China holds liens on American homes

Here's a must-read piece for homeowners via the omniscient eye of the BBC World Service (link here).

In the real nut graf, economist Nouriel Roubini gives this nittygritty assessment, based on the kinds of decisions capital-starved banks are having to make in the subprime backlash:

[Roubini] predicts that a reduction of credit on that scale will trigger a recession in America which could become global as the contagion spreads through the banking system worldwide.

Which is why, faced with these gaping and growing holes in their shareholders' capital, some of the biggest US banks are selling off shares to China, Singapore, or wealthy Gulf oil states, in an attempt to repair the damage.

Comforting, no?