In the last financial crisis, we came across a company named Cerberus Capital. Those who started Cerberus Capital had to know the kind of connotation that would be invoked with a name based on a three-headed dog that guards the gates of the underworld from those who wished to escape. For some, Cerberus Capital’s involvement in Chrysler and GMAC seemed inescapable for the U.S. government during their bailouts of the auto and banking industry.
Currently, a Belgium bank named Dexia Group is attempting to find a way out of its financial problems. Apparently, Dexia is holding an enormous amount of Greek debt that could possibly go bust. Without a plan from France, Belgium and Luxembourg, Dexia threatens to bankrupt many towns and cities in France as well as depositors in Belgium and Luxembourg.
Like Cerberus Capital, we wonder what is in the name. So it should comes as no surprise when we looked up what the meaning of Dexia is. Here are the Wikipedia definitions of what Dexia is:
“Dexia is a genus of tachinid flies in the family Tachinidae. Most larvae are parasitoids of beetles (Scarabaeidae).”
Since the above definitions of Dexia was relatively obscure, we looked up what a parasitoid is. Again, Wikipedia’s definition is as follows:
“A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism in a relationship that is in essence parasitic; unlike a true parasite, however, it ultimately sterilises or kills, and sometimes consumes, the host. Thus parasitoids are similar to typical parasites except in the more dire prognosis for the host.”
Cornell University’s Guide to Natural Enemies of North America defines parasitoids, in part, as:
“Insect parasitoids have an immature life stage that develops on or within a single insect host, ultimately killing the host…”
We can only wonder if Dexia, the Belgium bank, will ultimately lead to killing the hosts, in this case France, Belgium, Luxembourg or even the European Union as we know it.
More about Dexia from Bloomberg.com
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