Category: Credit Crisis 2009
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Friday, February 13, 2009
Financial Markets Disappointment at Geithner’s Bank Bailout Plan / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
Mike Larson writres: This was supposed to be a great week for Washington and Wall Street. The administration had leaked in advance that it was going to put a full-court press on for its stimulus and bailout programs. That led to intense anticipatory buying by the stock market bulls.
Monday night's primetime news conference with President Barack Obama only heightened anticipation ahead of the main events on Tuesday: A big speech from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and testimony before Congress by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
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Friday, February 13, 2009
Sociopaths Lacking Intellectual Capacity Bashing Banks / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
The whole thing is ridiculous, all of it. I listened to Geithner release his “plan” to unfreeze lending markets. I watched some of the charades on Capital Hill involving the bank CEOs and their testimony. Lastly, I saw the vote and reaction of politicians on the most recent bit of financial socialism. What a mess…Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, February 13, 2009
Consumer Credit Collapse: What's Really on the Cards / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2009
Inquiring minds are taking second look at the consumer credit numbers reported last week. Please consider Consumer credit falls more than expected in December . Consumer borrowing fell for a third straight month in December, the longest stretch in 17 years, as households cut spending amid a steep recession and rising job layoffs.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, February 13, 2009
Dead Bankrupt Banks Stock Prices Diluted Into Oblivion / Companies / Credit Crisis 2009
A hard time came when deciding upon a title today. “Dead Banks Walking” or “Insolvent & Motionless Yet Standing” or “Much Ado About No Credit” or “The Bank Vampires” or “The Primary Dark Syndicates” made sense. But what came to mind when a comment made by the Jackass in June 2008 on the Vancouver stage at a Cambridge House Metals & Mining Conference. My words to close a panel discussion on the banks were “Just wait, in several months you will see the entire US banking system go insolvent, its stock prices dwindle to nothing, as it will be diluted into oblivion!” It happened.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Will Obama Capping Executive Pay Create a Better Banking System? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
Martin Hutchinson writes: By revamping the banking sector's compensation system, and creating a salary cap of $500,000 for the top executives at institutions that accepted federal bailout money, new U.S. President Barack Obama could be launching a reform movement that helps make the American financial system worthwhile to invest in again.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Financial Markets Confidence More Important Than Gold / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2009
In a rare interview with Western media, Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, told the Financial Times (see http://www.ft.com/wen ),
‘Confidence is the most important thing, more important than gold or currency'
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Capitalism's Self-inflicted Financial Apocalypse / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
Michael Parenti writes: After the overthrow of communist governments in Eastern Europe, capitalism was paraded as the indomitable system that brings prosperity and democracy, the system that would prevail unto the end of history. The present economic crisis, however, has convinced even some prominent free-marketeers that something is gravely amiss. Truth be told, capitalism has yet to come to terms with several historical forces that cause it endless trouble: democracy, prosperity, and capitalism itself, the very entities that capitalist rulers claim to be fostering.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Baby Boomers- Your Generation's Crisis Has Arrived / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
"There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations, much is given. Of other generations, much is expected. This Generation has a rendezvous with destiny." Franklin Roosevelt – 1936
President Roosevelt was correct. The generation he was speaking to was already dealing with the worst financial crisis in the history of the United States, the Great Depression. By 1945, over 400,000 of this generation had lost their lives. Another 600,000 men were wounded. Much was expected and much was sacrificed. Every generation has a rendezvous with destiny.
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Financial Markets Judgment Day on Obama, Geithner Credit Crisis Rescue Plan / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2009
A moment the market has been waiting for ... The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has not gone well. Unaccountability for funds was a major issue. Lack of effectiveness was another issue. As a result, opinions and emotions surrounding TARP have grown to be negative.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 09, 2009
What Iggy Pop Says About the Financial Crisis / Companies / Credit Crisis 2009
Take a gaggle of celebrities, mix into mis-guided ad campaigns, and sprinkle liberally over the financial crisis...JUST HOW MUCH LONGER and deeper can this crisis in finance keep running from here?
Given how the crisis' sole purpose is to burst the bubble in finance, there looks to be a whole lot of trouble to come yet.
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Monday, February 09, 2009
Bankers On Notice: The Cake Eaters Are Stirring / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
It's interesting to watch what happens as the spores and tentacles of “banker rot” penetrate ever-deeper into the worm-holes and capillaries of the socioeconomic strata.
