FDIC Chairperson Sheila Bair indicated today (May 15, 2009) in a Bloomberg TV interview that mismanagement by bank executives and their boards of directors will come under the scrutiny of bank regulators as they try to repair the U.S. financial system.
The fact that government regulators are frimly in control of capital markets is true not only in the U.S., but in fact that reality is de pase in most other developed markets around the world.
Once again, comics and the artisans of comedy are the best truth-tellers. The Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart proved brialliant earlier this year in calling-out CNBC’s so-called “ahead of the curve” financial “news” personalities for their abscense of accountability in the lede up to the banking crisis and the global economic crisis that followed. Now, Saturday Night Live (SNL) deadpanned U.S. […]
In global markets around the world, the free market is being challenged by the rise of ‘State Capitalism’ — a system in which the state through regulatory reforms to check the excesses of greed & volatility becomes the leading economic actor. With the Feds set to announce the outcome of the bank stress tests this week, the ‘nationalization’ of U.S. banks, in some form, seems inevitable. Is state capitalism the future of 21st-century capitalism?
Gary Shilling on Bloomberg: bank stress test analysis. According to reports from the New York Times (NYT) here, and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) here, the Federal Reserve with the backing of the U.S. Treasury, directed at least ten of 19 of the nation’s largest banks to bolster their balance sheet capital ratio levels by $75 […]
Ten of 19 of the nation’s largest banks failed the Fed stress test, and will require more capital or face the possibility of insolvency or receivership (i.e., ‘Nationalization’).
Africa is on the move. Here are a few facts from this terrific website you won’t hear about from the mainstream media or foreign aid workers who peddle Africa as perpetually dependent or in crisis.
Results of bank stress tests by the government are due this Thursday, May 7. According to the most recent reports about pending results of the Federal Reserves “stress test” to determine the soundness (or lack thereof) of bank balance sheets, at least six of the 19 largest U.S. banks will require additional capital. In particular, analysts note, two of the largest […]
Africa’s colonial history, present state of being and promising future is the subject of a new book, Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles. African journalist and author Richard Dowden discusses his book, which focuses on sub-Saharan Africa. He also weighs in on the “Frontier” Markets, Trade and foreign investment opportunities in African nations such as Nigeria and Ghana, among others; as well as the political climate in nations, such as Zimbabwe.
No one, including British economist John Williamson himself, could have predicted the viral-like application of one of his own political theories when he first introduced the term “Washington Consensus” in 1989. What was once simply applied to a grouping of commonly shared “policy instruments” used by Washington-based financial institutions like the IMF, World Bank […]
According to developing reports, six of the nation’s largest banks have failed the Federal ‘Stress test’ and may require additional capital to remain in business. The Gov’t rather than giving more bailout aid is considering converting Preferred shares into common equity shares, thereby effectively “Nationaling” the banks by making the Federal government the largest single shareholder in each company.
Domestic & Global Economic impact of the Swine Flu pandemic, and links to helpful resources.
I found the coverage of this item by the New York Times (NYT) of real interest, and amazingly reminiscent of a post I wrote several days ago about the emergence of America’s ‘New Oligarchs’ — the ‘Titans of Wall Street’. Now, it appears, U.S. Treasury Secretary and former New York Federal Reserve Bank President, Timothy F. Geithner, […]
America’s unique ‘national character‘ — the common underlying values and patterns of thought that gives our nation its “flavor” — is under assault as we re-think what we, as a nation, think about the use of torture; the role of government (the ‘Good guys’) in our lives and the social security it provides; the nature of 21st-century […]
I call them the ‘Titans of Wall Street,’ others refer to them as the ‘Lords of Finance,’ and there are books outlining their pillaging exploits. Either way, they amount to the same thing when this phenomena occurs in Russia, India, China, Argentina or late 19th-century Victorian England — we are now, in America, living in a Plutocracy, and the […]