Economy

Earlier today I highlighted a number of banks that were under severe selling pressure in their respective home markets. This list included Fortis, Macquarie, NCC, Wachovia and CIT. The UK's Bradford & Bingley is certainly on that list…

The Dutch-Belgian bank Fortis has come under pressure in the aftermath of the WaMu bankruptcy. With the credit markets seized up globally, weaker banks are being attacked regardless of nationality - Wachovia, NCC and CIT Group in the US,…

Faber thinks that the U.S. needs a lot more money than the Paulson Economic Patriot Act suggests. I agree 100%. His figure is $5 trillion! That's a lot of dosh.Here is how he is quoted on Bloomberg:"The $700 billion is really nothing,''…

Last night, on Bloomberg TV I heard that New Zealand had become the first Asian economy to officially slip into recession. Today, I have seen the stats confirming this. Jim O'Neill, Chief Economist at Goldman Sachs, says the chance of…

Judging from today's open on Wall Street, it looks like that's the question people are asking. Wachovia and NCC are the two companies under the heaviest selling pressure, both down about 20% already at 9:45.Remember that National City is…

JP Morgan Chase has taken over the deposit taking subsidiary of Washington Mutual. The transaction is effective immediately, meaning it has closed. This is the biggest deal in FDIC activity yet. Note: I originally heard this story just…

When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went bust, a number of major players were stung as the value of Fannie and Freddie preferred shares plummeted. Principal amongst these players was Gateway Bank, which had a huge percentage of bank capital…

The interesting thing about the Paulson proposal is that it gives the U.S. Treasury carte blanche to buy any of these toxic assets at any price it chooses. This is relevant because of mark to market rules in FAS 157. I have posted a few…

Economists had expected the durable goods report for August 2008 to be weak, but the report showing durable goods orders down 4.5% was much weaker than expected.While I do believe that the United States is in recession and the durable goods…

U.S. jobless claims registered an increase to 493,000, bringing the widely followed 4-week average to 462,500, its highest level since just after 9/11. Recently, the jobless claims numbers have been creeping up indicating the labor market…