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Perot Charts is Ross Perot's attempt to reintroduce himself into politics in the US. From his standpoint, the U.S. is running an irresponsible fiscal policy that will only lead to ruin. His chart on the U.S. national debt, now over $9…

The suits are piling up. Angelo Mozilo is looking like the new Ken Lay for Washington.California's attorney general has filed a civil lawsuit alleging that Countrywide Financial Corp. engaged in deceptive advertising and unfair…

This from the National Post.The note from Blackmont analyst Brad Smith followed news late on Friday that Moody's Investors Service had downgraded XL Capital Assurance. CIBC has exposure to XL Capital since the bond insurer provides it with…

The Washington Post has a story on regional and healthy banks that I highly recommend. Essentially, we are past the first wave of writedowns and are moving into phase two where it won't be about derivatives and RMBS's as much as underlying…

I am pretty well satisfied that the subprime mess has reached its pinnacle. While there may yet be many more defaults, much of the disaster in subprime is baked into the cake. It's time to move on. But, move on to what? Most analysts say…

and cut dividend. Regionals across the country are now suffering. The second leg down for financials has truly begun. I warned on Fifth Third this past Thursday in What's happening at Fifth Third? See new story here. Update: 9:19 EDT…

European banks are still in need of time or money to recapitalise their weak balance sheets. This has to be especially worrying for UK banks as they have raised a significant amount of capital and their housing market has yet to see the…

This post is part of my chart of the day series.

Fifth Third, the Cincinnati-based regional lender, has been tanking of late. Today, it was down another 4% to close at a 12-year low. "Shares of Fifth Third Bancorp touched a 12-year low Thursday as capital concerns continued to swirl…

In April, I wondered aloud where HBOS was in this crisis in a post called "Where's HBOS?". Now, we know they are not immune to the problems infecting global finance.The Guardian has reported on the difficulty HBOS is having raising money…