Safe from Subprime? -- Outstanding Residential Mortgage

Subprime symptoms

More signs of the subprime contagion include the obvious: subprime loan-related losses incurred by Japanese financial institutions already totaled 600 billion as of end- 2007, a figure that may rise as the value of securitized assets held remains depressed. Abroad, outstanding loans by Japanese banks topped 32 trillion overall through end-February, the most in eight years. Writedowns by foreign banks are also forcing a scramble to shore up their capital bases and brake on lending, resulting in a global credit shortfall. Here in Japan, spreads are widening even for high credit corporate names.

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