Economy

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has put Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union into conservatorship, an institution with $1.6 billion in assets. This looks to be the busiest day for regulators since the crisis began.  4…

There is another bust in Idaho, the fourth today, at a cost of nearly $200 million on assets of only $488.9 million.  Ouch.  This is the 29th FDIC seizure in 2009. The FDIC issued the following press release about First Bank of Idaho:…

This makes three today.  Here is the California Press Release.  Note the enormous relative cost as a percentage of assets to the FDIC, which I have bolded.  No bank is taking the deposits or assets here: The Federal Deposit Insurance…

I have highlighted the area that shows the estimated cost to taxpayers below. See the FDIC website for more details: American Southern Bank, Kennesaw, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, which…

This is from the Globe & Mail: Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney is signalling frustration with the Obama administration's handling of the financial crisis, saying delays in shoring up the banking system in the United States have…

Ken Lewis, the embattled CEO of Bank of America, has recently admitted to being coerced by U.S. Government officials to consummate the Merrill Lynch acquisition. The problem for Lewis is he may have neglected his fiduciary responsibility…

I say no, he needs to get all of this out in the open and behind us.  But the Conservative Wall Street Journal's Jerry Seib makes a compelling argument that he should, using Jerry Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon as a reason.  Take a look. …

This past week, I caught an article in Wirschaftswoche (WiWo), the German Business Week, which suggested that the South Koreans were very confident about their economy and had learned from the Asian Crisis. Just today, the South Koreans…

Former President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, and former U.S. Secretary of State, George Shultz, reflect on the events surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Initial jobless claims came in above 600,000 for the 12th straight week at 640,000. Continuing claims came in at a record 6.1 million, up 3 million from this time last year. Both of these numbers suggest a very weak market and you can bet…