Archive for the ‘treasury’ Category
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Q: What is $11.4 trillion?
(Click image to enlarge in new window)
And today Treasury announced it will sell $104 billion of debt next week, a new record. CNBC:
The Treasury announced Thursday a record $104 billion worth of bond auctions for next week, part of its herculean efforts to finance a rescue ...
Posted in debt, Fed, treasury | 12 Comments »
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
So much for de-leveraging.
The Fed published its latest Flow of Funds report today. One key takeaway: While total debt is growing more slowly, it is still growing. Since Q3 '08 households have cut their debt (slightly), but the federal government is borrowing so rapidly, overall debt continues to expand.
(Click chart ...
Posted in debt, Economy, Fed, housing, leverage, politics, taxpayer issues, treasury | 16 Comments »
Monday, June 8th, 2009
Or: Why Stimulus Won't Stimulate....(Bloomberg)
The biggest price swings in Treasury bonds this year are undermining Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to cap consumer borrowing rates and pull the economy out of the worst recession in five decades.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.90 percent ...
Posted in Fed, Interest Rates, treasury | 9 Comments »
Monday, June 1st, 2009
From Reuters: Geithner tells China its dollar assets are safe
"Chinese assets are very safe," Geithner said in response to a question after a speech at Peking University, where he studied Chinese as a student in the 1980s.
His answer drew loud laughter from his student audience, reflecting scepticism in China about ...
Posted in treasury | 16 Comments »
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
During a press conference today, FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair was asked about this morning's WSJ report that banks are lobbying to buy assets under Geithner's toxic asset plan, the PPIP.
She says banks will not be able to bid on their own assets, but clearly leaves open the possibility that they'd ...
Posted in banking, FDIC, leverage, treasury | 4 Comments »
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
Public Debt Outstanding is approaching $11.3 trillion...
Click chart to enlarge in new window
...and fears about this growing debt burden helped drive the dollar to a 4-month low today. Bigger contributors to the dollar's fall included comments from the Bank of Japan, which said it wouldn't prop up greenbacks. Also, S&P's ...
Posted in Fed, treasury | 2 Comments »
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
"You're only cheating yourself...."
There's a reason society teaches children not to cut corners. Cheating purchases short term gains at the expense of long-term losses. The same could be said of regulatory capital standards. Regulators and accounting rulemakers are conspiring to let banks overstate their capital positions in order to ...
Posted in accounting, GSE, treasury | 6 Comments »
Friday, May 15th, 2009
[Update: The article below has been removed from the Telegraph's site, apparently after the interview subject got cold feet about his commentary. See Zero Hedge for details.]
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's latest column is a good one (ht Yves). He gets a money manager participating in TARP to say what everyone paying attention ...
Posted in bailout, banking, inflation, treasury, Wall Street | No Comments »
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
Yesterday OA led Lunchtime Links with news about Treasury's plan to recycle TARP funds that get paid back. Yet another example of a temporary government program that, once passed, may never go away. Why would Washingtonians want it to? Much can be purchased with a permanent $700 billion slush fund.
We ...
Posted in politics, treasury | 5 Comments »
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
In an interview with Charlie Rose on Tuesday, Tim Geithner admitted the bubble was caused by Greenspan's easy money policy. Unfortunately, Charlie didn't ask the obvious follow-up: "why will this time be different? Why will Bernanke's easy money policy lead to different results?" Here was the crucial exchange:
Rose: "Looking back, ...
Posted in credit crunch, deflation, Interest Rates, treasury | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Too many great sound bites in this clip to highlight any in particular. (ht MyProps.org)
Posted in banking, treasury | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Different stress test results are being leaked every day. First Citi was reported to need capital, then BofA, then Regions and KeyCorp, then Wells, then as many as 14 of the 19 being tested. Now Treasury/Fed seem to have settled on 10 needing capital. But the official announcement is still ...
Posted in banking, FDIC, Fed, leverage, treasury, Wall Street | 1 Comment »
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
Geithner's plan to rid banks of their toxic assets---the Public-Private Investment Program or "PPIP"---is getting an early face-lift. The plan is still a taxpayer giveaway, but perhaps a slightly smaller one now. (Bloomberg)
[FDIC] may offer investors financing to buy distressed U.S. bank assets without requiring them to share an equity ...
