banks

From the National Post: American Express Co., the largest U.S. credit-card company by purchases, is paying some cardholders US$300 each to close accounts so the lender can reduce the risk of defaults as the recession deepens. People who…

UPDATE: This is another re-post given the huge bailout just administered to AIG. I am coming out in favor of nationalization in the United States. The efforts to fix the banking system to date have failed. As a result, America is still…

Everybody is talking about nationalization. The latest trigger is the Citi discussions with the U.S. government to convert taxpayers' preferred shares into common equity. Below are a few Bloomberg video clips from just this morning…

This news is just in from the Wall Street Journal. Obviously, all of the activity we have seen with Citi's foreign subsidiaries of late has been in preparation for sale or nationalization. I expect this to be the big news when markets…

Naked Capitalism's Yves Smith was on Fast Money at CNBC yesterday. She made a number of good points regarding the discussion on nationalization. One that particularly resonated with me was her assertion that the United States is…

An ugly day in the markets has just ended with the financial services sector taking a beating in particular. Many shares in the sector trade for under $10. Bottom fishers might see this as a buying opportunity. Is it?

There is quite a buzz in the German press about Hypo Real Estate. But, what should really get oe's attention is its massive off-balance sheet exposures (hat tip Ulrich). The long and short of reports is that Hypo Real Estate has assets…

It is not just Eastern Europe and Switzerland where problems are popping up. This from the Berlingske Tidene, a Danish daily:

Meredith Whitney, the well-known former Oppenheimer analyst had some interesting words to say on CNBC about the banking sector, nationalization, dividends and Citigroup. Take a look.