Monetary System

Given my recent prediction for a positive GDP number in Q2 for the U.S. and after another positive number from Q1, how could I maintain that the U.S. is in recession?It's simple. The commonly-held version of recession is misguided. Most…

1st National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank, operating in Nevada, Arizona and California were taken over by the FDIC on Friday. They always wait until Friday night to do their business. This marks the first FDIC closure action…

The lawsuits are piling up. America is a very litigious country and when things go wrong people sue. That's one reason one should realistically expect the courts to be clogged with all manner of suits on bond insurance, auction rate…

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the housing bailout bill helping troubled mortgage borrowers, but also giving the U.S. Treasury Department a blank check to support Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The New York Times describes it…

This reporting season, there have been some major, major writedowns from the likes of WaMu, Citi, Merrill, and Wachovia. Most analysts see this quarter as the last quarter of major writedowns from the credit crisis. Haven't we heard that…

As the downturn gathers steam, lawsuits against financial firms are going to rise. Below is the latest in lawsuits. The associated WSJ article is available only to subscribers.New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is preparing to…

Recently, the SEC restricted short selling on a list of 19 stocks because of turmoil following the Fannie-Freddie worries last week. In effect, the SEC was signaling that these institutions are too big to fail because a number of these…

In the aftermath of the Meltdown of the GSEs and the heavy-handed regulatory solution used to stem the tide, regional banks are in focus for investors as they stand to the take the brunt of short-selling. Financial services bears know full…

My last two posts may leave the impression that I believe inflation to be the greatest concern facing the global economy. I certainly believe it is a problem but not the primary one. Deflation is the looming concern and much more…

Now that Friday has come to an end in the UK, we can give a post-mortem to the UK capital raising campaigns from Bradford & Bingley, HBOS and Barclays.Bradford & Bingley shareholders have approved the bank's £400m rights issue at…