Tag: Banks

Another One Bites The Dust

For the past week or so there has been the failure of a couple of banks…..something not happening since 2008 and Lehman Bros. Well a 3rd bank has failed.

The government has taken what the AP calls “extraordinary steps” to avert a potential banking crisis in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure, with the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, and FDIC issuing a joint statement Sunday assuring SVB clients they would all be protected and that depositors, starting Monday, will be able to access their money, even if their holdings exceed the FDIC’s $250,000 insurance limit. The statement also notes that “no losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayer.” As the AP points out, there has been no bailout of the actual bank—banks, actually; more on that below:

Another bank fails: Signature Bank, which is based in New York, also failed and was being seized Sunday, regulators announced. The feds’ statement says “a similar systemic risk exception” will apply to Signature Bank: “All depositors of this institution will be made whole. As with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank, no losses will be borne by the taxpayer.” It’s the third-largest bank failure in the nation’s history at more than $110 billion in assets (SVB was the nation’s second-largest ever). It’s also the third bank failure in recent days after Silvergate Bank and then SVB.

  • Shoring up other banks: The feds’ statement said “additional funding” will be available “to eligible depository institutions to help assure banks have the ability to meet the needs of all their depositors,” and First Republic Bank has already announced it’s getting access to that funding as well as funding from JPMorgan Chase. The Wall Street Journal has more on that.
  • Emergency lending program: The Fed also announced an emergency lending program Sunday, under which banks that need to raise money to pay depositors can borrow it from the Fed instead of dumping Treasuries or other securities, as SVC was forced to do at a loss to cover customer withdrawals. MarketWatch has more on the program.
  • Who’s not protected: The feds’ joint statement notes that “shareholders and certain unsecured debtholders will not be protected. Senior management has also been removed.” Axios reports that SVB had reportedly paid out bonuses to some US employees hours before it was seized.
  • Biden comments: Speaking as he boarded Air Force One Sunday on his way back to Washington, Biden said he was “firmly committed to holding those responsible for this mess fully accountable and to continuing our efforts to strengthen oversight and regulation of larger banks so that we are not in this position again.” He said he’d address the situation in further remarks Monday.
  • What will Monday look like? Analysts predicted financial markets would be soothed a bit by Sunday’s moves. “Monday will surely be a stressful day for many in the regional banking sector, but today’s action dramatically reduces the risk of further contagion,” economists at Jefferies, an investment bank, said in a research note.

Is this the beginning of another economic crisis?

Shades of 2008!

You might want to keep an eye on your accounts in these large banks….you may be in line for a problem.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Case For Public Banking

Finally a goddamn great idea……..but the Centrists will beat it back to make their owners, the banks, happy.

I have been railing against the bankers and their rape of the American society…..bitching for decades and most Americans know that these robbers are corrupt and yet we seem to not care…..

Finally someone in Congress has stepped up to offer a new way of banking….we can always pretend the the Obama admin did some good but any progress has overturned and the problems with banks have returned and gotten worse.

Like I said a new way of banking…..but what is Public Banking?

Public banking is banking operated in the public interest, through institutions owned by the people through their representative governments. Public banks can exist at all levels, from local to state to national or even international. Any governmental body which can meet local banking requirements may, theoretically, create such a financial institution.

Public banking is distinguished from private banking in that its mandate begins with the public’s interest. Privately-owned banks, by contrast, have shareholders who generally seek short-term profits as their highest priority. Public banks are able to reduce taxes within their jurisdictions, because their profits are returned to the general fund of the public entity. The costs of public projects undertaken by governmental bodies are also greatly reduced, because public banks do not need to charge interest to themselves. Eliminating interest has been shown to reduce the cost of such projects, on average, by 50%.

But we already have banks…why do we need a “public bank”?

Today, cities and states put their money in Wall Street banks, allowing those banks to leverage our public funds in order to dominate the financialized speculative economy rather than reinvesting them in our communities. At the same time, cities and states borrow money from Wall Street institutions and bondholders at high interest rates and pay large fees to keep money in their banks. This is not a cost-effective way to do business. Cities and states could be keeping their public dollars and leveraging them for their own community needs.

With city and state-owned banks, we cut out Wall Street middlemen. Our community’s cash stays home to benefit us! Bank fees are eliminated, interest costs drop, and public bank profits are reinvested into our communities.

Public banks can help us create the communities we want. We want parks, good roads, safe bridges, clean energy, and housing we can afford. We want lower interest rates for local small business loans, local control of our tax dollars, investment in our local communities, and ethical and transparent financial institutions managing our public funds. Public banks can be the financial engine that makes this happen for our communities.

