

Morgan Stanley’s $9 Billion Check - trs81
http://www.andrewrosssorkin.com/?p=355

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aneesh
> "The payment was supposed to be wired electronically, but because it needed
> to be made on an emergency basis on a holiday, Mitsubishi cut a physical
> check"

So, on a holiday, the electronic systems were "closed", but the paper check
could be deposited normally? Irony abounds.

~~~
waterlesscloud
But...

Paper checks don't actually move money around, computers changing numbers in
electronic ledgers do. A paper check is just a device to trigger that process.

I'm not sure this story makes any sense to me.

~~~
dpifke
The distinction is most probably legal. The transaction couldn't close until
payment was received - and the paper check could be "received" but a wire
transfer couldn't until the next day.

Likewise, they could put the funds on their balance sheet at the moment the
check changed hands. I'm sure they also had accounts payable, so this allowed
them to be solvent despite the fact that the check hadn't yet been deposited.

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vdm
Whatever you think about the rationale behind this check (I don't buy the
story about electronic systems being down on a holiday either), I encourage
you to read Rolling Stone's irreverent take[1] on Goldman Sach's role in this
whole saga, as a valuable counterpoint to the fawning "all-nighter swinging
dick" worship[2] as can be seen from the excerpt of this guy's book in Vanity
Fair.

1\.
[http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29127316/the_grea...](http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29127316/the_great_american_bubble_machine/print)
2\. [http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2009/11/too-
big-...](http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2009/11/too-big-to-fail-
excerpt-200911)

------
holograham
Alternate Link:

[http://www.businessinsider.com/the-9-billion-check-to-
rescue...](http://www.businessinsider.com/the-9-billion-check-to-rescued-
morgan-stanley-2009-11)

------
mcantelon
Interesting. Why was a Japanese bank willing to risk that much on a bank that
made bad choices?

~~~
forensic
Japs are pretty heavily controlled by the American elite. There is actually a
fairly big underground movement in Japan to throw them off and stop stuff like
this from happening. Japanese banks and politicians though have been paying
tribute to America for a long time.

~~~
euroclydon
references needed

~~~
forensic
It's a tough thing to reference. But I've read from many Japanese authors
about the kind of reverence that Japan holds for America even today. It's
almost a religious kind of awe, and so when American powerbrokers visit Japan
there is a kind of unsaid understanding that the Japanese aristocrats will
make concessions and "pay tribute". After WW2 all the current Mitsubishi Group
banks very much became an international operation. And it holds tremendous
power, and yet is extremely - almost inexplicably - conciliatory to America.

Some Japanese people are unhappy with this vassal kind of relationship between
their most powerful institutions (which, let's face it, are the political
Kingmakers of Japan just like the corporatocracy in America) and the Western
Elite.

