Robert Waldmann is pleased to note that he was right and that Paul Krugman and Joeseph Stiglitz were wrongggg. They claimed that PPIP was a huge giveaway, because purchases of toxic assets would be 85% financed by no-recourse loans from the FDIC. I noted that this financing would only be available if the FDIC (not […]

One of the things that goes without saying these days is that a recovery doesn’t lift all boats. It doesn’t lift all banks, either. For your consideration, the number and documented costs (in $MM) of bank closings in the U.S. since 2000.

Maybe more about this at some point in the future. Consider it a RawShock Test, and feel free to describe what you see in comments.

I was trying to avoid mentioning this, partially because I half-suspected it was deliberately over the top, and I’m not reading tone well these days. After all: Virtually every BHC has elected to become an FHC. Under 12 U.S.C. § 1843(k)(4)(H), FHCs are allowed to make “merchant banking investments” in nonfinancial companies, on a principal […]

By Divorced one like Bush This past weekend I wrote about the OCC, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and 4 rulings that this office has made over the last two presidencies. 1. Preventing state AG’s and the state banking departments from investigating and regulating national banks. 2004.2. Allowing Banks to become real estate […]