Anachronisms from a bygone-era, the “let them eat cake” attitudes that have persistently predominated the media-storm are increasingly muffled by a gathering mob and their collective call for the punishment of the perpetrators and their accomplices at all levels and in all capacities, public and private.
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Sunday, February 08, 2009
Bad Debt Crisis: Inadequate Loan Loss Reserves at Numerous Minnesota Banks / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2009
At Minnesota banks, bad loans are piling up much faster than the amount of money being set aside to cover them. The StarTribune takes a look at the problem in State's banks below norm in reserves . Despite repeated warnings of economic trouble ahead, banks in Minnesota have failed to keep pace with the rise in bad loans. Among those banks, the ratio of past-due and nonaccrual loans -- or loans for which payment is in doubt -- as a percentage of total loans rose 50 percent since 2006, while the reserves to total loans ratio remained virtually unchanged.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, February 07, 2009
A Confidence Crisis, Not a Money Crisis / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2009
“Though the life of a man be short of a hundred years, he gives himself enough anxiety as if he were to live a thousand.” --Ancient Chinese proverb
The crisis we keep hearing so much about, which formally began in 2007 and intensified in 2008, was at root a crisis in confidence. True, the credit crisis had its origins in the tight money policy of the Federal Reserve beginning in 2004 and continuing into 2007. So there was definitely a money/credit aspect to the crisis. But more than any single factor – and this has been especially true in the past few months – the crisis has been more about shattered confidence than a dearth of liquidity.
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Saturday, February 07, 2009
The End of Wealth Creation / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
The Roman Empire - The rise and fall of the Roman Empire is a classic example of Return On Investment (ROI). Rome essentially funded conquest through pillage, bringing rich treasures of gold and silver back to Rome. During the early years of the Empire, the ROI on conquest was very good and Rome prospered. It had plenty of coin to fund its Legions. As the years went by, however, it became more difficult to find lands worth conquering and the travel costs to send a Legion to remote lands increased. The ROI of conquest began to falter, and Roman Emperors finally concluded additional conquests were not worth the cost. Years of wealth creation came to an end. The Roman Empire shifted its attention to wealth preservation.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, February 06, 2009
Lessons from Iceland's Financial and Economic Collapse / Economics / Credit Crisis 2009
Mass protests in Iceland culminated in almost 2% of the population standing outside the Althingi parliament building on January 24, demanding the dissolution of the government. Under severe pressure, Prime Minister Haarde reluctantly resigned, citing health problems. Astonishingly, the head of the central bank and the architect of the economy, David Oddson, has refused to step down.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 05, 2009
TARP, Banks Exposure to Toxic Credit Default Swaps, Road to Nationalization / Economics / Credit Crisis 2009
This week, seven major corporations announced major layoffs, adding 72,000 to the unemployed. At the same time, lending by the big banks fell. With falling demand for loans, it is little wonder that President Obama described the national economic situation as "worsening day by day." Clearly, we are heading into a deepening and severe recession that is spreading worldwide.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Wall Street’s Bonus System Major Catalyst for Financial Crisis / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2009
Shah Gilani writes: In a report released last week, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli estimated that the securities industry granted its employees $18.4 billion in bonuses – a revelation that President Barack Obama characterized as “shameful.”
Not surprisingly, the audacity of The Street's greed is far more shameful than people realize, because the total payout was actually much higher than the report found.
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Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Credit Crisis Watch: Liquidiy Injections Starting to Thaw Credit Freeze / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2009
Are the various central bank liquidity facilities and capital injections having the desired effect of unclogging credit markets and restoring confidence in the world's financial system? This is precisely what the “Credit Crisis Watch” is all about - a regular review of a number of measures in order to ascertain to what extent the thawing of credit markets is under way.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Yikes! We're caught in a liquidity trap. What the Heck is That? / Economics / Credit Crisis 2009
Since the Fed increased the monetary base by, oh, about a Trillion dollars, why aren't we having massive hyperinflation?Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Global Bankruptcy as World Leaders Succumb to Monetary Dementia / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
'If all the bank loans were paid up, no one would have a bank deposit, and there would not be a dollar of currency or coin in circulation. This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial banks for our money. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money, we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp upon the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible - but there it is. It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it is widely understood and the defects remedied very soon.' - Robert H. Hemphill, Federal Reserve Bank of AtlantaRead full article... Read full article...