Can taxpayers begin to get off the hook?
This week’s attempt by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) to sell securities backed by residential mortgages and construction loans marks a huge milestone in the road back to normalcy for the financial markets this week. Let’s hope the markets pass the test....Reassuring talk isn't ending the euro crisis
Talk is cheap. And not terribly effective, even when it’s coming out of the mouths of Europe’s financial leaders, in ending a financial crisis like the one that continues to engulf Europe this morning (February 8). The current phase of the crisis started in Greece,...How do you stamp out Wall Street greed? Maybe by charging for it
Hmmm, maybe, finally, a good idea on how to curb the worst excesses of Wall Street pay. Regulators at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FIDC), the Financial Times reports, are talking about linking the amount that banks have to pay into the fund that provides...First Dubai–Now Greece and Portugal?
Things are getting serious in the market for sovereign debt. You know, the paper issued by countries with big deficits that need to borrow to stay in business. Just before Thanksgiving Dubai World, a government-controlled conglomerate in Dubai, suspended debt...Pressed for cash, states go after pension pot of gold
Wonder how governments will close the huge budget gaps created by the Great Recession and the bailouts of the financial crisis? New York State’s recent budget move provides a pretty good road map. And you can sum it up concisely. Go after retirement programs. It’s...The mortgage crisis shifts to the FHA and Congress wants to make the problem permanent
Another of the “emergency” measures enacted to stop of the financial crisis from plunging the economy into a depression looks like it’s on the road to becoming “permanent.” And this one could really blow up on us taxpayers—again—not so far down the road. I’m talking...Some banks struggle as others get back to business as usual
You think the current wisdom that the banking sector is divided into the “have-nots” and the “haves” is an exaggeration? It’s very, very real—and it should be one of your guiding concepts if you’re thinking of buying any stock in the sector. There are banks that have...Update ING (ING)
When the reason you bought a stock no longer applies, you sell. Knowing what I know today, I will sell ING (ING) out of the long-term Jubak Picks 50 portfolio on the annual revision of that portfolio in December. (By the rules of this portfolio, I only buy and sell...Roubini, the bear who got it right, predicts another asset bubble bust
Bad times are coming, according to Nouriel Roubini, although they may be a year or two away. The New York University professor of economics is worth listening to since he called the U.S. housing bust and global financial crisis not only exactly right but in time to do...Will bad commercial real estate loans set off Banking Crisis II?
It’s going to be an interesting earnings season for bank stocks. The U.S. Federal Reserve has recently been out banging the pots about a new banking crisis, one in the $3.4 trillion market for commercial real-estate debt, that in size, at least, ranks up there with...Four winners in the banking sector–and my guess on when to buy them
The banking crisis is by no means over. But I think we can start putting together a list of winners. When we will want to buy stock in these banks is another question. What characterizes the four winners that I’m going to name in this post? Two things. First, they’ve...And now for some good news on banks–well, sort of.
During the financial panic stage of the global financial crisis, banks wrote down some $1 trillion in securities. Much of this came as banks took losses on thin to trade or never traded securities. What President George W. Bush’s Treasury branded...Could Europe's banks be in even worse shape than ours?
Hard as it is to believe, it looks likely: European banks are in deeper trouble than those in the U.S. and they’ve done less to clean up their balance sheets than their U.S. counterparts. At the end of this week, the finance ministers of the European Union...The Fed decided to go slow on removing housing stimulus–and that's a good thing
I heard what I was hoping to hear in yesterday’s statement from the Federal Reserve’ s Open Market Committee: the U.S. central bank isn’t going to cut back its support for the U.S. mortgage market ahead of schedule or abruptly. And that will keep...Corus signals the next wave of bank failures
Here we go again. On Friday, September 11, regulators seized Corus Bank of Chicago. It’s the biggest bank failure to date with its roots in the commercial real estate and construction loan market. And it marks the start of the long-feared next stage of the...Update ING Groep (ING)
ING Groep (ING) has moved a step closer to repaying the $14.3 billion loan it took out from the Dutch government in October 2008 during the height of the financial crisis. The company has asked for final bids for its private banking business with the price believed to...Why we can't kill efficient market theory and why that dooms us to more market meltdowns
I remember watching in fascinated horror in October 1987 as the stock market crashed. On Monday October 19 the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 22.6%. $500 billion evaporated. As a young (well, relatively) business editor I got pressed into service calling up...Regulatory reform won't fix the financial system; it's time to think about starting over again from scratch
All the plans that I’ve seen to “reform” the financial markets flounder on one problem: They all assume that if you give regulators more power, they will regulate. The record says that’s simply not true. And if it’s not, giving the...Obama's fix for S&P, Moody's, Fitch: Better than nothing but not enough
The Obama administration has delivered its proposal for fixing the credit rating companies that so contributed to the near meltdown of the global financial system. Is it enough to get the job done? Not in my view. The 18-page draft for legislation sent to Congress on...Standard & Poor's is goin' down. Finally.
Thank you, CalPERS. So far, the big three ratings companies, Standard &Poor’s, Moody’s (MCO), and Fitch have got off scot free despite their key role in the crisis that almost took down the world financial system. (You know the crisis that sent Lehman Bros. into...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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