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And you thought the bailouts were over and market discipline might be restored.  Not a chance – the bailouts will continue, come hell or high water. The latest demonstration of this is GMAC, where the government will now be majority owner. GMAC has officially been nationalized. Now the government is running auto financing in addition [...]

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This is a post I wrote in response to an ongoing debate about financial crises, credit revulsion and deficit spending over at Naked Capitallism. See the four links in the first paragraph for the precursor articles.
DoctoRx, Rob Parenteau and Marshall Auerback have each written articles here to bring clarity to some issues I first raised [...]

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In one of my latest posts I said “greed is not good.” Quite frankly, I looked at this statement as self-evident in the wake of an economic catastrophe where greed was a defining element.  Yet, a remarkable number of people commented in defense of greed; they seem to believe greed is a good thing. So, [...]

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Kyle, a long-time reader, recently asked why I think mark-to-market accounting actually matters.  After alI, savvy investors know that accounting does not necessarily change cash flows.  I think his question has a lot to do with not just accounting, but also with the stress tests.
Kyle writes:
My point is that it has really NOT changed, and [...]

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I forgot to add this to my links.  Very funny Saturday Night Live clip spoofing Timothy Geithner.  See the link here.

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I found this story and video of Bill Black on Tech Ticker (hat tip Larry Doyle). Basically, Black thinks the stress tests were a joke, a common theme heard from those in the know. Listen to what he says about a really difficult stress test we gave Fannie Mac ten years ago.
Results of [...]

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In case you missed it, this is Tim Geithner talking stress tests this past Wednesday on Charlie Rose.

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In the CNBC video below, Ken Lewis defends his company’s performance on the stress test and answers some pointed questions in the John Thain – Ben Bernanke – Ken Lewis – Hank Paulson he said she said match.  He also details how Bank of America plans to raise the $34 billion in capital to deal [...]

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This came to me in my inbox seconds ago:
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman Sheila C. Bair today commented on the release of the results of the Capital Assessment Program.
Chairman Bair said: "I want to commend the Federal Reserve for leading the stress assessment exercise and believe that this effort will serve to strengthen the [...]

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If you haven’t noticed, the Treasury department seems to be leaking the results of the stress tests to reporters at the Wall Street Journal.  Richard Bove, a well-known bank analyst was on Bloomberg Radio this morning talking to Tom Keene and said he knows they have been leaking.  Yves Smith was on top of this [...]