Quote: Vader @ April 29 2011, 6:28 PM BST
Yeah, but my point was that banks would care about how much money and assets you have, not how good you are at hiding them, likewise in the game, if you hide your wealth too well, you'll be perceived as weak and get worse deals.
There are definitely some subtle jabs at American banking, greed, and moral hazard in there.
Marc P got it right when he mentioned the toxic assets. The banks here had to puff up their chests and look like their balance statements were clean so that the market wouldn't short them out of existence. It happened to some of the biggest banks in the US. Once other banks saw how much toxic assets they were holding, they wouldn't lend overnight paper to them, and they would go bankrupt overnight.
The part about the bailout option, that's been much more prevalent in the US than than in Britain and continental Europe. Perhaps you got that one. But there's a theme over here now that if you are a super big company, you are deemed "too big to fail" and the government bails you out of trouble if you get into trouble.
