Posts Tagged ‘Treasury’
Friday, August 5th, 2011
As some of the first wire stories on Thursday’s market plunge began to come across my desk I was struck by one in particular. The headline said, “Geithner stays and the market tanks”.
I have to admit I found that amusing. You see, I had just posted a chart on our web site indicating how some significant technical support areas had been breached on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. I had been having a conversation with one of our contributors about this and he had indicated earlier in the week that the market could be facing a turning point.
(more…)
Tags: Dow Jones Industrial Average, Treasury
Posted in Debt ceiling, Markets, economy | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 29th, 2011
In pointing out the ongoing difficult with the economy, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke stressed high unemployment and foreclosure rates. The foreclosure rate comment is particularly disturbing in that the Fed had made a point with its various emergency liquidity actions during the crisis that returning a flow of credit to American families and businesses was a priority.
While the Fed made sure the banks got theirs, there has been no sign of diligence from the Fed on the rest. Why didn’t someone ask Ben specifically what have you done to “restore the flow of credit to American families and businesses” or more specifically, why didn’t you make the largesse you offered the banking sector conditioned on restoring that flow of credit.
(more…)
Tags: bailout, Ben Bernanke, Congress, Treasury, U.S. dollar
Posted in Federal Reserve, Housing, economy | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
Warren Buffett wrote an interesting op ed piece in the New York Times last week thanking Uncle Sam for the bailout. In it he points out the dire consequences we were in back in 2008 and while acknowledging that the government missed the numerous warning signs leading up to the crisis he gives the government and the leaders who orchestrated the bailout high marks.
(more…)
Tags: bailout, Federal Reserve, subprime, TARP, Treasury
Posted in economy | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
The Financial Times published a commentary on Monday talking about the success of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The basic premise of the story seemed to be that for a piece of legislation that has been roundly criticized — demonized even — TARP has actually been successful in doing what it was supposed to do. In a sense TARP is the Rodney Dangerfield of legislative programs.
(more…)
Tags: bailout, Federal Reserve, TARP, Treasury
Posted in creidt crisis | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
The Financial Times reported today that AIG is set to complete a restructuring plan that would eventually lead to the government liquidating ownership in the firm.
In typical form this would be more complex, involving the U.S. Treasury increasing its ownership stake to 90% from 80% before unwinding completely. According to the FT the Treasury would convert $49 billion in preferred shares to common shares — that is what would up its total — before selling those common shares over a period of time.
(more…)
Tags: TARP, Treasury
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010
With all the speculation of the U.S. economy entering into a double dip recession it is appropriate to note that it is now possible because the arbiter of such things has officially determined that we are out of the recession that began in December 2007.
The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) met on Monday and determined that “a trough in business activity” occurred in the U.S. economy in June 2009.
(more…)
Tags: bailout, Federal Reserve, Treasury
Posted in creidt crisis | 1 Comment »
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Since we first became aware of the credit and bank solvency crisis stemming from the subprime crisis back in the summer of 2007 we have noted the many efforts of the Federal Reserve to prop up the struggling banking industry. And when the whole house of cards blew up on Sept. 15, 2008 we reminded people that this was not a new crisis.
Since then we have pointed out that the fateful day in the fall of 2008 when our financial leaders at the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department chose not to bailout Lehman Brothers, was not that the beginning of the credit crisis, just the day it could no longer be ignored.
(more…)
Tags: bailout, Federal Reserve, Treasury
Posted in General | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
The Nation recently published an interesting article on the financial crisis of 2008 citing the head of the obscure regulatory body the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), John Dugan, as one of the prime architects of our current economic woes.
I’ve read several lists citing people to blame for last year’s financial turmoil and Mr. Dugan, if cited, certainly wouldn’t be on the list of usual suspects.
(more…)
Tags: bailout, Congress, subprime, Treasury
Posted in General, Regulatory/actions | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
The Treasury department took the next steps in regulatory reform for over the counter (OTC) derivatives when it delivered legislative language to Capitol Hill yesterday. Treasury looks for Congress to create a bill on the matter by the end of the year, according to its press release. The legislation contains proposals from the Treasury’s regulatory blueprint from June, including requiring central clearing and trading of standardized OTC derivatives and moving more OTC derivatives on exchanges. (more…)
Tags: CFTC, ISDA, OTC, Treasury
Posted in Regulatory/actions | No Comments »
Friday, May 15th, 2009
This week has been a busy one for new regulation affecting the futures and options industry. It started off on Monday with the Treasury’s 2010 revenue proposal that included a proposal to eliminate 60/40 tax treatment for futures and options traders. Then on Wednesday, the Treasury Department released a proposal on regulatory reform for over the counter (OTC) derivatives. That one was less of a bombshell.
(more…)
Tags: 60/40 tax treatment, CFTC, Commodity Exchange Act, ISDA, OTC, SEC, Treasury
Posted in Regulatory/actions | 1 Comment »
