Archive for May, 2009
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
From the Chicago Tribune: Law makes getting credit cards more difficult for students
For years, many people obtained their first credit card when they were in college. The process was a breeze: You didn't need a credit history to qualify. You didn't need a steady income. The fact that you were ...
Posted in leverage | 4 Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Reuters has a helpful summary of some good news courtesy FDIC:
U.S. banks that are struggling to stay afloat will not be allowed to aggressively ratchet up interest rates to attract customer money, a top bank regulator said on Friday.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp voted to bar a bank with insured ...
Posted in FDIC | 5 Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
(Send links, videos, pics to optionarmageddon at gmail with subject “link” ... Thanks to "J & K"---$22---for the donation!)
Reader note: I'd like to express displeasure with certain readers who felt it necessary to comment on Barney Frank's sexuality in response to the video I posted yesterday. Such comments are irrelevant, ...
Posted in links | 2 Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Back in February, amidst the neo-Keynesian rage to spend our way out of recession, I argued that stimulus wouldn't stimulate. Pointing to the graph of the 10-year Treasury vs. 30-year mortgage rates I said that the government wouldn't be able to flood the market with Treasurys without driving up interest ...
Posted in debt, deflation, depression, Economy, Fed, inflation, Interest Rates | 14 Comments »
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
(Send links, videos, pics to optionarmageddon at gmail with subject “link”)
Will Higher Education be the Next Bubble to Burst? (Houston Chronicle) A great piece. Like a house, college educations are assets financed with credit. Just like houses, the price remains overinflated by the credit bubble...
12% Are Behind on Mortgage or in ...
Posted in links | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
Packaging for U.S. Treasury Bonds?
Posted in BlogArt | 2 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 »
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
(Send links, videos, pics to optionarmageddon at gmail with subject “link” ... Thanks to K. Stouther---$15---for the donation!)
Today's Must Read---Cornering Foreign Fields (Economist) "The Chinese and Arabs are buying poor countries’ farms on a colossal scale. Be wary of the results."
IRS Tax Revenues Fall along with Taxpayers' Incomes (USA Today) ...
Posted in links | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
As Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank is the most powerful Congressional voice on issues facing banking and the economy....
People are investing in "homes, where there is not the degree of leverage we have seen elsewhere."
But at the height of the bubble, buyers were putting $0 down. ...
Posted in bubble, housing, leverage, politics | 13 Comments »
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
If readers don't mind a quick excursion to politics, the document below is too good not to share. Starting at page 12, there's a transcript from a wiretapped conversation between Senate Appointee Roland Burris and Rob Blagojevich, the disgraced former IL governor's brother and chair of his campaign fund.
The conversation ...
Posted in politics | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
FDIC released it's quarterly banking profile for Q1 this morning. The news was not good in Q1. Here is a link to the full text of the press release.
Highlights:
Commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported net income of $7.6 billion in the first ...
Posted in banking, FDIC | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
When the PPIP was first announced, OA pointed out the perverse incentive it provides for banks to buy toxic assets from themselves in order to shift risk to taxpayers.
It's reminiscent of seller-funded downpayment assistance on FHA loans. If a builder needs to clear inventory, he can affect a sale by ...
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Case-Shiller data for March was released today. The picture is still ugly. The Composite 10 and Composite 20 Indices continued to fall, down 2.1% and 2.2% respectively when compared to February. Since the peak of the housing bubble, the composite 20 is now down 32%.
Click to enlarge in new window
As ...
Posted in housing | 9 Comments »
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
(Send links, videos, pics to optionarmageddon at gmail with subject “link”)
JP Morgan $29 Billion WaMu Windfall May Turn Bad Loans Into Income (Bloomberg) Purchase accounting makes for a fantastic cookie jar. Wells Fargo will also benefit via its purchase of Wachovia's bad loan book.
Great Depressions are so Methodical (Bob Hoye) ...
Posted in links | No Comments »
Monday, May 25th, 2009
(Send links, videos, pics to optionarmageddon at gmail with subject “link”)
We Cannot Inflate Our Way Out of this Crisis (FT) "Stimulating inflation is another dirty, quick-fix strategy, like so many of the bank rescue packages currently in operation. As Hemingway said, it would feel good for a time. But it ...
Posted in links | 1 Comment »
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
Seth Green on living within your means. This is a promotional video for a special airing on ABC later this week:
Friday May 29th at 9/8c on ABC the one-hour special UN-BROKE: What You Need to Know About Money" takes an unconventional look at the fundamentals of everyday finance featuring Will ...
Posted in funny | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
From the LA Times:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to completely eliminate the state’s welfare program for families, medical insurance for low-income children and Cal Grants cash assistance to college and university students.
The proposals to sharply scale back the assistance that California provides to its neediest residents came in testimony by ...
Posted in taxpayer issues | 19 Comments »
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
(Send links, videos, pics to optionarmageddon at gmail with subject “link”)
The Road to Bankruptcy (Megan McArdle) Much has been blogged about Edmund Andrews' forthcoming book about his "personal credit crisis." In a great piece of reporting, McArdle notes that his story line---being caught up in the great credit mania of ...
Posted in links | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
Rosenberg's latest below. Most interesting to OA is the following excerpt:
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal ran with a certain ‘take’ on the yield curve that deserves a response (Yield Curve May Signal Recovery Ahead): Yes, yes, the curve is very steep with the gap between the yield on the 10-year Treasury ...
Posted in Wall Street | No 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 »
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
This afternoon, FDIC took BKUNA's assets into receivership. It is the 34th bank to fail in 2009. The Deposit Insurance Fund will absorb an estimated $4.9 billion in losses, which represents 57% of the total deposits BKUNA had as of May 2nd. With total assets of $12.8 billion, BKUNA ...
Posted in banking, bankruptcy, FDIC, housing | 7 Comments »
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
Regarding the life insurance biz, a reader forwards a (mildly) helpful slideshow from Fitch, along with the following comments:
My key takeaway [from this report is] that Risk Based Capital across the industry is still relatively healthy (although as a construct, it is questionable). But continued deterioration combined with liquidity risk ...
Posted in insurance | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
(Send links, videos, pics to optionarmageddon at gmail with subject “link”)
Kucinich Introduces Bill to Review Fed Credit Facilities (GovTrack) This would be in addition to the HR 1207, Ron Paul's bill to "audit the Fed." ZeroHedge today published a letter from Congressman Alan Grayson in support of that bill, which ...
Posted in links | No Comments »
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
S&P just put Her Majesty's Bonds on double secret probation. (Bloomberg):
Britain’s top-level credit rating is more likely to be cut by Standard & Poor’s as the government’s finances deteriorate amid the worst recession since World War II.
The U.K.’s AAA outlook was lowered to “negative” from “stable” because of ...
Posted in credit rating agencies, debt, government spending | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
Congress approved FDIC's higher borrowing limits yesterday. The new law permanently increases FDIC's line of credit at Treasury from $30 billion to $100 billion. And through 2010, FDIC will be able to borrow up to $400 billion more if the Fed and Treasury sign-off.
The legislation also extends, from 2009 to ...
Posted in FDIC | 5 Comments »
