capital

Today, Swedbank, a Swedish bank with huge Baltic loan loss exposure, surprised investors with a second rights issue in less than a year.  In going to investors for more money, the company said its doing so in a fully underwritten deal…

Fannie Mae has the luxury of marking its accounts more accurately because they have no fear of being nationalized or going bust since they already have hit the wall.  So, when we read the latest quarterly results from Fannie Mae, we are not…

Germany never participated in the upswing of the housing bubble. This fact has led German politicians of all stripes to mistakenly believe their banking system was somehow immune to the problems infecting bubble markets like the US or…

This just hit the wires. NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT), a leading provider of financing to small businesses and middle market companies, today announced that it entered into a $3 billion loan facility provided by a…

Yesterday, I argued that allowing banks to repay TARP funds meant a continuation of overcapacity in financial services, which was a direct contributor to the credit crisis through its dampening impact on unlevered returns.  Some of the…

If you thought the bailout of too big to fail institutions was a massive gift from taxpayers to captains of Wall Street, the news that TARP funds are being repaid should confirm your beliefs.  Just today the U.S. Treasury has agreed to…

This is an interview in five parts via Morningstar on May 28th with the one-time reputed perma-bear Jeremy Grantham who has been sounding much more bullish of late (in a bear-market rally kind of way). Definitely worth a look. The five…

This e-mail came to my inbox from the FDIC last night: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced today the approval of GMAC Financial Services to participate in the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP) allowing…

I was heading to dinner with Marshall Auerback when the news of the BankUnited bust came into my inbox. I see this as fairly big new for what it represents. We are witnessing a sea change in how FDIC seizures are done here with private…

I forgot to add this to my links.  Very funny Saturday Night Live clip spoofing Timothy Geithner.