Category Archives: Banking industry

New York Times Snipes at Neil Barofsky Yet Again

I was naive enough to think that the New York Times’ vendetta against former SIGTARP prosecutor Neil Barofsky was limited to bank propagandist Andrew Ross Sorkin and Administration mouthpiece Jackie Calmes, who penned a particularly ham-handed hit piece on Barofsky’s book Bailout.

It turns out the depth of loyalty of reporters at the New York Times is much deeper than I imagined. Ben Protess and Jessica Silver-Greenberg work hard to snigger and finger-wag at Barofsky for being about to land a plum assignment that will again make him a big bank nemesis: that of serving as monitor to miscreant Credit Suisse.

US to Fine BNP $8+ Billion, Suspend Access to Dollar Clearing

While it is refreshing to see the authorities man up a bit in dealing with a miscreant bank, it’s also critical to recognize that the US show of spine with BNP is all about the US tightening control over international payments. In other words, the harsh settlement is all about the US projecting its power overseas via financial services. It is not a precedent for how the authorities will deal with other types of bank

The Fed’s Ever-Burgeoning Market Manipulation Support

A set of articles in the Financial Times puts a nasty spotlight on what mission creep, or more accurately, mission leap, at the Fed. The central bank is moving unabashedly into price-setting, and stealth or formally backstopping, of more and more markets

More Finance, More Growth? More Finance, More Crises?

Contrary to conventional wisdom in economics, a bigger role for finance, also known as “financial deepening,” has gone well beyond the point of maximum return. It is promoting more crises rather than more growth.

Wikileaks Exposes Super Secret, Regulation-Gutting Financial Services Pact

The document that Wikileaks exposed on Thursday is a portion of the financial services section. It is clearly designed to serve the pet interests of big international players. This agreement is designed to institutionalize the current level of deregulation as a baseline and facilitate the introduction of new products, further ease the movement of funds, data, and key personnel, and facilitate cross-border acquisitions and other forms of market entry.

The Role of Finance in Detroit’s Bankruptcy and State/Local Budget Woes

Rob Johnson, political insider and executive director of INET, discusses the role of Big Finance in state and local budget woes.

Repeated Foreclosures on an On-Time Borrower Demonstrate Failure to Fix Servicing and Fallacy of “Save Banks at All Costs” Policy

Repeated foreclosure attempts against an on-time borrower reveal why servicing remains hopelessly broken. That also means government guaranteed mortgages are here to stay.

Wolf Richter: Housing Hit the Wall of Wall Street in May

Now that homes are coming on the market in large numbers, buyers, faced with sky-high prices and higher mortgage rates, went on strike.

Central Banks Goose Stock Markets

If central banks start pulling the rug out in the form of stopping, or even slowing down stimulus – heaven forfend they raise rates – it could be a rocky ride for the rest of the year for stocks.

Anat Admati Discusses the Still-Too-Big-to-Fail Banks on Bill Moyers

Anat Admati, deemed by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the US, debunks the idea that the too-big-to-fail problem has been fixed. And she takes some swipes at Timothy Geithner.

SEC Commissioner Kara Stein Declares War on SEC Chair Mary Jo White

In demanding tougher regulations, SEC commissioner Kara Stein is taking the unheard-of step of crossing swords with Mary Jo White, a chairman from the same party.

Wolf Richter: Fed’s Bullard Calls Out Ignoring Bubbles Developing “Under Our Noses,” So What About Now?

Yves here. It’s been astonishing to see members of the Fed in denial about their own handiwork, so when St. Louis Fed President James Bullard berates his fellow central bankers for their abject refusal to notice pre-crisis bubbles, it’s an all too rare departure from their usual insularity and willful blindness.

Larry Summers’ Contradictory and Dishonest Defense of Administration’s Bank-Focused Crisis Response

Larry Summers, like Tim Geithner, wants the public to believe that rescuing banks and leaving citizens to rot was the right crisis response. But neither experts, nor people who followed the crisis, nor voters at large are buying what Team Obama is trying to sell.

Russian Companies Plan to Denominate More Trade in Renminbi

Russian companies are mounting a challenge to the dollar by seeking to arrange trade transactions in other currencies. But how serious a threat is it?

Negative ECB Deposit Rate: But What Next?

The ECB is expected to cross a Rubicon today by implementing negative deposit rates. What is the impact likely to be?