Posted in banking, FDIC, leverage, taxpayer issues, treasury | 8 Comments »
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
I've always wondered the location of the national debt "clock." Yesterday, I stumbled upon it totally accidentally, near the southwest corner of 44th Street and 6th Avenue here in NYC. And the figure is pretty close to Treasury's official total (see link below).
But I digress. On to the (good) news: ...
Posted in Fed, treasury | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
According to a report late last night from Bloomberg, six of the nineteen banks that were stress tested by the Fed will need to raise additional capital. Two of the six are known: Citi and BofA.* Both are appealing the ruling. The other four banks aren't known, but SunTrust, KeyCorp ...
Posted in banking, Fed, taxpayer issues, treasury, Wall Street | 2 Comments »
Friday, April 24th, 2009
A must-listen radio report from American Public Radio regarding yesterday's revelations that Bernanke and Paulson forced BofA to close its deal for Merrill.
REPORTER: If Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke really told the CEO of Bank of America to keep quiet about losses at Merrill Lynch, they were probably breaking the ...
Posted in Fed, treasury | 14 Comments »
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
After slowing earlier this year, the Fed's printing press is again running full speed.
According to its latest balance sheet, average assets increased $70.4 billion to $2.22 trillion. The increase was due primarily to $75 billion of mortgage-backed securities purchases this week and $14.1 billion of Treasury purchases. (Central bank swap ...
Posted in Fed, treasury | 2 Comments »
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
Below is a letter sent today by NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that outlines how former Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke forced BofA's acquisition of Merrill. Highlights:
BofA knew Merrill's losses were far more substantial than believed prior to closing the merger. It wanted to invoke a "material ...
Posted in banking, treasury, Wall Street | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General overseeing TARP says recipients of aid under the program may defraud investors of tens of billions. As the LA Times is reporting...
...federal investigators said Monday they have opened 20 criminal probes into possible securities fraud, tax violations, insider trading and other crimes.
Geithner's plan to ...
Posted in taxpayer issues, treasury | 2 Comments »
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
I will be updating this info each week in order to track fiscal and monetary policy from a bird's eye view. (For those interested, a tutorial regarding this data here.)
According to the Treasury Dept., Total U.S. Public Debt Outstanding increased $65.9 billion this week to $11.22 trillion. We're well ...
Posted in Fed, treasury | 2 Comments »
Sunday, April 12th, 2009
Big kudos to the the Boston Globe for some great reporting recently. They reported on PBGC's shift into stocks at the worst possible moment. Today they published a great interview with Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which oversees TARP. OA noted last week that Warren is clearly ...
Posted in taxpayer issues, treasury | 3 Comments »
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
I will be updating this info each week in order to track fiscal and monetary policy from a bird's eye view. (For those interested, a tutorial regarding this data here.)
According to the Treasury Dept., Total U.S. Public Debt Outstanding increased $42.1 billion this week to $11.15 trillion.
(Click to enlarge)
According ...
Posted in Fed, treasury | 5 Comments »
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
The Congressional Oversight Panel released its latest report yesterday. Luckily news outlets reporting on the release (see Bloomberg and Housing Wire) are skipping Warren's YouTube and Executive summaries--awkward exercises in establishing consensus both of them. They focus instead on the report's more provocative suggestion, that liquidating failed ...
Posted in bailout, banking, leverage, treasury | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
Insurance stocks were up big in morning trading on news Treasury will make them eligible for TARP. (WSJ)
The Treasury Department has decided to extend bailout funds to a number of struggling life-insurance companies...
The department is expected to announce the expansion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program to aid the ailing ...
Posted in bailout, insurance, treasury | No Comments »
Saturday, April 4th, 2009
Below are clips of Bill Moyers' must watch interview with Bill Black, a top regulator during the S&L Scandal. Black's biography is here. At the bottom of the post are a few quotes worth highlighting...
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Our [financial] system...became a Ponzi scheme. Everybody was buying a pig in the ...
Posted in bailout, banking, Fed, treasury, Wall Street | 9 Comments »
