AN ECONOMIC BANKING HERO

Following information gathered from article by Borzou Daragahi in LA TIMES story on 2/21/09
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Trying to find responsible people within the global banking community?

Look no further than your quaint little country of LEBANON.

Riad Toufic Salame is the governor of Lebanon's central bank and basically holds the same job as our Federal Reserve Chairman.
The bottom line....LEBANON BANKS HAVE HAD ONE OF THEIR BEST YEARS EVER....and their savings accounts yield a solid 6%

And it's not like he didn't know the ropes and just got lucky. He worked for Merrill Lynch for 20 years before becoming the central bank governor 15 years ago.

An odd side-bar issue about this story is that for years Lebanon was considered to be one of the major money laundering countries of the middle east.

One of the primary things Mr. Salame did was to issue a rule that prevented Lebanese banks from lending more than 70% of their deposits.

LEVERAGING is the problem and attempting to "create credit ratings" from LEVERAGING is a huge problem in the long run.

And it appears that the long run has arrived.....

....but it has not arrived in Lebanon thanks to the caution and awareness of Riad Toufic Salame.

Perhaps the World Bank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citi Bank should hire Mr. Salame as a consultant....but I doubt that Lebanon would allow that type of "harmonious intervention" with the global banking community.

He does drive to work in an armored plated BMW so there's that reality check regarding.....life in Lebanon.

ARMORED PLATED BMW.....wow....that really is a reality check.

If I was GM, Ford or Chrysler....I would immediately offer him an improved version with their special armored plated Cadillacs, Lincolns and Mini-Vans.

Michael Timothy McAlevey