banking industry

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Bankers Blamed for Mess Get Rich Cleaning It Up

(Newser) - The irony is, well, rich. Former executives of Countrywide Financial—the bank whose risky loans to homeowners have become synonymous with the subprime mess—are now making a mint helping the government fix things, the New York Times reports. A dozen former Countrywide executives, including President Stanford L. Kurland, have...

Dow Drops Below 7000
 Dow Drops Below 7000 
MARKETS
Mar 2, 2009 8:45 AM CST

Dow Drops Below 7000

(Newser) - Stocks sunk below 7000 at the open today, extending a global selloff fueled by trouble in financials. The Dow was off 161 points by mid-morning, while the S&P tumbled 2.5%, the Nasdaq 1.9%. Bad news abounded, with HSBC saying it planned to limit US lending, AIG’s...

Banks That Fail 'Stress Test' Have 6 Months to Fix

(Newser) - The federal government has begun its so-called "stress tests" of the nation's big banks, reports the Los Angeles Times. The tests will run through April, and the banks will have to prove they can withstand a worsening economy—even if unemployment rises above 10% and home prices decline 22%....

Doctor Doom Says It's Time to Nationalize
Doctor Doom Says It's Time
to Nationalize
interview
Feb 21, 2009 9:25 AM CST

Doctor Doom Says It's Time to Nationalize

Temporary takeover isn't 'Bolshevik'—it's the only option

(Newser) - Nouriel Roubini thinks it will soon be time to nationalize the banks, and these days people listen to Nouriel Roubini. For years the NYU economist has been predicting financial catastrophe, earning the nickname “Doctor Doom,” so he’s now looking pretty prescient. “No one’s in favor...

Credit Crunch Pinches Entire Lending System
Credit Crunch Pinches Entire Lending System
Analysis
Feb 20, 2009 12:35 PM CST

Credit Crunch Pinches Entire Lending System

Undercapitalized banks stand to benefit from $1T infusion

(Newser) - Banks aren’t lending, and to change that the government is propping up not just the banks but also the vast, largely unseen financial system that fuels them, the New York Times reports. Banks rarely keep the loans they make anymore; instead, debt is packaged into securities and sold, generating...

Swiss Bank Will Give Names of US Tax Dodgers

(Newser) - Switzerland's biggest bank admitted today that it helped wealthy US customers evade their taxes, the Wall Street Journal reports. UBS set up shell companies and fake trusts for customers so they could hide their accounts from the IRS. The company will pay $780 million in fines and turn over the...

Autoworkers, Bankers Have a Lot in Common
Autoworkers, Bankers Have a Lot in Common
OPINION
Feb 18, 2009 9:11 AM CST

Autoworkers, Bankers Have a Lot in Common

Exorbitant pay of both brought down their respective industries

(Newser) - They may not seem all that similar, but Detroit’s autoworkers and Wall Street’s bankers have the same story, writes Steven Pearlstein in the Washington Post. From the 1950s up until, say, yesterday, "autoworkers were the aristocrats of the blue-collar world, (and) Wall Street traders and investment bankers...

Bank Execs to Congress: We Are Lending

CEOs defend compensation, call for new regulation

(Newser) - “We’re lending,” bank executives told Congress this morning, as CEOs including Jamie Dimon, Ken Lewis, and Vikram Pandit testified before the House Financial Services Committee. They also defended the outrage-inducing (but, they stressed, much reduced) bonuses they handed out, according to their prepared testimony. “Our employees...

Brutal Day Puts Geithner on the Defensive
Brutal Day Puts Geithner
on the Defensive
analysis
Feb 10, 2009 8:49 PM CST

Brutal Day Puts Geithner on the Defensive

(Newser) - It's safe to say the honeymoon's over for Tim Geithner. The Treasury chief—whose very appointment way back when gave the market a lift—spent all day on the defensive after unveiling the administration's economic plan, writes Emily Kaiser of Reuters. Wall Street tanked, interviewers dogged him with questions about...

Geithner Unveils New Bank Plan
 Geithner Unveils New Bank Plan 
Feb 10, 2009 10:33 AM CST

Geithner Unveils New Bank Plan

(Newser) - Attempts to revive the banking industry so far have been “inadequate,” Timothy Geithner said today, promising to “fundamentally reshape” the government’s plan to rescue banks, driven by more forceful action. “We want their balance sheets cleaner and stronger,” Geithner said. To do it, he’...

