

Le banche internazionali sfruttano la crisi per mietere massicci profitti

●     A meno di un anno dalla crisi finanziaria internazionale che ha spazzato via il 40% della ricchezza mondiale, un gruppo di grandi banche e istituti di investimento registrano profitti record,

        – e mettono da parte stipendi e bonus record per i loro dipendenti – +20-30% previsto per quest’anno.

        Il rimborso per i dipendenti di Goldman Sachs si prevede raggiunga quest’anno i $700 000, il maggiore livello di risarcimenti annuali mai registrato dalla banca;

         Citigroup (che ha ricevuto aiuti per $45 MD dal governo USA, oltre ai $300 MD di garanzie, e che appartiene ora per il 34%al governo) intende aumentare gli stipendi del 50%, per risarcire i bonus diminuiti;

        +30-60% ai loro dipendenti anche altre banche, tra cui UBS e Morgan Stanley.

        Germania, la banca statale bavarese (BayernLB) che ha ricevuto aiuti statali anti-bancarotta per decine di MD, ha programmi analoghi per aumenti ai suoi dipendenti.

        Per gli alti dirigenti i risarcimenti sono proporzionalmente molto maggiori, da calcolare in milioni e decine di milioni di $.

●     Questo è stato reso possibile dalla maggiore fonte a cui possano attingere: il denaro dei contribuenti;

        il debito risultante dai pacchetti di salvataggio per le banche e le altre forme di stimolo finanziario ha dimensioni gigantesche e sarà pagato da intere generazioni future.

●     Le maggiori banche (come Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase e Deutsche Bank) sfruttano le grandi possibilità di profitti che per esse si sono aperte e vanno all’attacco per eliminare i concorrenti.

●     Per la classe operaia ciò significa invece l’intensificazione dello sfruttamento della forza lavoro e la distruzione di quanto rimane delle conquiste sociali realizzate in oltre un secolo di lotte.

        I vari governi nazionali stanno allestendo misure reazionarie, come il progetto di riforma della sanità di Obama (prossimamente verrà preparata una scheda su questo – n.d.t.) e le iniziative per ristrutturare l’industria automobilistica, in accordo con gli interessi di Wall Street.

        Più cauto il governo tedesco in vista delle prossime elezioni parlamentari, nondimeno la Grande Coalizione SPD-CDU/CSU appare disposta a lasciare che grandi gruppi industriali come Opel, vadano in bancarotta, mentre ha preparato piani di attacco al welfare e alle pensioni, da attuare dopo la tornata elettorale.

–   Il grande banchiere Anshu Jain, legato a DB, prevede che ci saranno in futuro 5-6 grandi banche di investimento nel mondo, secondo Der Spiegel si costituirà un nuovo “oligopolio” finanziario, in grado di accedere alle finanze statali e di determinare più che mai la politica dei vari governi, al di là del loro colore.

●     Si calcola che, dallo scoppio della crisi, i governi abbiano già stanziato $18000 MD di fondi pubblici (pari a quasi il 30% del PIL mondiale) per ricapitalizzare il sistema bancario.

        L’indebitamento dei governi apre al contempo opportunità redditizie per le grandi banche, che tra le loro principali attività vedono ora il commercio dei prestiti governativi legati ai pacchetti di salvataggio.

        Il capo di Deutsche Bank (DB), Ackermann, lodando le misure prese dai vari governi a favore delle banche ma valutando improduttive quelle a favore di piccole banche, chiede ai governi di accrescere gli sforzi per garantire gli interessi dei maggiori gruppi finanziari mondiali, come DB.

        Si prevede che per il 2009 l’indebitamento medio dei governi nella UE sarà a circa l’80% del PIL, e ancora maggiore nel 2010; per la GB si prevede un 100% nel 2009; per il Giappone un 200% nel 2011; per gli USA un 100% sempre nel 2011.

        Aumentano i tassi di interesse che gli Stati devono pagare alle banche per il servizio sui loro prestiti.

        Le banche evitano investimenti produttivi, valutati “troppo rischiosi” nella situazione attuale. Le imprese industriali e commerciali cui vengono rifiutato il credito, devono vendere le loro obbligazioni a tassi di interesse molto maggiori, e su questo possono speculare le banche.

