In another reversaloffortune, China, becauseofitsclosedfinancial sector, has been largely shielded from the toxic mortgage-backedsecurities that brought downmanyof the world's Banks.
Yet even that is by no means certain: two previous attempts to introduce Europeans to asset-backed securities failed, even though American investment banks spent a fortune trying to make them work.
Borrowing at almost the same rates as the Treasury, they earn a fortune by investing the money in higher-yielding mortgages and mortgage-backed securities.