New Bailout Plan Hinges on Private Investors

Treasury will set 'floor price' on distressed assets to lure buyers

(Newser) - The Treasury's latest plan to rescue the banking industry relies heavily on private-sector investors, the New York Times reports. The government will guarantee a floor price on the toxic assets weighing down banks’ balance sheets, encouraging hedge funds, private equity groups, and even insurers to buy them. The plan should...

BofA Tricks People Into Paying the Dead's Bills

Bank accused of shady practices in collecting cash from bereaved relatives

(Newser) - Bank of America has been misleading customers into believing they have to pay off the credit card bills of dead relatives, TPM reports. One customer was outraged when a bank rep tried to first trick, and then guilt-trip him into paying his dead mother's bills. A former rep for the...

Watch Wall Street Pay Swing Down From Stratosphere

Finance bigwigs' income to match doctors, lawyers

(Newser) - President Obama’s $500,000 salary cap may herald a new era on Wall Street, in which pay for financial executives is aligned with doctors’ and lawyers’ compensation. Wall Street income is cyclical, it turns out, and a recent study found that it only surged—relative to that of peers...

C'mon, Mr Prez, Nobody Will Run Bank for $500K
C'mon, Mr Prez, Nobody Will Run Bank for $500K
OPINION
Feb 4, 2009 12:34 PM CST

C'mon, Mr Prez, Nobody Will Run Bank for $500K

Obama, after pledge to be above the noise, falls prey to it instead

(Newser) - Sure, bankers make too much money, but President Obama’s ceiling “is just a misguided attempt to quiet the peanut gallery,” writes Megan Barnett in Portfolio. The $500,000-per-year executive cap will discourage banks from taking needed government cash, and drive away top talent. “Money is what...

Populist Outrage Makes Perfect Sense

Pay system at the heart of this whole mess

(Newser) - All it takes is $18.4 billion, and suddenly the mob is restless. Once, we were content to brush Wall Street’s gross inequities under the rug, but “we’re populists of a more fiery sort now,” writes Thomas Frank in the Wall Street Journal, “the old...

Nationalizing Banks Looks More and More Likely
Nationalizing Banks Looks More and More Likely
Analysis
Jan 26, 2009 9:35 AM CST

Nationalizing Banks Looks More and More Likely

Case for Nationalization grows

(Newser) - Team Obama is coming closer and closer to using the N-word they've been studiously avoiding: nationalize. Already the government is the top shareholder at both Bank of America and Citigroup, and with both banks in freefall, many think buying the rest is the only option. “I would guess that...

'Choose-a-Charter' System Lets Banks Dodge Regulation
'Choose-a-Charter' System Lets Banks Dodge Regulation
investigation
Jan 22, 2009 9:25 AM CST

'Choose-a-Charter' System Lets Banks Dodge Regulation

(Newser) - A loophole in the nation’s banking regulations allows institutions to switch their charters from federal to state, effectively allowing them to decide which regulatory agencies supervise them, reports the Washington Post. Regulatory reform is at the top of Treasury Secretary-designate Tim Geithner's agenda. Of the 200-plus banks that have...

Create a Good 'Bad Bank' to Ease Crisis
Create a Good
'Bad Bank' to
Ease Crisis
OPINION
Jan 22, 2009 8:44 AM CST

Create a Good 'Bad Bank' to Ease Crisis

Institutions must write down toxic assets to ease larger woes

(Newser) - The world’s banking crisis is entering its endgame, and it’s time to shore up the most troubled institutions using a strategy that worked in Sweden in the 1990s, writes David Roche in the Wall Street Journal. It won't be easy, he warns: "A good bad bank...

Ex-Time Warner Chief Will Lead Citigroup

Richard Parsons, an Obama adviser, will be chair of ailing bank

(Newser) - Former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons—an economic adviser on Barack Obama's transition team—will become the new chairman of Citigroup next month. The ailing bank has suffered five straight quarters of losses and received $45 billion in government aid as it struggles to stay afloat amid the credit crisis....

Prof Does Math, Finds Banking System 'Insolvent'

(Newser) - A New York University professor who predicted the current economic crisis warns that losses at US banks could climb to $3.6 trillion, leaving the whole system essentially bankrupt, Bloomberg reports. Economist Nouriel Roubini argues that since the system has a base capitalization of just $1.4 trillion, if losses...

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