●      La tedesca Deutsche Bank: contro una perdita nel 2008 (la maggiore della sua storia) di €3,9MD ($5,5MD), nel secondo trimestre 2009 ha registrato un profitto netto di €1,1 MD, quasi x2 su stesso periodo 2008 (€645 mn.);

●     due settimane fa comunicati profitti record dell’americana Goldman Sachs, per €2,44D ($3,44MD) nel secondo trimestre 2009.

–   A seguito del fallimento della Lehmann Brothers (sett. 2008) il governo americano intervenne con un massiccio pacchetto di salvataggio, per poi avviare programmi in grado di erogare fino a $23 700 MD di aiuti al sistema finanziario, una somma pari a 1,7 volte il PIL USA;

–   modello seguito da vari governi nazionali:

–   Germania: fine 2008, su spinta del CEO di Deutsche Bank, Ackerman, varato un programma per €500 MD per il salvataggio di banche tedesche, seguito da altri impegni per centinaia di MD per il settore finanziario.

Il giornale tedesco Der Spiegel: «È una grande ironia che la crisi in corso, iniziata nei mercati del capitale, stia rafforzando di nuovo i mercati del capitale. È esploso il volume delle emissioni di obbligazioni. Nella sola Europa continentale, nei primi 6 mesi 2009, le società – escluse le banche – hanno ottenuto prestiti per $318 MD [tramite la vendita di obbligazioni] , con un aumento di circa il 50% sulla media degli ultimi 3 anni.»

Wsws 090731

World Socialist Web Site

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Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)

International banks exploit the crisis to reap massive profits

31 July 2009

–   At the start of this week, German-based Deutsche Bank announced a huge increase in its profits. The bank reported a net profit of €1.1 billion in the second quarter of this year, nearly doubling its earnings over the same period last year (€645 million).

–   The massive increase in Deutsche Bank’s profits follows record earnings for US-based Goldman Sachs. Two weeks ago, the US investment bank posted profits of $3.44 billion (€2.44 billion) in the three months to June.

–   Less than a year after the eruption of a financial crisis that has devastated economies across the globe and wiped out an estimated 40 percent of the world’s wealth, a number of major banks and investment houses are posting record profits and setting aside sharply higher—in some cases, record—sums for salaries and bonuses to their employees.

–   In 2008, Deutsche Bank recorded the biggest losses in its history—€3.9 billion ($5.5 billion). How is this turn-around to be explained?

–   A recent article in Der Spiegel magazine entitled The Return of Greed—Banks Reopen Global Casino provides some insight. The article cites a former leading financier, who declares, “A few years ago, the investment banks got rich on their customers’ money. When that resource became too small, they fell back on their shareholders’ money. Now they’ve got hold of the biggest pool the world can offer: taxpayers’ money.”

The article quotes the head of German operations of an international investment bank, who declares, “The taxpayer is paying for the chips at the casino. It doesn’t get any better.”

–   Following the collapse of Lehmann Brothers in September 2008, the American government intervened with a massive bailout package. Since then, the US government has initiated programs that could potentially allocate up to $23.7 trillion to support the financial system—a sum equal to 1.7 times America’s gross domestic product.

The measures adopted by Washington were copied by governments around the world.

–   At the behest of bankers, in particular, Josef Ackermann, CEO of Deutsche Bank, the German government drew up a €500 billion rescue program for German banks at the end of last year. Since then, it has pledged additional hundreds of billions to the financial community as part of its “bad banks” scheme.

–   It is estimated that since the outbreak of the financial crisis in September 2008, governments have committed a total of $18 trillion in public funds to recapitalise the banking system—an amount equivalent to nearly 30 percent of world GDP. In virtually all major industrial countries, major banks and financial institutions deemed to be “systemically relevant institutions” have been given blank cheques by their respective state treasuries.

–   The bailout measures adopted by national governments represent a huge safety net for the banks, enabling them to once again engage in highly speculative forms of financial trading. The levels of debt resulting from the bank bailout packages and other forms of economic stimulus have assumed gigantic dimensions and will be paid for by generations to come.

–   At the same time, the rapid accumulation of debt by governments opens up vast and lucrative opportunities for the banks. Trading in government loans bound up with financial rescue packages is emerging as a central activity of the big banks.

–   Average government debt in the European Union[e] is expected to rise to 80 percent of GDP this year and even higher in 2010. In Britain, government debt is expected to reach 100 percent of GDP in 2009.

