Sunday 23 January 2011

Banks and Whose Army?

Banks are trying to sue, in London, Italian towns and regions  as the comune  stop making payments on contracts, and others seek to recover hidden fees,  in allegedly fraudulent selling practices on swaps.

The region of Tuscany and the Comune di Firenze are among the targets.  Even if the banks win they would only be able to seize property outside of Italy.  Let's see now, what about the National Gallery? That's outside Italy -  conveniently situated in London.  They could have:

this one

or this one


or this one


or this one

or this one




We could go on for absolutely ages but perhaps the best thing would be for all of these,  even just these, to go back where they came from and then any claims the banks have can be settled in the right place.   Of course then they would need the Italian courts to empower them.  Imagine the bankers trying to remove them from their Tuscan home, once returned.  The people of Monterchi faced the German army with pitchforks for this one:

5 comments:

Michel d'Anjou said...

These deals tend to have American origins. Seems that Italians join the Norwegians et al in not spending too much time reading the documentation before signing. The MO involves a respected local broker and a US counterparty sitting behind? No matter default is default and that will count against the country as a whole. Whatever competence or expectation lead them to commit their (taxpayers) to (most likely) unlimited liability without READING and UNDERSTANDING the contract?

Caronte said...

Greed, Michel, pure greed. However, toxic assets should be sold with a health warning. If not, the defaulter could sue the creditor rather than the other way round.

lilith said...

They can't have the Uccello, I am sorry.

hatfield girl said...

It's the banks and bankers, L, they want EVERYTHING. And then they want to hide it in their vaults, and in their richmen's houses, and yachts, and ski chalets, and dachas, and bunkers. On their islands, and estates, and oases, and up their mountains.

lilith said...

Well, I shall just have to stand in front of it with a pitchfork then.