Archive for May 8th, 2009

Friday Failures

Only one bank seizure this week. Evidently the regulators were “stressed” out. Here is the link. Westsound Bank, Bremerton, Washington

There’s Nothing Wrong With Regulators Negotiating

The fact that the banks negotiated with the regulators over the results of the stress tests is likely to incite considerable negative discussion this weekend. Don’t get too carried away with what you read. First, here is part of what the WSJ is reporting: The Federal Reserve significantly scaled back the size of the capital hole […]

Chryslers’ Dissident Creditors Give Up

The dissident Chrysler creditors have thrown in the towel and basically cleared the way for the government scripted bankruptcy outcome. From Reuters: A group of Chrysler LLC’s dissident lenders disbanded, representatives said on Friday, removing the last legal hurdle to the automaker’s quest to complete a merger with Italy’s Fiat SpA with U.S. government backing. […]

Investors Snap Up New Bank Equity

Yikes, that didn’t take long. We knew last night that Wells and Morgan Stanley were moving ahead with bolstering their capital. They did so in spades today. Wells had planned to issue $7.5 billion of stock and ended up selling $8.6 billion today. Morgan Stanley sold $4 billion of equity and raised another $4 billion […]

Fannie Posts A Big Loss: Did Anyone Notice?

It’s indicative of the times we live in that Fannie Mae can announce a loss of $23.17 billion for the first quarter of the year and not even cause a stir. Oh, as an aside, they need an infusion of $19 billion from the Treasury. Continuing losses from Alt-A and subprmine loans as well as […]

How To Repay TARP

Goldman is agitating to pay back its TARP funds once again but say they don’t know when they will be allowed to do so. Well the rules are out and here is the relevant section from Fox News:   Under the original terms of the CPP, banks were prohibited from repaying within the first three […]

April Jobs Numbers: Grim But Not Getting Worse

The April employment numbers are out and somewhat more positive although the underlying data is only marginally better. The headline number, the unemployment rate, rose to 8.9% for April versus 8.5% for March. Overall, employers cut 539,000 jobs in April. A rise in government jobs, up 72,000, helped the overall picture. Private sector job cuts […]