deleveraging

Troubled regional Financial Fifth Third is looking to sell assets along with cutting its dividend and raising capital in order to shore up its balance sheet. The company announced it was looking into asset sales when it announced its…

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…

The world has experienced three periods of extreme financial dislocation in the past century, 1929, 1973, and 1990. Two of these have been deflationary. While most observers have their eyes firmly peeled on 1973 and its aftermath, 1929 and…

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…

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…

Michael Panzner has a good post on his site about regional banks being the next front in the Credit Crisis. He mentions home equity lines (HELOCs) as a crucial piece there, referring to an article in the Financial Times. His blog entry…

The bad news in the financial sector keeps coming. Today, the news is about National City, a Cleveland-based regional bank in the US. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has put Nat…

Mish over at the Global Economic Trend Analysis caught a story in the FT about the possibility of banks being forced to put $5 trillion back on their balance sheets.The FT article says:Accounting changes could force U.S. banks to take…

Yesterday, in a post entitled "De-leveraging," I argued that credit writedowns and the resulting deleveraging are highly deflationary. This is the core of the problem with the global financial system. I want to expand a bit on that…