Life in the Empire
The Collapse
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Permalink Reply by curt on
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yip, bad link.
Why did I wait so long? Stupid move as I see when I go through your other stuff, Stone.
"Chicken Little, cock-eyed optimist"
Very refreshing, almost soothing to read and discover another one exists.
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Permalink Reply by littleoldme on
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FDIC: 117 troubled banks, highest level since 2003
By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer
18 HOURS AGO
WASHINGTON - The number of troubled U.S. banks leaped to the highest level in about five years and bank profits plunged by 86 percent in the second quarter, as slumps in the housing and credit markets continued.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data released Tuesday show 117 banks and thrifts were considered to be in trouble in the second quarter, up from 90 in the prior quarter and the biggest tally since mid-2003.
The FDIC also said that federally-insured banks and savings institutions earned $5 billion in the April-June period, down from $36.8 billion a year earlier. The roughly 8,500 banks and thrifts also set aside a record $50.2 billion to cover losses from soured mortgages and other loans in the second quarter.
"Quite frankly, the results were pretty dismal," FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said at a news conference, but they were not surprising given the housing slump, a worsening economy, and disruptions in financial and credit markets.
The majority of U.S. banks "will be able to weather" the economic and housing storms, with 98 percent of them still holding adequate capital by the regulators' standards, Bair said.
Total assets of troubled banks jumped from $26 billion to $78 billion in the second quarter, the FDIC said, with $32 billion of the increase coming from IndyMac Bank, which failed in July _ the biggest regulated thrift to fail in the United States.
"More banks will come on the (troubled) list as credit problems worsen," Bair said. "Assets of problem institutions also will continue to rise."
Nine FDIC-insured banks have failed so far this year, compared with three in all of 2007. More banks are in danger of collapsing this year, Bair and other FDIC officials said, and they expect turbulence in the banking industry to continue well into next year.
IndyMac's failure and others in the quarter reduced the federal deposit insurance fund from $53 billion to $45 billion. Bair said the agency will raise insurance premiums paid by banks and thrifts to replenish its reserve fund and bolster depositors' confidence.
The $50.2 billion set aside to cover loan losses in the April-June period was four times the $11.4 billion the banking industry salted away a year earlier. Nearly a third of the industry's net operating revenue went into building up reserves against losses in the latest quarter, according to the FDIC.
Except for the fourth quarter of 2007, the earnings reported Tuesday were the lowest for the banking industry since the final quarter of 1991, the agency said.
Concern has been growing over the solvency of some banks amid the housing slump and the steep slide in the mortgage market. The pressures of tighter credit, tumbling home prices and rising foreclosures have been battering banks of all sizes nationwide.
The FDIC has been keeping an especially close eye on banks and thrifts with high levels of exposure to the riskiest borrowers and markets, agency officials say, including subprime mortgages and construction loans in overbuilt areas.
Another area of potential concern: banks' holdings of preferred stock of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A government rescue of the companies, whose share prices have rebounded a bit this week after plummeting recently as they struggle with billions of dollars in losses from bad mortgages, could be costly for scores of banks that hold billions in their preferred shares.
"We're closely monitoring that situation," Bair said.
The FDIC said troubled assets _ loans that are 90 or more days past due _ continued to rise in the second quarter, jumping by $26.7 billion, or 19.6 percent, over the first quarter. It was the first time since 1993 that the percentage of total loans that were troubled broke 2 percent, at 2.04 percent.
The agency doesn't disclose the names of institutions on its internal list of troubled banks. On average, 13 percent of banks that make the list fail.
Pasadena, Calif.-based IndyMac was taken over by the FDIC on July 11 with about $32 billion in assets and deposits of $19 billion. It was the second-largest financial institution to close in U.S. history, after Continental Illinois National Bank in 1984.
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Permalink Reply by BO on
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And now that Fanny and Freddy have been bailed out, thanks be that at least one person has gotten the correct message out...
US Is "More Communist than China": Jim Rogers
"America is more communist than China is right now. You can see that this is welfare of the rich, it is socialism for the rich... it's just bailing out financial institutions," Rogers said."
