August 9th 2012, Thursday of this busy week, is the five years anniversary of Global Financial Crisis (GFC).
The active phase of the crisis, which manifested as a liquidity crisis, can be dated from August 9, 2007 when BNP Paribas stopped withdrawals from three investment funds because it could not value their holdings, and in particular their subprime-mortgage assets. “The complete evaporation of liquidity in certain market segments of the US securitisation market has made it impossible to value certain assets fairly regardless of their quality or credit rating,” was the way the French bank put it in a statement issued that day.
Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers investment houses in U.S., Babcock & Brown, the "Mini Macquarie" and ABC Learning down under, used to be the darling of investment fund managers all but died like dodo now.
Five years on, crisis is still not gone away. Global economy is dragged into a longer than expected recession and recovery.
What a messy and unhappy birthday GFC ...