It seems that not a day goes by when you don’t hear about some asset sale in Citigroup’s far-flung empire. Of all the major too-big-to-fail institutions, it is easily the most troubled: the poster child for everything that is wrong in finance in America.
But, when President Obama’s Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg stepped in to [...]

In the months since I began this website, I have had some fairly harsh things to say about economic policy in the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere. I have consistently condemned what I think is a captured government promoting an unstable financial system and a bloated financial sector. But, I have made a conscious effort [...]

Remember the iconic Depression-era movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, in which Jimmy Stewart plays the wholesome young man in Washington out to do good? Well, Mr. Smith could just as easily have been your friendly banker at Washington Mutual. Unfortunately, Mr. Smith lost his way and turned predatory lender – and that’s the subject [...]

I just came across a post on Zero Hedge called “An Overview Of The Fed’s Intervention In Equity Markets Via The Primary Dealer Credit Facility.” Now, that’s a mouthful. As far as I can discern, the post’s purpose is to expose alleged equities market manipulation by the Federal Reserve. However, I found the argument rather [...]

The casino is open for business.

The Seattle Times has a must-read piece on Washington Mutual today which reveals a lot of the fine detail on how the company was run and what led to its demise (hat tip calculated Risk).
As with many of the other busted financial giants like Northern Rock and Lehman Brothers, indications that something was amiss were [...]

This is my translation of a Dutch-language article which appeared today in Belgian daily De Tijd. Let’s see if this news is picked up in the U.S.
Citibank Belgium never should have recommended the controversial Lehman Brothers investments to its customers. So states the writ of the Brussels public prosecutor on the case.
The collapse of Lehman [...]

A sign that the commercial real estate (CRE) market continues to cause headaches comes this weekend in the form of news of Capmark Financial’s imminent demise. Capmark is one of America’s largest commercial property lenders with about $10 billion in assets.
The New York Times’ Dealbook reports:
The Capmark Financial Group, the big commercial real estate finance [...]

This contribution from Daniel Berger is a letter to Michael Smerconish in response to a commentary Smerconish wrote on 10 May 2009 in the Philadelphia Inquirer “Head Strong: Did Hollywood inspire the meltdown men?” A shorter version of Berger’s piece appeared at New Deal 2.0 in July.
Given my recent two posts on greed (“More on [...]

This is the biggest weekend for FDIC seizures yet. Seven banks have been shut down.
Below is the list of banks.
Partners Bank, Naples, Florida (Stonegate assumes assets)

As of September 30, 2009, Partners Bank had total assets of $65.5 million and total deposits of approximately $64.9 million. Stonegate Bank did not pay the FDIC a premium for [...]