First, health care reform. Now, financial regulatory reform. The one strong aspect to the Obama Administration's financial regulation proposal - Consumer Financial Protection Agency is already being weakened. The Administration and Congressman Barney Frank have decided to drop the 'plain vanilla' requirement which would require financial institutions to offer simple and plain financial products to consumers.
Here is a nice compilation of articles from Ed Harrison at Naked Capitalism.
The WSJ article claims that incomes have grown for everyone. I wonder if this is really true when you factor in inflation. Also, I question the way inflation is officially calculated. The prices of electronic gadgets and other consumer items have not increased much, but it seems like the costs of housing, education, and healthcare have vastly outpaced incomes for most people.
Day traders who have 100k in their account end up trading over 60 million dollars of shares and hardly make any profits...and on top of that pay another 150k . Are you kidding me..
May those who vote for this tax or even encourage it never ever prosper...
Any new government borrowing brings the outstanding U.S. government debt closer to the $12.1 trillion limit. Tapping the FDIC’s line of credit or borrowing through the Federal Financing Bank or from private banks also would have implications for the debt limit, Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said in an interview.
The Treasury is pretending that we don't have a deficit problem, so the FDIC has to make due until the cap is lifted.
I think the U.S. government, through so many actions against the middle class, so much corruption, so much corporate welfare....has simply fueled the "starve the beast" philosophy.
Who can blame them? Who wants to give a percentage of merger earnings to taxes ...when those taxes end up...
paying for executive bonuses, when those taxes end up....giving billions to Halliburton in no-bid contracts...
when those taxes...enable the offshore outsourcing of your own job...
The problem is government has become untrustworthy to truly act, distribute funds that are truly in the national interest and public good.
"The larger worry is that we will emerge from the Great Recession as a society sharply divided between a small privileged upper class, and an underclass that lacks basic economic security. What happens then?"
Nomi Prins published an outstanding timeline some months (or perhaps a year ago) in Mother Jones detailing how the Bush Administration had worked through the O.C.C. and, utilizing a recondite section of the National Bank Act of 1863, had insured that various state governments didn't interfere with predatory lending of the banksters.
They were backed up by Standard & Poor, who threatened to lower the bond ratings of the state and local governments.
Remember, those organized crime outfits we hear about are actually no more than the local, small-time ethnic "mom & pop" shops --- it's those banksters who are the biggest and most organized of them all, and have the clout to underwrite the publishing of all those stealth cleanser books (e.g., Tett's Fool's Gold, etc.).
I'm not surprised. Nothing has changed, there hasn't been any regulation on these credit ratings agencies...they have been just trying to re-inflate all of their derivatives, continue to trade them, as if nothing has happened.
So, covering some of the testimony at the House Finance Services hearings is something we need to do.
New Frontier grew to $2 billion in assets when it failed in April from $795 million at the end of 2005. The bank used its swelling deposit base to increase lending to developers and dairy farmers in states as far away as Texas and Florida. It also made loans in Greeley, a city 60 miles north of Denver with a population of about 90,000 whose largest employer is meatpacker JBS USA, a subsidiary of JBS SA, the world’s largest beef producer.
It was regulated by Colorado's state bank regulator.
A "brokered deposits" are:
Bank deposits solicited by a third-party broker. Usually but not always deposits for some amount slightly below $100,000 so that all interest as well as principal is covered by deposit insurance. Brokers are typically paid a fee by the depository bank.
This are very transitory accounts - meaning that the account holders are typically searching for the best rate possible for deposit account and will move their business elsewhere if they find it. This coupled with more risk taking in terms of lending makes for a very volatile situation.
I was reading this article on Why Banks Are Failing? The articles mentions this example:
In 2008, ANB Financial N.A., Rogers, Ark., failed. (See www.treas.gov/inspector-general/audit-reports/2009/oig09013.pdf.) Public data show that in less than a two-year period, ANB went from being a mid-sized community bank with $600 million in total assets to a $2.2 billion institution. The bank's balance sheet showed that most of the growth into the risky construction and land development (CLD) loan segment was funded through brokered deposits.
On the surface, ANB's loan pricing of the construction and land development loans appeared favorable. Loans were often priced 300 basis points above typical real estate rates. While 300 basis points seemed opportunistic at the time, the rate charged was insufficient for the risk being assumed. A substantially higher premium, perhaps an unimaginable risk premium, would have been necessary to compensate for the lower quality asset.
Wow, $600 million to $2.2 billion and talk about underestimating risk. The main regulator of ANB was the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
It would be interesting and maybe I will start it on google spreadsheet is list all of the failed banks and list their main regulators.
It seems to me the problem is the same as usual problem, Congress is corrupt and listens to corporate lobbyists.
Even when you have good Rep's trying very hard even an entire committee is "getting it", they can't get the entire Congress to act in concert and pass reforms.
I don't know if you saw the Fed taking on executive pay, but this is a weird thing here. I'm totally against the Fed getting even more power, considering their track record...
but at the same time, seemingly you cannot jack through Congress on executive pay, whereas the Fed can do end run's on the government.
What a friggin' mess and I agree with you as well as Bernie Sanders, Dorgan, others piping up on this...if these institutions are too big to fail they are too big to exist and they should roll back GLB of 1999.
