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Browsing Category
Monetary System
WaMu: Mr. Smith goes to Washington and turns predatory
Remember the iconic Depression-era movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, in which Jimmy Stewart plays the wholesome young man in Washington out to do good? Well, Mr. Smith could just as easily have been your friendly banker at Washington…
Why is Zero Hedge claiming the Fed is intervening in equities markets?
I just came across a post on Zero Hedge called “An Overview Of The Fed's Intervention In Equity Markets Via The Primary Dealer Credit Facility.” Now, that’s a mouthful. As far as I can discern, the post’s purpose is to expose alleged…
Anecdotes on reckless lending at WaMu from the Seattle Times
The Seattle Times has a must-read piece on Washington Mutual today which reveals a lot of the fine detail on how the company was run and what led to its demise (hat tip calculated Risk). As with many of the other busted financial giants…
Citibank Belgium to pay ‘duped’ savers 128mn for bad Lehman deal
This is my translation of a Dutch-language article which appeared today in Belgian daily De Tijd. Let’s see if this news is picked up in the U.S. Citibank Belgium never should have recommended the controversial Lehman Brothers…
CRE: GMAC-related Capmark Financial near bankruptcy
A sign that the commercial real estate (CRE) market continues to cause headaches comes this weekend in the form of news of Capmark Financial’s imminent demise. Capmark is one of America’s largest commercial property lenders with about $10…
Did Gordon Gekko inspire Wall Street or the other way around?
This contribution from Daniel Berger is a letter to Michael Smerconish in response to a commentary Smerconish wrote on 10 May 2009 in the Philadelphia Inquirer “Head Strong: Did Hollywood inspire the meltdown men?” A shorter version of…
Seven banks seized by FDIC
This is the biggest weekend for FDIC seizures yet. Seven banks have been shut down. Below is the list of banks. Partners Bank, Naples, Florida (Stonegate assumes assets) As of September 30, 2009, Partners Bank had total assets of…
Why do bankers make so much money?
The following post is a re-post from Rick Bookstaber’s blog. Bookstaber is a market veteran who has long and storied history of achievement. He worked at Bridgewater Associates, ran the Quantitative Equity Fund at FrontPoint Partners and…
How much money is Wells Fargo really making?
The positive earnings announcement by Wells Fargo on Wednesday was marred by a sell recommendation from Dick Bove and a lot of chatter about credit writedowns and mortgage servicing rights (MSRs). I wanted to add a few words about the…