Banking // Current

Could this mean the end of free banking as we know it?!

Analysts Datamonitor claim that free banking is on its way out in only a matter of time, which means being charged for taking... more

tallmansam
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Citi to modify $20 billion in home loans in attempt to stem forclosures

A new program aimed at homeowners who haven't defaulted yet could help 130,000 mortgage borrowers stay in their homes. The... more

justright
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Forget your 'Black Card'... bank issues real 'Diamond' card

Some of the richest people in Kazakhstan are being offered a credit card with a difference. While countries around the world... more

lovemorgul
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Barclays secures Middle East cash :: BBC NEWS | Business |

Barclays has announced a proposal to raise up to £7.3bn to strengthen its balance sheet. The money will be mainly raised... more

jkw077
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Secrets of the Bailout

CNBC's Dylan Ratigan, host of 'Fast Money' and 'Closing Bell', tells The Street.Com's Debra... more

3oc
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Super Bowl Come-Up

vc2 producer Carlos Aguilar is having all his friends and family over for the annual Super Bowl party but he knows that his old... more

BooksBrown
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Taxes Three Ways

It's tax time and vc2 producer Carlos Aguilar doesn't know whether to prepare his own forms, use the software, or visit... more

BooksBrown
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Credit-Rating Companies `Sold Soul'

Employees at Moody's Investors Service told executives that issuing dubious creditworthy ratings to mortgage-backed... more

Apocalipstick
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Arts expected to take a heavy blow from financial crisis

Colin Tweedy, head of sponsorship consultancy Arts & Business, said, "This is going to be a particularly lean period.... more

nazbags
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Where's the money?

We all know about the various attempts to prop up the ailing monetary system. Those who still believe that bailouts and throwing... more

3oc
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Banks and Building Societies refuse to pass on the interest rate cuts to customers

More legal robbery... Britain' s biggest building society has become the latest high street name to refuse to pass the... more

toshiba
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Is the Bailout the beginning of the USSA (United Socialist States of America)?

Thanks to the Bailout plan, supported by President Bush and both Presidential Candidates, are we only a few steps from a Socialist... more

JamieGray
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Behind the Bailout...what we SHOULD have known in JUNE and need to know NOW.

Almost 4 months ago, the handwriting was on the wall. And throwing useless liquidity at the problem will only make it worse. To make matters worse, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have been speculating in commodities, driving the prices up.

Please read the whole article!

Excerpts from the article by Mike Whitney dated 6/17/2008:

The Fed is currently in panic-mode because it doesn't have the tools or resources to fix the problems its facing. Its already eaten through more than half of its $900 billion balance sheet and has traded away hundreds of billions in US Treasuries for worthless MBS and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) which are steadily losing value every month. The Fed is trying to revive the moribund banking system which has lost its main sources of revenue (structured financial investments) and is teetering on the brink of insolvency from its steadily wilting assets, a collapse in commercial and residential real estate, and a rise in corporate defaults...

...Now the underlying collateral (housing) is quickly deteriorating causing a system-wide deleveraging and a flight to safety (US Treasuries, foreign bonds). The dollar is in free fall, credit is tightening, and the banks are only able to stay open due to the generosity of the Federal Reserve...

...The larger question is whether the investment banks---faced with a frozen bond market and ravaged balance sheets---are diverting the money they're getting from the Fed into commodities (via the hedge funds) driving the prices upward and triggering political turmoil around the world?...

...According to economist and author Henry Liu, the same thing happened just prior to the Great Depression:

"The problem in 1929 was, as it is in 2008, that asset prices buoyant by speculation had outstripped the purchasing power of stagnant income of consumers. Assets and commodities in the economy were valued at price levels that aggregate wage income could not sustain. The solution was not to inject more useless liquidity to sustain inoperative price levels, which will only make the problem worse, but to INTRODUCE DEMAND MANAGEMENT THROUGH FULL EMPLOYMENT AND LET WAGES QUICKLY RISE BACK UP TO THE LEVEL OF WAGE-PRICE EQUILIBRIUM. This was the policy objective of Roosevelt's New Deal Program, an objective not yet recognized by policymakers in 2008 even amid a revival of populist rhetoric....

...There is no way to escape the day of reckoning now facing the financial system; the hundreds of bank failures, the corporate defaults, the meltdown in real estate, the massive loss of jobs, the dreary contraction of credit, the tumbling stock market, and the blow to our national confidence. But there is a way to rebuild, to reassert control over our own currency; to "even the playing field" and recommit to a strong middle class; to smash the system that diverts the greatest portion of the nation's wealth to a handful of unelected oligarchs whose main objectives are to expand their own personal power and subvert the democratic process. The existing system cannot meet the challenges of the new century. It's gotta go.Almost 4 months ago, the handwriting was on the wall. And throwing useless liquidity at the problem will only make it worse. To... more