Middle East and Asian funds Zooming into cheaper US Bank Stocks

Mega US Banks, once proud and arrogant and rich and powerful are now bowing towards the Middle Eastern and Asian countries for crucial helpline in saving their reckless dump into the sub-prime mortgage crisis. For a record of the helplines thrown in, adapted from bloomberg:

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=anjGWhqi0PSE&refer=home

Firm         Infusion    Investor                       Stake

Citigroup      $6.8      Government of Singapore         3.7%
                        Investment Corp.

               7.7      Kuwait Investment Authority;    not
                        Alwaleed bin Talal; Capital    specified
                        Research; Capital World;
                        Sandy Weill; public investors.

               7.5      Abu Dhabi Investment
                        Authority                       4.9%

Merrill Lynch   6.6      Korean Investment Corp.;        not
                        Kuwait Investment Authority;   specified
                        Mizuho Financial Group

               4.4*     Temasek Holdings                9.4%**
                        (Singapore)

               1.2      Davis Selected Advisors
                        (U.S.)                          2.6%**

UBS             9.7      Government of Singapore
                        Investment Corp.                 10%
               1.8      Unidentified Middle Eastern
                        Investor                          2%

Morgan Stanley  5        China Investment Corp.          9.9%

Barclays        3        China Development Bank          3.1%

               2        Temasek Holdings                2.1%

Canadian Imperial 2.7    Li Ka-Shing; Manulife           not
                        Financial; others             specified

Bear Stearns    1        Citic Securities Co.              6%***
                        (China)
             _____

TOTAL         $59.4

*    Temasek has an option to invest an additional $600 million.

**   Estimate based on purchase price of $48 a share.

***  Citic has an option to increase its stake by as much as
    3.3 percent.

It's amazing how Singapore's GIC and Temasek were involved in capital infusion into 5 out of the 7 mentioned banks, and the amount of money pumped into the banks easily surpass any other funds. This gives one an indication of how rich the Singapore government is handling.

The mortgage crisis has provided ample opportunities for funds around the world to buy into the cheap otherwise expensive US bank stocks that will be hard to come by. And the Singapore government is certainly not going to miss these opportunities. The large infusion of capital into the United States will help to alleviate some pressure off the declining US dollar. In a way, this will and can avert the scenario of further weakening of the greenback, which would spell trouble for countries holding large reserves of US dollar denominated deposits, currency and other investment vehicles.

Although no negative figure, the US economy had shown signs of slowing. How long can the Fed continue to bail out the economy through interest rate cuts before the economy tumbles into recession?