banks

Judging from today's open on Wall Street, it looks like that's the question people are asking. Wachovia and NCC are the two companies under the heaviest selling pressure, both down about 20% already at 9:45.Remember that National City is…

JP Morgan Chase has taken over the deposit taking subsidiary of Washington Mutual. The transaction is effective immediately, meaning it has closed. This is the biggest deal in FDIC activity yet. Note: I originally heard this story just…

When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went bust, a number of major players were stung as the value of Fannie and Freddie preferred shares plummeted. Principal amongst these players was Gateway Bank, which had a huge percentage of bank capital…

I just watched a great clip of an interview Jim Chanos, the famous head of hedge fund Kynikos Associates, did with the FT's Gillian Tett (Hat tip FT Alphaville). Chanos does a very good job of arguing hat short sellers are being unfairly…

Whenever I wade into a new topic like digital photography, gardening or what have you, I visit the local bookstore and get a "For Dummies" book to guide me. I figure that it's the best way to get up-to-speed quickly without…

By now, you have probably heard that Warren Buffett has made his bet and invested billions of dollars in Goldman Sachs. The market reacted positively and Goldman is now trading at near $133 a share (up 6% on the day). While I do see…

The U.S. and the UK are not the only countries suffering from a housing bust and a credit crisis. Ireland and Spain have had massive busts as well and it is only a matter of time before we begin to see effects on the banking sector. And…

Below are the latest major credit crisis stories from the web that I have seen. Most of these stories have more to do with raising capital, merging, and bankruptcy than writedowns. Quite honestly, I have been caught up in the bailouts so I…

Firms are being added left and right to the list of companies that cannot be sold short due to the market meltdown. GM, GE and Ford wanted in. Blackrock now has in too. If there is one feature about the new crisis protections put in…

With Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley becoming bank holding companies, the traditional U.S. investment banking model has come to an end. But it bears remembering that investment banks are highly leveraged institutions. Both Goldman…