The Dutch-Belgian bank Fortis has come under pressure in the aftermath of the WaMu bankruptcy. With the credit markets seized up globally, weaker banks are being attacked regardless of nationality – Wachovia, NCC and CIT Group in the US, Bradford & Bingley in the UK, Macquarie in Australia, and Fortis in Benelux.
These are truly [...]

The NY Times has a story on how yesterday’s bailout deal failed. This is an insider’s tale with blow by blow detail. It is a fascinating view into how the U.S. conducts government policy. Below is a snippet from the post and a link to the full story.
One interesting facet in the matter was the [...]

Faber thinks that the U.S. needs a lot more money than the Paulson Economic Patriot Act suggests. I agree 100%. His figure is $5 trillion! That’s a lot of dosh.
Here is how he is quoted on Bloomberg:

“The $700 billion is really nothing,” Faber said in a television interview. “The treasury is just [...]

Last night, on Bloomberg TV I heard that New Zealand had become the first Asian economy to officially slip into recession. Today, I have seen the stats confirming this.
Jim O’Neill, Chief Economist at Goldman Sachs, says the chance of global recession is only 10%. I don’t see how he can believe [...]

Richard Fisher of the Dallas Fed shows that some of the Fed Presidents get it. He is now on record for saying that interest rate cuts won’t solve America’s credit crisis problems. In fact, interest rate cuts will make them much worse. If only Greenspan had felt this way, we wouldn’t be [...]

Judging from today’s open on Wall Street, it looks like that’s the question people are asking. Wachovia and NCC are the two companies under the heaviest selling pressure, both down about 20% already at 9:45.
Remember that National City is under OCC scrutiny. That is the sort of problem that led to massive deposit withdrawals [...]

I am going to do this round-up of news early because the news cycle is very fast. Top billing today is the WaMu bankruptcy and asset seizure by the FDIC and immediate asset purchase by JP Morgan Chase. Please see my synopsis here.
There is the Economic Patriot Act proposed by Hank Paulson and the [...]

JP Morgan Chase has taken over the deposit taking subsidiary of Washington Mutual. The transaction is effective immediately, meaning it has closed. This is the biggest deal in FDIC activity yet.
Note: I originally heard this story just before 9PM ET and Yves Smith at naked capitalism has her take on the news.
Obviously, this is [...]

I caught this quote via Political Wire. It reminds me of Paul Wolfowiz’s quote for why the Bush Administration used WMDs as the rationale for war in Iraq.
Some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
“It’s not based on any particular data point,” [...]

Marshall Auerback here. Ed has had a few posts on the Swedish bailout plan with which I agree. I think the main political argument (made by Bo Lundgren in yesterday’s NY Times) is that you have ZERO political legitimacy unless everybody is perceived to be making sacrifices and getting some long term benefit [...]