Monetary System

Paul Kasriel of Northern Trust is one of the few economists to have warned about the present economic malaise. So his analysis of present events carries weight. In making recommendations about our future economic path, Kasriel leans heavily…

I watched the proceedings of the UK Treasury Committee with HBOS and RBS this morning on Bloomberg UK TV and it was a dismal sight. It had the feel of the Nuremburg trials, honestly. The clip below doesn't do justice to how tense the…

Depression is a taboo word in the English language. Its mention conjures up images of bread lines, shanty towns an general misery from the 1930's. Yet, the D-word is making a comeback amidst the backdrop of a weak global economy. In fact, a…

Marc Faber thinks it would better to nationalize the banks rather than bail them out. In his view, we are seeing special interests feeding at the trough.

The FDIC has closed another bank. This time it is FirstBank of Georgia. The bank only had $285 million in deposits, so this was no titan. Regional powerhouse Regions Financial has assumed the deposits, which is positive because last week…

I do not think General Electric is AAA company -- far from it. Their finance arm GE Capital is at the center of the private equity and asset-backed security time bombs that have yet to explode. And this makes the cash flow expected from…

In 2008, the FDIC successfully shut down 25 banks. This year it has already been six. To date, the FDIC had generally been able to find a buyer of one of the failed banks' deposits. After all, outside of IndyMac, the large majority of…

Bloomberg has a good interview from the World Economic Forum at Davos with Nouriel Roubini and Robert Shiller on the credit crisis and banking industry. The video is below. Enjoy.

In case you missed it, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have cost taxpayers tens of billions to date. The bill is still rising, however, as the two companies are looking for $50 billion more to avoid technical insolvency. Then there is…

General Electric released its earnings report, posting net income in line with analyst estimates. And the world had a big sigh of relief. In posting its earnings, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt defended his company's dividend and AAA rating.