>>Royal Bank of Scotland
>>
>>down 25% this morning
>
>I read an article sometime over the last couple of days (I looked for a link but can't find it - I think it was in the National Post) that pointed out that the assets of even the largest failed banks in the US are a relatively small percentage of US GDP. It also pointed out that RBS's assets are considerably larger than the UK GDP.
>
>An even more severe example of this (although much smaller in absolute size) is the current crisis in Iceland: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/3153061/Financial-crisis-Iceland-PM-warns-its-every-country-for-itself.html

All these articles constantly confuse assets and liabilities. It is ballooning liability size that bring banks down.