There a few facts that need to be shown why a public bank is a better idea than the robbers we have to deal with today….

  1. Are owned by the people of a state, city, community, or nation;
  2. Serve as the depository for local government funds (city or state taxes, fees, etc.);
  3. Are required to benefit the public by serving local community needs;
  4. Can save state and local governments millions or even billions of dollars, by cutting out middlemen and private shareholders, eliminating fees, and financing projects at lower interest rates;
  5. Reinvest bank profits into the community, providing a new source of income for cities and states and a source of funding for projects such as infrastructure, renewable energy and affordable housing;
  6. Are run, not by politicians, but by qualified bankers serving a public mission;
  7. Provide accountability and transparency to the public for bank decisions, avoiding the risks of Wall Street’s speculative gambling;
  8. Create new jobs and spur economic growth by supporting local small businesses;
  9. Partner with and support rather than competing with local community banks;
  10. Can lend during times of stress and crisis, helping to sustain a healthy local economy.

Now a couple Progressives in the House are offering up a plan for an expansiom of public banking…..

A public option, but for banking. That’s what Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are proposing in a new bill unveiled on Friday.

The Public Banking Act, first shared with Vox, wouldn’t create those options by itself, but would foster the creation of public banks across the country by providing them a pathway to getting started, establishing an infrastructure for liquidity and credit facilities for them via the Federal Reserve, and setting up federal guidelines for them to be regulated. Essentially, it would make it easier for public banks to exist, and it would give some of them grant money to get started.

While it sounds a little wonky, the basic idea is to make it possible for state and local governments, local businesses, and people to do business with public banks, which theoretically would be more motivated to do public good and invest in their communities than private institutions, which are out for profit. One public bank exists in North Dakota, and there is a growing movement to create more of them across the country. California recently passed a law allowing cities and counties to create and sponsor public banks.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21541113/rashida-tlaib-aoc-public-banking-act

Another great idea but the Centrists will kill this before it has a chance…..Citibank and others will NOT allow this to move forward.

Be Smart!

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

How About Some Economic News?

Trump tells us that since the markets are making CEOs wealthy the rest of us are doing super good…..let me say here…there is more to an economy than what the markets do or don’t do…..but hey you believe the crap you want then don’t coming crying when it all goes to sh*t.

Markets are up….unemployment is high…..foreclosures on the rise…..food expensive…….medical expensive…..but according to Trump all is well….even good.

First let’s look at Q2 (Second Quarter)……

The US economy plunged at a record rate in the spring but is poised to swing to a record increase in the quarter that just ended. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday in its final estimate for the April-June quarter that the gross domestic product, the economy’s total output of goods and services, fell at a rate of 31.4%. (This estimate, the third, is down from the initial estimates of 33% and 31.7%.) The report shows a decline that is almost four times larger than the previous record-holder, a fall of 10% in the first quarter of 1958 when Dwight Eisenhower was president. The Washington Examiner reports the biggest GDP drop during the Great Recession was 8.4%. The Q1 decline was 5%.

The AP reports economists believe the economy will expand at an annual rate of 30% in the current quarter as businesses have re-opened and millions of people have gone back to work. That would shatter the old record for a quarterly GDP increase, a 16.7% surge in the first quarter of 1950 when Harry Truman was president. The government will not release its just-ended July-September GDP report until Oct. 29, just five days before the presidential election. Many are forecasting that growth will slow significantly in the final three months of this year to a rate of around 4% and could actually topple back into a recession if Congress fails to pass another stimulus measure or if a rising number of coronavirus cases sharply curtails economic activity.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news…..but inflation is already here….at least for the stuff you buy as a normal person…..

If it feels like the price of everything you buy has been soaring, that’s because it has—even as central bankers everywhere worry about the danger of deflation.
The gap between everyday experience and the yearly inflation rate of 1.3% in August is massive. The price of the stuff we’re buying is rising much faster, while the stuff we’re no longer buying has been falling, but still counts for the figures.
Economists will be relieved that the laws of supply and demand are still working, at a time when so much in the discipline is in doubt. But for investors it hangs a veil over the outlook for perhaps the single most important issue for the markets: whether we’re headed for a future of inflation, deflation or a continuation of the past decade’s lackluster price rises.
 
Have you noticed that banks can do whatever they want and never have to pay for their stealing and perjury?
 