"This is madness, this is insanity, they have more than doubled the American national debt in one weekend for a bunch of crooks and incompetents. I'm not quite sure why I or anybody else should be paying for this," Rogers told "Squawk Box Europe."
We shouldn't. This is robbery...pure and simple. Welcome to the kleptocracy.
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Well, I'm not sure if you guys are as fascinated by what's happening in the global financial markets as I am, hell, maybe that's where y'all have been--standing in line at the bank--but man, the shit is flying now. I' coulda predicted the housing crash would bring about a lengthy recession, but frankly, I didn't have a clue that so many banks were gonna crash because of all the bad loans and leveraged positions. And some say this is only the third inning. And the US treasury is already almost broke. Sheeee....it.
Is the US too big to fail? Who's gonna bail us out? Is there a reset button, or does everyone agree to start over....fresh? If so, will we have to pay back our mortgages?
What happens when the 'doom and gloomers' turn out to be optimists?
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Permalink Reply by Mouse on
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You sound surprised, Bo. We had Naomi Klein on the news tonight. They behaved as though she was an extremist, she spoke very clearly. It was nice to see someone I respect on the television.
It's happening faster here, the house prices as falling faster here than they did over there to begin with, so we're catching up quickly.
Just as the nastiness begins to bite those who are already at the bottom of the ladder here, in my neighbourhood of mainly social housing; the two buildings where people meet are to be closed.
There's a town council meeting I mustn't go to tomorrow. Tell me not to go. Don't go. All I would do is rant about preparing for a crisis in public health this winter, and I have soup kitchens in my mind, and visions of cold children with horribly inadequate diets and nasty new pathogens. And I'd probably be asked to leave and would never want to go to town again. They're more likely to put such thoughts aside if they see me spouting forth, that's the shame of it.
A kleptocratic government often goes beyond mere cronyism and nepotism, or awarding the prime contracts and civil service posts to relatives or personal friends rather than the most competent applicants. They also create projects and programs at a policy level which serve the primary purpose of funneling money out of the treasury and into the pockets of the executive with little if any regard for the logic, viability or necessity of those projects.
We're leaders in the field I'd say, over here in England.
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Shooting the messenger is popular these days. I say, 'fook 'em'. Everyone has the right to express their concerns in a public forum.
It's the media whore in me that makes me say this, but presentation skills do help. It's up to you to gage the receptivity of your audience and make your message palatable. Don't use a hammer. Use humor and irony when you can. Be humble and try not to project anger.
That said, if that doesn't work, you might bring a gun. Hold 'em all hostage until they can recite your points from memory.
Nevermind. Maybe you shouldn't go.
OK, don't go!
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Permalink Reply by pan on
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As Louis Horst told Martha Graham - the more revolutionary the message, the more conservative the package has to be. The Status Quo doesn't want to be upset. It is only in small increments - or after they have been personally hit with reality - that they are going to be willing to question the Myth that they have trusted most of their lives.
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I agree with Bo
and I ain't no media 'ho.
you really oughta know
that you mustn't, mustn't go.
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I agree, do not go. Stay home, stay safe and prepare. They are not going to want to hear your message. They still have their heads collectively stuffed up their respective bums, and will keep them there until the shit really hits their personal fans.
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Thought you ought to see this Mouse...
"A new study out of Yale University confirms what argumentative liberals have long-known: Offering reality-based rebuttals to conservative lies only makes conservatives cling to those lies even harder. In essence, schooling conservatives makes them more stupid. From the Washington Post article on the study, which came out yesterday: The Power of Political Misinformation"
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Roland Barthes 1957 collection of essays Mythologies describes this phenomena. Myth, as ideological construct, is not based in fact and therefore cannot be extinguished by fact. In other words, the masses are not members of the Reality based community.
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Permalink Reply by Cal on
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Hoo boy ... I am caught right in the middle of all this financial 'stuff' ... it's happening here too. I have had to buy a house in a new town for new job (couldn't find anything to rent that would fit me and 4 canines) and can't sell my current house here ... now proud owner of two mortgage bonds. Everyone says things will pick up in 2 years time & I'll be ok ... but I can't see things picking up ... doesn't strike me as a short term crisis we are dealing with. Not sleeping too well at night.....
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