Hello Folks, come on, comment on posts, let's chat!
You all "make" the site and it seems like people are just "readin' and leavin'" lately...
let's talk about some of this stuff!
I didn't put in that code which allows you to track your conversations in the "my account" section so it can sit and gather dust.....what, do we have the "silent majority" reading the site now?
Why? Please respond if anyone knows the reason.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
First, health care reform. Now, financial regulatory reform. The one strong aspect to the Obama Administration's financial regulation proposal - Consumer Financial Protection Agency is already being weakened. The Administration and Congressman Barney Frank have decided to drop the 'plain vanilla' requirement which would require financial institutions to offer simple and plain financial products to consumers.
Here is a nice compilation of articles from Ed Harrison at Naked Capitalism.
Amazing.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
The WSJ article claims that incomes have grown for everyone. I wonder if this is really true when you factor in inflation. Also, I question the way inflation is officially calculated. The prices of electronic gadgets and other consumer items have not increased much, but it seems like the costs of housing, education, and healthcare have vastly outpaced incomes for most people.
miasmo.com
I'm glad you wrote this up. I saw it earlier, via Naked Capitalism.
I guess he is also interviewed in Michael Moore's new film.
Glad to see you, missed you "around here".
Day traders who have 100k in their account end up trading over 60 million dollars of shares and hardly make any profits...and on top of that pay another 150k . Are you kidding me..
May those who vote for this tax or even encourage it never ever prosper...
you link taxation to spending.
I was pointed towards this article.
The Treasury is pretending that we don't have a deficit problem, so the FDIC has to make due until the cap is lifted.
I think the U.S. government, through so many actions against the middle class, so much corruption, so much corporate welfare....has simply fueled the "starve the beast" philosophy.
Who can blame them? Who wants to give a percentage of merger earnings to taxes ...when those taxes end up...
paying for executive bonuses, when those taxes end up....giving billions to Halliburton in no-bid contracts...
when those taxes...enable the offshore outsourcing of your own job...
The problem is government has become untrustworthy to truly act, distribute funds that are truly in the national interest and public good.
"The larger worry is that we will emerge from the Great Recession as a society sharply divided between a small privileged upper class, and an underclass that lacks basic economic security. What happens then?"
What happens then is strong political action to abolish poverty and reduce economic inequality. Hopefully.
see The Realignment Project.
Nomi Prins published an outstanding timeline some months (or perhaps a year ago) in Mother Jones detailing how the Bush Administration had worked through the O.C.C. and, utilizing a recondite section of the National Bank Act of 1863, had insured that various state governments didn't interfere with predatory lending of the banksters.
They were backed up by Standard & Poor, who threatened to lower the bond ratings of the state and local governments.
Remember, those organized crime outfits we hear about are actually no more than the local, small-time ethnic "mom & pop" shops --- it's those banksters who are the biggest and most organized of them all, and have the clout to underwrite the publishing of all those stealth cleanser books (e.g., Tett's Fool's Gold, etc.).
This is pretty damn outrageous. Thanks for writing this. I doubt I would have known or realized otherwise.
Realpoint, LLC. They were approved by state insurance regulators.
I'm not surprised. Nothing has changed, there hasn't been any regulation on these credit ratings agencies...they have been just trying to re-inflate all of their derivatives, continue to trade them, as if nothing has happened.
So, covering some of the testimony at the House Finance Services hearings is something we need to do.
here is the list.
and should be prosecuted under the RICO Act.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
ANB and New Frontier have something in common. Their enormous growth has been traced to an explosion of "brokered deposits".
Here is some background on New Frontier
It was regulated by Colorado's state bank regulator.
A "brokered deposits" are:
This are very transitory accounts - meaning that the account holders are typically searching for the best rate possible for deposit account and will move their business elsewhere if they find it. This coupled with more risk taking in terms of lending makes for a very volatile situation.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
I was reading this article on Why Banks Are Failing? The articles mentions this example:
Wow, $600 million to $2.2 billion and talk about underestimating risk. The main regulator of ANB was the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
It would be interesting and maybe I will start it on google spreadsheet is list all of the failed banks and list their main regulators.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
It seems to me the problem is the same as usual problem, Congress is corrupt and listens to corporate lobbyists.
Even when you have good Rep's trying very hard even an entire committee is "getting it", they can't get the entire Congress to act in concert and pass reforms.
I don't know if you saw the Fed taking on executive pay, but this is a weird thing here. I'm totally against the Fed getting even more power, considering their track record...
but at the same time, seemingly you cannot jack through Congress on executive pay, whereas the Fed can do end run's on the government.
What a friggin' mess and I agree with you as well as Bernie Sanders, Dorgan, others piping up on this...if these institutions are too big to fail they are too big to exist and they should roll back GLB of 1999.
The above maps is the coincident indicators, or how things are doing right at the moment. Green is good, red is bad.
Notice how most of the states are red.
Hello Folks, come on, comment on posts, let's chat!
You all "make" the site and it seems like people are just "readin' and leavin'" lately...
let's talk about some of this stuff!
I didn't put in that code which allows you to track your conversations in the "my account" section so it can sit and gather dust.....what, do we have the "silent majority" reading the site now?
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