Take JP Morgan got caught manipulating the stock and what was the penalty….a slap on the wrist and a fine…..
Following hard on the heels of revelations that major global banks have been involved in a network of criminal money laundering, JPMorgan Chase has been fined $920 million for manipulating markets on two of its trading desks.

The charges involved the practice of spoofing—quickly placing and then withdrawing buy and sell orders to give other traders and their algorithms the false impression that there is a surge of activity.

The spoofing activity covered trades in gold, silver and other metals futures markets as well as markets for Treasury bonds and cash. It covered thousands of trades and involved numerous traders and staff at JPMorgan in New York, London and Singapore.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which conducted the investigation, said traders knowingly placed orders on trading platforms they did not intend to fulfil in the hope this would trick others and enable the JPMorgan traders to obtain a better price.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/10/01/jpmo-o01.html

Now think back to 208….Morgan was part of the problem that cause the recession and the economic crash….and they are still doing illegal stuff and getting away with it.

And you think it is a fair and equatable system…..NOT!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Buddy! Can You Spare Some Change?

Closing Thought–27Jul20

I am sure that you have been accosted by some guy/gal in front of the supermarket looking for some spare change….

The apparently this pandemic has created a problem for change….especially in the banks…..

Amid the pandemic-induced coin shortage, one Wisconsin bank has resorted to paying people who bring in their spare change. The Community State Bank’s Coin Buy Back Program will give a $5 bonus to anyone who brings in $100 worth of coins, up to a maximum bonus of $500. The bank is also waiving fees for coin counting. You don’t need to be a customer of the bank to take part, CNN reports. “Instead of buying coin from the Fed, we’re buying coin from our community,” an exec tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Hundreds of people have already participated, and the bank says the program is helping local businesses that need change for their stores.

Why a coin shortage? This story explains.

I know…I know…..who knew?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–15Aug19

It is that time again….the approach of another tiresome exercise we call an election. Since it is that time again the “S” word is being passed around like a cheap hooker….of course the GOP will use it as some sort of grade for the Dems……..even that person in the White House is using it liberally (no pun intended)……

But did you know that our Beloved Supreme Demagogue back in 2009 back during that crash of the markets had offered a solution of our problem…nationalization……

Though it surely won’t matter to his legion of supporters, back in 2009, business mogul Donald Trump supported the bailing out of the banks. Not just that, he suggested he was comfortable with the national government taking them over ― at least temporarily ― as a means of market stabilization.

The comments came during an interview with CNN’s Larry King in April 2009. King, who has since left the network, asked Trump what he thought of the new president, that being Barack Obama. Trump replied that he “really like[d] him” ― which, for any other current Republican presidential candidate, would probably be considered apostasy in its own right. But then Trump went further:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-nationalizing-banks_n_55ef2d4de4b002d5c076e9df

You do realize that some sort of nationalization is par for socialism, right?

Does that make His Majesty a socialist?

He is a person with absolutely NO principles……all he has is his showmanship after years of reality TV, the popularity of the mindless…..he will say whatever gets him attention….personally I have NO use for egocentric d/bags….and even less use for a pretend “genius”who went to the best schools and made Daddy proud.

Learn Stuff!

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“Lego Ergo Scribo”

A Ticking Time Bomb

Surely the myopic population of this country can remember back to 2008, right?  I know it is a stretch for most so-called conservs to think back that far….

2008?  Mindless drones that was the year of the Wall Street meltdown lead by the illegal practices of our biggest banks….does it ring any bells in that thick skull now?

Guess what?  The Trumpian bullshit is about to set the wheels of yet another meltdown in motion…..

The Senate passed bipartisan legislation Wednesday designed to ease bank rules that were enacted to prevent a relapse of the 2008 financial crisis that caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs and homes. The Senate voted 67-31 for a bill from Republican Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho that would dial back portions of the law known as Dodd-Frank, the AP reports. The legislation would increase the threshold at which banks are considered so big and plugged into the financial grid that if one were to fail it would cause major havoc. Those banks are subject to stricter capital and planning requirements.

“The bill provides much-needed relief from the Dodd-Frank Act for thousands of community banks and credit unions, and will spur lending and economic growth without creating risks to the financial system,” the White House said in a statement after the vote. Republicans unanimously supported the bill, while Democrats splintered into two camps. One included several senators from rural states who worked out the compromise with Crapo. The other, led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, said the bill catered too much to the banks that contributed to the financial crisis and would increase the likelihood of future taxpayer bailouts. (President Trump complained that Dodd-Frank made it hard for friends to borrow money.)

