The increase in the size of the Term Auction Facility, from $150 billion a month ($75 billion per two 28 day auction) as of its last auction to $900 billion today (with an interim plan to go to $450 billion that was blown past in this announcement) is an admission that the banking system is […]
Read more...Wolfgang Munchau, who writes for the Financial Times and the blog EuroIntelligence, argues that the fact that EU member nations managed to survive their first series of bank failures does not mean it can afford to take the risk of defaulting to continued improvisation. Munchau comes out squarely in favor of a coordinated, funded rescue […]
Read more...In light of the Fed’s decision to grant Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley banking licenses, and the breathtaking damage of the Lehman bankruptcy, the central bank may have a bit of explaining to do as to why it turned down Lehman’s petition to become a bank in July. The other side of the coin is […]
Read more...As the Fed’s interventions have failed to halt the progress of the credit crisis, the central bank has taken even bigger measures, only to see them provide at best temporary relief. As we have indicated, the Fed’s moves appear to have hit the point of being counterproductive. Why should banks deal with each other when […]
Read more...The Fed is pressuring Citi and Wells Fargo to settle their dispute over Wachovia. The assumption that there is a way to divvy the carcass that will leave each side feeling they got more than half a loaf. But the push is on to reach an agreement in principle before the US markets open, and […]
Read more...The latest crisis averted…..From Bloomberg: The German government and the country’s banks and insurers agreed on a 50 billion euro ($68 billion) rescue package for commercial property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG after an earlier bailout faltered. Germany’s financial industry agreed to double a credit line for Hypo Real Estate to 30 billion euros, […]
Read more...So far, the statement released this afternoon US time out of a Euro summit amounts to an attempt at reassuring hand-waving but in fact was merely a restatement of the status quo. The group of European leaders did agree on a set of principles, but it remains an open question whether they will be able […]
Read more...In response to the crisis at Hypo Bank, Germany said it will guarantee bank deposits. Note that no action was announced regarding Hypo, whose collapse is expected in the next few days if a rescue is not in place. Hypo is not a depositary institution, but it is sufficiently large (almost as big as Lehman) […]
Read more...I can be painfully slow to see things sometime….. Long-standing readers and finance junkies may remember the Treasury’s structured investment vehicle fiasco of last fall. By way of background, banks had created off balance sheet entities called structured investment vehicles (SIVs) which contained subprime (and sometimes other) assets, funded by commercial paper and short-term debt. […]
Read more...Reader Saboor passed along the day’s updates on the case filed by Lehman creditors last week, alleging that JP Morgan, Lehman’s clearing bank, refused to give Lehman access to $17 billion of excess funds held at the bank, precipitating the firm’s failure. I did not see an link to the case yet in a quick […]
Read more...This interim success by Citigroup, of getting a judge to step into Wells Fargo’s effort to break up a deal that Citi had struck to acquire Wachovia, is surprising, to say the least. Most observers thought that the bank had slim grounds for recourse (the FDIC has broad authority regarding the disposition of failed and […]
Read more...Hypo Real Estate, Germany’s second largest real estate lender, teeters on the verge of collapse. The bank has a €400 billion balance sheet, which would make for a failure of a similar scale to Lehman’s (Hypo’s footings are roughly $550 billion, while Lehman’s were $660 billion as of its last balance sheet date). Even though […]
Read more...Oh, this could get ugly. The Wall Street Journal reports that Lehman’s unsecured creditors are calling on the bankruptcy court to examine why the investment bank ran out of funds. The suit argues that JP Morgan abused its role as clearing bank, retaining $17 billion of excess collateral which Lehman could have used to stave […]
Read more...From the Wall Street Journal: U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers wary of growing signs of the nation’s economic distress voted in favor of a $700 billion Wall Street rescue package on Friday, sending the biggest government intervention in the financial markets since the Great Depression to President George W. Bush for his signature. The vote […]
Read more...Although the housing contraction started later in England than in the US, the credit and real economy contraction has progressed at a quicker clip. The latest sightings are not pretty. The Independent reports that new home construction has plummeted to a 50 year low: New private house-building is at a 50-year low, according to an […]
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