How HSBC bought the media to airbrush themselves out of history.

In August there was a big media story – the 10th anniversary of the financial crisis. Britain is going through its tortuous Brexit negotiations and guess who caused the crisis? The French. Here are sample extracts from the media stories. They all relate the crisis as beginning with French bank BNP Paribas freezing three hedge funds.

Screen Shot 2017-09-19 at 11.06.08Telegraph

Screen Shot 2017-09-19 at 11.08.36BBC

Screen Shot 2017-09-19 at 11.19.41Guardian

Nothing could be further from the truth. And why would a French bank freezing assets be the beginning of a credit crisis? The articles do state that the actions of BNP Paribas were the result of exposure to the US sub-prime mortgage market, which was the true cause of the crisis. And where did that start? With HSBC, announcing a profit warning for the first time in its 142 year history

Screen Shot 2017-09-19 at 11.30.02

This is Money

This rang alarm bells and was the beginning of the panic which spooked the markets. But why were HSBC so exposed to the US sub-prime market? Because it bought Household International for $16bn in 2002

Screen Shot 2017-09-19 at 11.36.48Wall Street Journal

 

Former HSBC Chairman Stephen Green has said “With the benefit of hindsight, this is an acquisition we wish we had not undertaken.”1   HFC Bank, which added the illegal charges to British consumer accounts in excess of £1bn, the subject of my campaign, is an offshoot of Household (Household Finance Corporation) and specialised in sub-prime lending in the UK since the 1970s. In 2016 HSBC settled litigation against Household for $1.6.bn2

Household was no stranger to controversy and was widely regarded as a predatory lender in the US, with some very objectionable sales practices. However, such concerns didn’t bother HSBC which wanted a piece of the action. After all, they were already laundering money for Mexican drug cartels and terrorists.

Economist

HSBC in the UK has completely captured the media. The Guardian is the biggest recipient of the digital media advertising, they had a director in charge of the BBC, a deputy chairman of John Lewis was also deputy chairman of Channel 4, they have many past and present directors in the Lords and connected with the security services. I have covered much of this infiltration on this website. HSBC has therefore effectively bought the media to airbrush out their culpability for the financial crisis by buying into an already discredited bank. The  crisis was caused by the trade in CDOs (Credit default obligations) which were bundles of debts containing many toxic sub-prime mortgages. The banks even ended up suing each other for selling each other useless CDOs. But let’s blame a French bank.

 

  1. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/862ac83a-0792-11de-9294-000077b07658.html?ft_site=falcon&desktop=true#axzz4t7Xadkgi
  2. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/hsbc-to-record-585-million-charge-over-2002-household-international-litigation-settlement-a7086926.html