Archive for the 'Collapse' Category
FDIC Having to Pay More to Make Financial Sausage
February 19th, 2009Does discount mean loss? Via: Bloomberg: U.S. regulators are being forced to sell the assets of failed banks at a discount to lure buyers spooked by the likelihood of increased loan losses amid a deepening recession. The assets of four banks have been sold to healthier rivals at a combined discount of $107 million this […]
Stanford Under Federal Drug Investigation
February 19th, 2009A Texas billionaire laundering drug money… Imagine my complete and total shock. But did you know that it’s SIR Allen Stanford? That’s right! He’s the first American to be knighted by Antigua and Barbuda. I wonder how close this guy is to Dubya and the gang… Via: Reuters: The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and […]
Los Angeles: Water Rationing
February 19th, 2009Whenever the summer humidity starts to get on my nerves here in the New Zealand, I just think about the seemingly perpetual Santa Ana conditions in Southern California, when the desert winds blow the polluted, orange air out to sea, and various parts of the place catch on fire… Oh yeah, try growing a garden […]
BANK RUN: DEPOSITORS TURNED AWAY FROM STANFORD BANKS
February 19th, 2009Via: AP: Panicky depositors were turned away from Stanford International Bank and some of its Latin American affiliates Wednesday, unable to withdraw their money after U.S. regulators accused Texas financier R. Allen Stanford of perpetrating an $8 billion fraud against his companies’ investors. Some customers arrived in Antigua by private jet and were driven up […]
Cost of Protecting Japanese Government Debt Hits Record High
February 18th, 2009Via: Reuters: The cost of protecting Japanese government debt against default has risen sharply as political uncertainty and worries about the nation’s fiscal position grew after data this week highlighted the depth of recession in the world’s second-biggest economy. Five-year credit default swaps on Japanese sovereign debt climbed to a record 130 basis points on […]
Greenspan Backs Bank Nationalisation
February 18th, 2009This wizened little troll belongs in a striped jumpsuit and handcuffs. Via: Financial Times: The US government may have to nationalise some banks on a temporary basis to fix the financial system and restore the flow of credit, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, has told the Financial Times. In an interview, Mr Greenspan, […]
Stanford Depositors Swarm Banks
February 18th, 2009Via: Reuters: Hundreds of people lined up to withdraw money from banks in Antigua and Caracas affiliated with Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, a day after the tycoon was charged with an $8 billion fraud. The brash, 58-year-old financier’s whereabouts remained unclear on Wednesday, a day after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of […]
Germany Passes Law Allowing it to Nationalize Banks
February 18th, 2009Via: Reuters: The German cabinet approved a law on Wednesday letting it nationalise banks, setting aside a reluctance to seize private property in the latest government intervention worldwide to tackle the financial crisis. Germany said it was not planning to extend the role of the state through the bill, which it described as a last […]
The New Depression: “This is the mother of all postwar crises, which has barely started and remains out of control.”
February 18th, 2009This article starts off well enough, but it goes off the rails. The problem is not “unregulated capital.” There are volumes of regulations related to capital and we don’t need an additional Soviet Ministry of Money Rules. The problem is the composition of the capital in the first place. The problem is the arbitrary ability […]
Black Hole: GM to Seek Another $30 Billion in Aid, Will Cut 47,000 Jobs
February 18th, 2009Via: AP: General Motors Corp., presenting a dire outlook for the future, said Tuesday it may need $30 billion in total government financing to weather the economic downturn and would cut 47,000 jobs worldwide and shutter five more U.S. factories in a massive restructuring plan. The automaker is already surviving on $13.4 billion in federal […]
