banks

Today, I want to make the case for seeing writedowns as central to this global downturn. To do so, we need to rewind and compare what is going on today with what we have experienced in the past. Drawing on this comparison, I can…

Marshall Auerback here. I have a few thoughts about AIG and what it means politically and for American banks. The episode may have already made it much harder to get any support in Congress for bailing out more banks in the future. The…

While most people have their attention tuned to the spectacle over at AIG, financial institutions in Europe are having their own difficulties. In the last day, I have seen news stories of European banks looking for ways to raise capital in…

This is a post I wrote last week on naked capitalism. In any banking crisis, the central question always is: which financial institutions now operating are insolvent, how can we identify them and remove them from the system, and how can…

With the shadow banking system of hedge funds and non-bank financial institutions in shambles and the banking system's credit shrinking, U.S. government officials are desperate to get credit into the system any way they can. A key part of…

An article in the FT caught our eye that makes plain that the TALF (Term Asset Security Program) is a bailout for the shadow banking system (HT Tom). The bailouts for the banking industry continue unabated despite a change in Administration…

Back on March 6th, I noted that the nationalized insurance company AIG had settled Credit Default Swaps contracts with a number of counterparties at the top of the market. In effect, AIG was offering a hidden subsidy to its counterparties…

Last summer, as a number of sinister revelations were made about the goings-on in the financial services sector, I speculated that we would definitely see the government going after individual executives for illegal activities. I saw…

The goings on down under are not getting that much play in the press outside of Oz. But, Babcock & Brown, Australia's second-largest investment bank has just gone under.

Everyone is talking about marking to market as if its elimination is a silver bullet. So far as the economics goes, I am not sure that mark to market is such a big deal. The whole point of the banks is to make loans and hold them. Look at…