Economy

The Absolute Return Letter March 2009 "Many of today's policy proposals start from the view that "greed" and "incompetence" and "poor risk assessment" are the ultimate source of what went wrong. In fact, they were not the true cause at…

Oppenheimer has a research note out today that calls Tim Geithner an "evil genius." The genius moniker comes from the steady creep up the capital structure, giving Geithner access to huge pools of money as the Treasury dials for dollars.…

Banks do not have enough tangible common equity to make the grade on Tim Geithner's stress tests. That means the government will have to step in and bail them out. I will call this creeping nationalization. Paul Miller of FBR Capital…

Predictions that the savings rate would increase as the Depression in America took hold are coming true. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the savings rate in the U.S. hit 5%.

A massive $61.7 billion loss for AIG - that is the quarterly loss for the insurance giant, a record for the world. That comes to a loss of $465 $465,000 every minute of every day in that quarter. The full-year loss comes in over $100…

This is in via Reuters: American International Group Inc is close to a deal with the U.S. government that would ease the terms of its bailout, provide a further equity commitment and help it pay down debt, a person familiar with the matter…

This news comes via Reuters: Bank of America Corp is carrying loans on its balance sheet marked at more than $44 billion above their fair value, the company said in its annual report filed with U.S. regulators on Friday. The bank said it…

Two more Friday night specials - story via Reuters U.S. regulators closed Security Savings Bank in Henderson, Nevada, and Heritage Community Bank in Glenwood, Illinois, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said on Friday. Heritage,…

Now GE has finally cut, but will they be able to maintain their AAA rating?

The big news other than GDP falling off a cliff is the confirmation that the Obama Administration is going to bail out Citigroup for a third time.  The market reaction this morning was quite negative, causing index futures to sell off even…