It looks like some regional and smaller banks weren’t so immune to problems stemming from securities as conventional wisdom has been suggesting. You have probably heard that the problems with the smaller banks is tied to bad loans not exotic derivatives. In general, this is probably true, but there is a subset of banks that […]
Archive for August 20th, 2009
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FDIC Looks To Private Equity To Help Clean Up The Banking Mess
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 20th, 2009
Although they won’t vote on the final rules until next Wednesday, the FDIC provisions for private equity acquisitions of banks are leaking out. As expected, the government stared the PE guys in the eyes and blinked. According to the WSJ, the agency will soften the amount of capital that a bank owned by PE must […]
The Regulators Overlooked The Basics
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 20th, 2009
An excellent article by Floyd Norris in the New York Times today. He points out that banks are failing at an alarming rate not because of exotic derivative investments but simply because they made bad loans. Banks are now losing money and going broke the old-fashioned way: They made loans that will never be repaid. […]
Fifty Little Hoovers – Not
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 20th, 2009
Much has been made of the fact that state and local governments were blunting the impact of federal stimulus by raising taxes and cutting employment. Paul Krugman refers to them as “fifty little Hoovers.” Well, a report in the New York Times at least partially refutes this meme. From the Times: While the private sector […]
How To Interpret Mid-Season Budget Numbers
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 20th, 2009
Next Tuesday is going to be a big economics day. The Obama administration and the Congressional Budget Office will each release their mid-season review of the budget. The most watched number is going to be the projections for this year’s deficit. The administration has already leaked the news that it expects it to be about […]
Good News For Manufacturing Not So Much So For The Consumer
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 20th, 2009
The summer economic meme seems to be improvement in manufacturing, no good news on real estate and bouncing along the bottom for employment. Economic Gauges The Philly Fed said that its index rose to 4.2 in August from a negative 7.5 in July. That’s the highest reading since November 2007. All of the sub-indexes were […]
