Meredith Whitney says nationalization is wrong and banks will lose money

Meredith Whitney, the well-known former Oppenheimer analyst had some interesting words to say on CNBC about the banking sector, nationalization, dividends and Citigroup. Take a look

HBOS and RBS get a right bollocking

I watched the proceedings of the UK Treasury Committee with HBOS and RBS this morning on Bloomberg UK TV and it was a dismal sight. It had the feel of the Nuremburg trials, honestly. The clip below doesn’t do justice to how tense the atmosphere was.

I will say this: these men from HBOS and RBS ran very aggressive organizations, piling in to all manner of risk at the top of the market. While they dissemble and prevaricate, it is plainly obvious that they did not see the risks in their actions, nor did they want to

Ireland nationalizes Anglo Irish bank

The Irish government scrapped a planned recapitalization of Anglo Irish Bank and moved straight to full nationalization. While some may view this as a necessary move to shore up a troubled institution, I see this as ominous news because the Irish banking system is systemically weak and subject to a potential collapse along the lines of Iceland

Germany partially nationalizes second-largest bank

This news of German goverment capital infusions at Commerzbank comes from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Germany. You will recall that Commerzbank was the winner in the bid to buy Dresdner Bank just a few months ago. However, this merger cannt proceed without a capital infusion from the government

European banking collapse including nationalisation of three banks

UPDATE: 9:30 AM ET: This post has been updated to reflect the events surrounding Fortis. On Friday, I warned that European government officials like Peer Steinbrück of Germany should refrain from chastising the U.S. and the U.K. over problems in banking. After all, Europe is next. At the weekend, the fireworks in Europe began in

The nationalization of America’s mortgage problem

This is a topic I first broached in May. The United States has a mortgage problem in that house prices have fallen so much and the financial sector is so leveraged that the U.S. faces systemic banking risk from a vicious circle in the mortgage sector. (I normally might have said ‘negative feedback loop,’ but

Freddie and Fannie taken over by US government

The U.S. government has finally stepped in to stop the bleeding. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant government sponsored enterprises have been taken into conservatorship and are now government property. As I consider this move a bankruptcy, I will add these two to my list of Global Banking Bankruptcies. These are by far

Freddie and Fannie are getting nationalized

A prediction I first broached here in May in my post Question: How is Fannie Mae a AAA company? is finally coming to pass: Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are getting nationalized. UPDATE: The U.S. Government takeover is now a done deal. See my post on the details of the merger with a plethora of

Question: How is Fannie Mae a AAA company?

Today, Fannie released horrible quarterly financial results. The company lost $2.2 billion and is now looking to shore up its capital base. Fannie said an estimate of its fair value of net assets was $12.2bn at the end of the first quarter. This was 66 per cent lower than the value of $35.8bn assigned at