banks

It's not 777 points, but 485 points up will have to do for anyone who is not excited about a market crash. Financials were way up today despite the fact that Paulson's Economic Patriot Act was torpedoed by Congress. Let's savour the…

For me, the most important events of late have been the European banking sector meltdown. Just last week, German officials were lecturing the UK and the U.S. about their banking systems and now we see a number of European institutions…

Update: While the Irish were following the Swedish script, it became clear to me shortly after I wrote this that the bank debt guarantees were not a good idea. This post from Willem Buiter explains it best.  Along with American and…

UPDATE 6:15 PM ET: The Dow ended down 777 points for it's largest one day loss ever. The S&P and Nasdaq were both off 9%. The futures market show even greater losses are expected tomorrow.A brutal day in the markets was made that much…

The price tag was less than one would have liked, but these are desperate times for sellers of financial assets. Lehman Brothers secured a sale of its crown jewel investment management division for $2.15 billion in a sale to private equity…

I am listening to C-Span where the House of Representatives is debating whether to pass the deeply flawed bailout bill that has been crafted on the heels of major disturbances in financial services. Unfortunately, this bill is not going to…

Wachovia Corporation has agreed to be bought out by Citigroup in a deal supported by the U.S. government. Exact terms of the deal are still forthcoming, but this could be seen as a best case scenario for a bank which was increasingly under…

UPDATE: 9:30 AM ET: This post has been updated to reflect the events surrounding Fortis. On Friday, I warned that European government officials like Peer Steinbrück of Germany should refrain from chastising the U.S. and the U.K. over…

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,…