Bailout and Financial Crisis News

CR Note: the following is from housing economist Tom Lawler (posted with permission): Last month I showed data on trends in the REO inventories of Fannie, Freddie, and FHA, highlighting how while total REO inventory estimates appear to have fallen, REO at “the F’s” has increased notably over the last year. A few folks questioned how [...]

(Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images) By Jacob Goldstein Wal-Mart already has “MoneyCenters” in 1,000 of its U.S. stores, and the company said yesterday it plans to to add 400 more by the end of the year. The centers offer services like check cashing and bill pay [...]

(This guest post originally appeared at The Senator’s website) Mr. President, last Thursday, the bankruptcy examiner for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. released a 2,200 page report about the demise of the firm which included riveting detail on the firm’s accounting practices.  That report has put in sharp relief what many of us have expected all along:  [...]

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, [...]

This will be a busy week with two key housing reports released on Monday and Tuesday: Builder confidence and Housing starts. On Monday, the Fed will release the February Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization report at 9:15 AM ET. Expectations are for no increase in industrial production, and a slight decrease in capacity utilization (snow [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

A couple excerpts from American Banker: Regulatory Actions Hit a Record Level in ‘09 “Bank regulators issued 1,143 formal enforcement actions against banks and their holding companies last year, a new record and more than double the 2008 tally.” “Informal actions by the agencies, which are not made public and often go untracked, also doubled [...]

By Jacob Goldstein Some day, the Senate will finally unveil its big finance-reform bill. Until then, we’ll have to survive on the endless stream of leaks about what’s likely to be in it. Like, for example, the $50 billion trust fund that may be created to wind down big, failing financial institutions. The proposed pool, described [...]

The focus this week will be on the February Retail Sales report to be released by the Census Bureau on Friday. The consensus is for a decline of -0.2% from January and for a slight increase ex-auto. Blame it on the snow … On Monday, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, Jürgen Stark, Member of the [...]

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