Economy

European banks are still in need of time or money to recapitalise their weak balance sheets. This has to be especially worrying for UK banks as they have raised a significant amount of capital and their housing market has yet to see the…

The Globe & Mail has a storyline out today that caught my eye. It suggests that Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) would find some god takeover opportunities in the US. While I dismissed a similar storyline regarding UBS in Europe from the…

That's what Sir Howard Davies, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England (BoE), has to say.

Inflation is clearly still a problem. The CPI for May 2008 was released by the BLS today showing consumer inflation rising at a 4.2% rate y-o-y, unadjusted for seasonal factors. This is either good news or bad news, depending on how you…

Ben Bernanke claims to be an expert student of the Great Depression and its causes. Therefore, many feel comforted that he knows what to do should in order to avert a repeat of 1929. But does he know how to prevent a repeat of the Japanese…

Yesterday, I posted a blog entry detailing how Stephen Roach sees inflation as a concern, not because of food and oil, but because of Asian manufacturers. I find his argument compelling. Don't get me wrong, I think deflation is the…

This morning, I posted a blog entry regarding KeyCorp's wise decision to cut its dividend and to raise capital. They paid the price in the market today, sinking to a 17-year low below $12.00 a share and down 24% on the day. Shares of…

Fifth Third, the Cincinnati-based regional lender, has been tanking of late. Today, it was down another 4% to close at a 12-year low. "Shares of Fifth Third Bancorp touched a 12-year low Thursday as capital concerns continued to swirl…

Stephen Roach is one of the best financial commentators in the business. In the aftermath of the bubble in the late 1990s, as Chief Economist of Morgan Stanley, he was quite bearish and warned of the downside risks for the global economy.…

The latest move by a regional bank comes from KeyCorp, based in Cleveland. In order to preserve capital ahead of the impending troubles headed for the regionals, KeyCorp has taken the prudent step of both raising capital and cutting its…