–   Japan’s government debt is headed for 200 percent by 2011, and government debt in the US is expected to reach 100 percent of GDP by the same time.

As the levels of debt rise across the globe, rating agencies are downgrading the lending status of individual countries, which then have to pay increased interest rates to the banks in order to service their loans. For the banks, it is a classic “win-win” situation.

–   At the same time, banks are refraining from investing in businesses because, as they note euphemistically, “in the current financial climate” the prospects for ordinary companies and industrial enterprises are “too risky.” Confronted with the refusal of the banks to extend credit, industrial and commercial companies are forced to sell corporate bonds at much higher levels of interest. The banks make further profits by speculating in the trading of these bonds.

–   The article in Der Spiegel comments, “It is a deep irony that the current crisis, which began in the capital markets, is now strengthening the capital markets once again. The volume of bond issues has exploded. In continental Europe alone, companies—not including banks—have borrowed $318 billion [through the sale of bonds] in the first six months of this year…a roughly 50 percent increase over the average of the last three years.”

–   Concomitant with the huge increase in bank profits is an explosion in salaries for bank personnel. According to an estimate by the consulting firm Johnson Associates, salaries throughout the banking industry are expected to rise by an average of 20 to 30 percent this year.

–   Reimbursement for employees at Goldman Sachs is on track to reach an average of $770,000 this year, the highest annual compensation in the bank’s history.

–   Citigroup, which has received $45 billion in cash from the US government on top of more than $300 billion in government guarantees on its assets—and which is now 34 percent owned by the government—plans to increase salaries by 50 percent this year to offset lower bonuses. Other banks, including UBS and Morgan Stanley, are also giving their employees hefty pay raises of between 30 and 60 percent.

–   In Germany, Michael Kemmer, the head of the Bavarian State Bank (BayernLB), which has received tens of billions in state aid to avoid bankruptcy, has defended his plans to pay out huge “motivation” bonuses to his bank’s employees.

–   These staggering compensation packages go disproportionately to top executives and traders, who stand to get salaries and bonuses in the millions and tens of millions of dollars.

–   Presented with unprecedented possibilities for making money, the biggest banks, such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, are going on the offensive and carrying out a deliberate strategy to eliminate their competitors.

–   In Wednesday’s Financial Times, Deutsche Bank head Ackermann pays tribute to the measures taken by governments around the world on behalf of the banks and calls upon them to intensify their efforts to secure the interests of the world’s major financial players.

–   Ackermann sweeps aside the charge that the banking community bears responsibility for the present crisis and declares that any moves toward creating smaller banks would be unproductive. Instead, he calls for new measures to protect the interests of “complex global financial institutions,” i.e., major banks such as Deutsche Bank.

–   A leading investment banker with Deutsche Bank, Anshu Jain, told the British magazine Euromoney in May that in future, “What we will see is five to six formidable global players in investment banking.”

–   This elite of investment banking giants will constitute, according to Der Spiegel, a new financial “oligopoly,” with unprecedented access to state treasuries and the taxpayers’ purse. The banks, more than ever, dictate state policy, regardless the particular political coloration of the government. It is the bankers and their lobbyists who call the tune in Washington, Berlin and London.

–   The CEOs of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank regard the current crisis, for which they are largely responsible, as an opportunity, and they are ruthlessly exploiting it. For the working class, this means an immense intensification in the exploitation of labour and the destruction of all that remains of social gains won in more than a century of struggle.

–   In capitals across the world, governments are preparing a social counterrevolution. This is the significance of the Obama health care scheme and the White House’s intervention to restructure the auto industry in accordance with the profit interests of Wall Street.

–   Confronted with a federal election in a few months, the German government is forced to be more circumspect. Nevertheless, it is already clear that the grand coalition of conservative parties and the Social Democratic Party is quite prepared to allow major industrial companies, such as Opel, to go bankrupt, while plans are already being drawn up for a massive onslaught on the country’s welfare and pensions systems—to be implemented as soon as the election date is passed.

–   The global financial casino poses the danger of even more catastrophic economic and social shocks. If control of the world economy is left in the hands of Ackermann and company, mankind confronts a disaster. Never has there been a more pressing case for the democratic ownership and control of the major financial institutions by the international working class as an integral component of a planned socialist economy.

Stefan Steinberg

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