Can I borrow the full amount and an extra 25% too?

Apparently the answer to this question is yes.  CNBC is reporting that home ‘owners’ who refinance their mortgages through loans backed by Fannie and Freddie will be able to borrow up to 125% of their homes’ value (hat tip Marshall Auerback).  That’s not a typo: we’re talking no-money down and 25% cash back.  Sign me

What the stress tests reveal about Obama’s thinking on banks

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

Fannie Mae: a bottomless pit for U.S. taxpayers

Bloomberg has the goods on Fannie and they’re not good. Fannie’s regulator wants $19 billion from the U.S. government because the firm has negative capital. Fannie Mae had $23.2 billion in losses last quarter alone. And it says losses in 2009 will be worse than 2008.  Nice. Here’s the money quote: “Fannie says it does

HRE: defusing the German financial time bomb

The first bank nationalization in German history is about to take place. At issue is Hypo Real Estate (HRE), a troubled Munich-based company that lends to commercial property developers and to build offices, hotels, roads, airports, you name it. This issue has been building for nearly 7 months. Back in late September, just after Lehman

More problems at three European financial institutions

This weekend has seen two major European financial institutions forced into the hands of government and a third on the verge of major new asset writedowns and job cuts. The events highlight the fragility of European banking and the need for concrete solutions at the upcoming G-20 summit in London. First, in the UK, you

Weekend Video: A Conversation with Tim Geithner at CFR

This video from yesterday’s Council on Foreign Relations symposium gives Treasury Seretary Tim Geithner a chance to explain why he has constructed his bailout plan in the way he has. Rather than editorialize the video, I will provide it without comment.  I do suggest you watch it if you want to develop a well-informed view

Are Citi and BofA gaming the Geithner Plan already?

Here we are just days out from the announcement by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner that the Obama Administration will be buying up so-called toxic assets as originally planned by Henry Paulson during the Bush Administration. The initial reaction has been one of euphoria as most asset markets responded positively to the news.

Now that the dust has settled somewhat, another reaction is taking place behind the scenes and it looks an awful lot like banks — specifically Citigroup and Bank of America — are gaming the system. Note my highlighting

Roubini: Nationalization “fully on the table” in Geithner’s Plan

This is yet another semi-positive post about the Geithner plan. To reiterate, I think the plan is inadequate because it assumes illiquidity instead of insolvency and is a huge gift to the financial sector. But, that does not mean it will definitely not work in conjunction with other moves by Obama. In fact, to the

Is Obama considering nationalisation?

You may have seen Ed’s post “Gillian Tett: Washington is talking to Swedes about banking crisis solutions” a week back about how the U.S. government was getting ready to talk to Swedish officials regarding the banking crisis. This is a very important development and I have a lot more to provide below on the issue as it pertains to today’s events and Japan’s crisis early this decade

It’s the writedowns, stupid

Today, I want to make the case for seeing writedowns as central to this global downturn. To do so, we need to rewind and compare what is going on today with what we have experienced in the past. Drawing on this comparison, I can demonstrate that traditional policy tools are likely to be ineffective today. Moreover, the present course of action will also prove inadequate. Other more aggressive means must be applied in order to ensure a more stable banking system and a path to recovery. Likely remedies will include a reorganization of large swathes of the U.S. banking system.

A few thoughts about the banking crisis response in the United States

This is a post I wrote last week on naked capitalism.

In any banking crisis, the central question always is: which financial institutions now operating are insolvent, how can we identify them and remove them from the system, and how can we recapitalize the remaining institutions in a way that restores confidence to the system generally? Therefore, any response by policy makers must address three separate issues

AIG: Bankruptcy would have avoided the bonus debacle

The large bonuses at AIG have sparked yet another wave of revulsion amongst American taxpeayers. And rightfully so. This company has cost taxpayers $170 billion and counting and yet the bonuses of the same individuals complicit in the losses is still to be paid due to contractual obligation. While Ben Bernanke, Larry Summers and others have expressed their contempt for this state of affairs, I suspect there will be consequences down the line