Bailout and Financial Crisis News

You need to upgrade your Flash Player The Fed’s balance sheet expanded in the latest week, with rising to $2.265 trillion from $2.262 trillion. With direct bank lending continuing to decline and central bank liquidity swaps returning to zero, the bulk of the increase came from the Fed’s purchases of long-term securities. More than $23 [...]

Carolyn Said at the San Francisco Chronicle writes: Short sale tax shortchanges ex-homeowners (ht picosec) California legislators last week passed a bill that … mirrors a federal law that excludes “forgiven debt” on a principal residence from being considered taxable income. It covers short sales, foreclosures, deeds in lieu of foreclosure and loan modifications that [...]

Bob Diamond has a particular way of running Barclays Capital. The bank has a standing “no jerk” policy for hiring new employees and according to the Financial Times, a few ways to steer unwanted showy types away from the company on their own. Some rules Diamond has in place: No personalized stationary for senior bankers The bank will not [...]

We hear a lot about inflation in China, but not so much in fellow BRIC India. So just as a heads up, the scene is ugly. Here’s the latest from Waverly Advisors: February Wholesale Prices in India registered at an annualized 9.89% versus 8.56% in January according to a Ministry of Commerce release this morning, with the critical [...]

The litigation had gotten ugly, but it came to an amicable end on Friday. Washington Mutual’s estate announced a global settlement agreement with JPMorgan and the FDIC, which will, a WaMu statement said, “provide substantial recoveries for the company’s creditors.” “Substantial recoveries” means the return of $4 billion in deposits and nearly $2 billion in other cash, [...]

Premier Wen Jiabao gave his annual press conference yesterday. These are closely watched because Wen so rarely makes public remarks. Wen’s opening statement focused on US arms sales to Taiwan and China’s role in the Copenhagen talks. But the real action came in the question period, when Wen was asked about China’s currency policy. Unlike central [...]

From Sewell Chan at the NY Times: Dodd to Unveil a Broad Financial Overhaul Bill Here are the key points: The consumer financial protection agency would be part of the Federal Reserve. Creates a systemic risk council that would be headed by the Treasury Secretary and would include “representatives of the Fed, the new consumer [...]

March 13, 2010 We are about to enter the great debate on financial reform. Unlike other stymied political initiatives, this one is likely to pass. The final form is still unknown but the details are being shaped up, and there is where the devil will emerge. The Obama administration will not cure the [...]

This is an unofficial list of Problem Banks compiled only from public sources. Changes and comments from surferdude808: There were several additions and removals during the week that left the Unofficial Problem Bank List totals almost unchanged. This week there are 640 institutions with assets of $325.6 billion compared to 641 institutions and $325.5 billion [...]

This week we do some review on a very important topic, the velocity of money. If we don’t understand the basics, it is hard to make sense of the hash that our world economy is in, much less understand where we are headed. But before we jump into that, I want to let my Conversations subscribers [...]

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