The unspoken rule that the government led economic system would not allow big companies to fail is being broken. We're now into a different type of environment. There will be a lot of bankruptcies. We could easily see bankruptcies of a hundred securities companies in the next two years. Goldman-Sachs is reportedly planning to buy more than four billion dollars worth of loans which were made against real estate, in hopes that the property market will soon turn around.
Foreign banks are at an advantage here.
In Tokyo, this is Jocelyn Ford for Marketplace. Indonesia, Thailand, and South Korea were dealt major setbacks today after an international ratings service downgraded the country's debt to junk-bond status. Moody's cited policy and political uncertainty in its decisions. This will makes things more expensive for these governments as they turn to the bond market to finance their way toward more stability. The deregulation of California's 20 billion dollar electricity market was supposed to start at the turn of the new year, but now some officials are warning the necessary software isn't ready, which could delay the onslaught of competition in the country's biggest power grid.