Credit is still tight despite the low Libor rates and other signs that market stress has died down. Case and point is an item I ran across on the Norwegian site E24. Apparently, Amsterdam is losing revenue as its prostitutes in the red light district cannot get credit.  Here is my translation of the story: [...]

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In case you missed it, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was on Capitol Hill this morning making his case in regards to the Bank of America – Merrill Lynch deal.  The Chairman stated in unequivocal terms that he did not pressure anyone.  Rather, he stated that he cautioned Ken Lewis about the prudence of invoking [...]

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Just last week, we saw a parade of banks exiting the dreaded TARP program set up last year by the U.S. government and used to temporarily recapitalize the U.S. banking system.  The banks were able to do so in no small measure because of the unrealistically rosy scenarios in the stress tests used to determine [...]

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I am not the only one who sees events in Latvia as a potential catalyst for further downside risk to the reflation trade.  Mary Stokes over at Nouriel Roubini’s site has a very readable post out on why we should be watching events in that tiny Baltic nation for potential signs of contagion elsewhere.  She [...]

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If you thought the bailout of too big to fail institutions was a massive gift from taxpayers to captains of Wall Street, the news that TARP funds are being repaid should confirm your beliefs.  Just today the U.S. Treasury has agreed to allow 10 financial institutions to repay TARP funds they received last October after [...]

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Charlie Rose’s site says of this video clip:

A conversation about Bear Sterns and the economic crisis with Kate Kelly, author of “Street Fighters: The Last 72 Hours of Bear Stearns, the Toughest Firm on Wall Street” and William D. Cohan, author of “House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street”… [...]

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This is the assessment of den Danske Bank as reported by Edward Hugh.  The last time I mentioned the Baltics was on May 12th in my post “A bearish view on Eastern Europe.”  I ended saying the Scandinavian banks’ exposure to the Baltics is just as worrying and should be the place to watch before [...]

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Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis is fighting to keep his job because earnings at his company have plummeted. BofA’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch has been a large part of the problem.  Now, understanding that he is being made out to be the fall guy, he has fessed up that BofA was coerced into the [...]

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Irrespective of whether one thinks the stress tests used to test the U.S. banking system is a sham (10% unemployment is not a worst-case scenario), the fact of the matter is these tests MUST show some differentiation in order to be credible.  Vincent Reinhart, a former Fed official now at the AEI, makes this case [...]

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Paul McCulley of PIMCO made a few comments back in March which caught my attention.  Given how well banks are doing this earnings season, I thought it relevant to quote him here.  The essence of his remarks was this:

Deleveraging is a self-reinforcing vicious cycle brought upon by the Paradox of Thrift.  In order to stop [...]

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