It is amazing how when Repubs are in charge they kill regulation and then things go to shit and a Dem usually has to clean up their economic messes…..looks like that trend will not end with this president…who is still dick deep in the financial world and I am guessing that this will benefit him and his buds on Wall Street.

This is why Democrats have a problem with message…..

Bought and paid for by Wall Street…..TRAITORS!

Will It Happen Again?

Just a little FYI for my readers…….

Remember back to 2007…..that was the year that the economy dropped like a rock…..and the housing market lead they way…..and we have been clawing back ever since……lots of lost money and lots of anger by the people of this country.

The president and the Congress worked hard (sorry that is the wrong word but for the sake of sanity I will let it go) to make sure that this type of crash never happens again…..do you believe that? (then I have a bridge I would like to talk about)…..

Here are some other troubling anecdotal signals on the housing market:

1. A major financial website recently ran a guide to the best cities to “flip” houses in. (I don’t want to encourage the behavior.) Real estate speculation via house “flipping” was another early sign of trouble ahead.

2. A few days later, news arrived that home prices in the Bronx had shot up by an astonishing 30% in the first quarter. Crazy advances in home values were, a decade ago, also a signal of trouble ahead.

3. Ads, then as now, were running on TV for “quick mortgages.”

All of these signals raise a serious question: Are we getting closer to another housing meltdown that will once again damage your investment portfolio?

Source: The seeds of the next housing crisis have been planted – MarketWatch – Linkis.com

Here we go again sports fans……

What Happened To The Community Bank?

About 5 years ago there were several locally owned community banks in my area…..and slowly they have been systematically eating up by larger more national banks…..

I got to thinking about the demise of community banks and went on a research mission….to see if I could find a reason for the demise of these institutions.

After several days…I found what appears to be a good explanation for this mass extinction……

As a rewsponse to the economic crisis of 2008 the government came up with a plan….Dodd-Frank…..it was at best minor reform…..nothing has really changed but it did allow for the demise of the community bank……say what?

The Dodd-Frank regulations are so lethal to community banks that some say the intent was to force them to sell out to the megabanks.

Source: Killing Off Community Banks – Intended Consequence of Dodd-Frank?

This ends my posting day…will return tomorrow with more stuff…..peace out

Use Iceland As An Example

Surely everybody remembers the economic crisis of 2008………can you remember all the debate of whether to let the thieving banks to go bust of not?  There was also a debate on whether the CEOs of said banks should be held responsible…….how about the term “too big too fail”?

I have written about what Iceland decided to do in the past……and today it looks like their plan was far superior to any plan we had here in the states……

Maybe we should take a good long look at what Iceland did…….and learn from their example…..

 

Three charts that show Iceland’s economy recovered after it imprisoned bankers and let banks go bust – instead of bailing them out – Business News – Business – The Independent.

France May Criminally Indict a Big Bank, Why Can’t the US?

Think back to 2008……you will recall the panic that set in because banks were about to crap all over the economy……and then we elected a new prez and he set about making banks “too big to fail”…..they got massive influxes of cash and we saved to go about their business of rigging the economy.

Does any of that sound familiar?

And the next question is how did these thieves manage to avoid prosecution?

Personally, I want these people to either do time or commit suicide for what they have done.

What kind of sick society rewards people that did that much damage to the economy?

Europe is trying to hold these people accountable……why cannot the US?

 

France May Criminally Indict a Big Bank, Why Can’t the US?.

 

As long as we are talking about France sand laws…..the are setr to possibly make mews again….this time in the Fashion world……..

France is expected to pass legislation to outlaw ultra-skinny fashion models, reports the CBC. The legislation now being debated would set up minimum weights based on body-mass index, a formula that would require a woman 5-foot-7 to weigh 120 pounds. And the measure wouldn’t just bar such models from runways, it would make it a criminal offense for fashion houses and agents to use them in ad campaigns or in any professional capacity. Those in violation would face six months in prison and fines of up to $79,000.

“This is an important message to young women, young women who see these models as an aesthetic ideal,” says the French health minister, Marisol Touraine, as quoted at France24. The lawmaker who wrote the legislation is a doctor who estimates that up to 40,000 people in France have anorexia, most of them teens. Israel, Italy, and Spain already have similar laws on the books, but the New York Times notes that France’s legislation would likely be far more influential. “It would almost certainly raise the debate to a new level, especially in Paris, the spiritual capital of the fashion world,” writes Alissa Rubin.

BRILLIANT!  Looks like models may once again have shape……..I could not be more pleased.

What say you?