Read More: Andrew Cuomo, Jamie Dimon, Jon Corzine, Meg Whitman, Michael Bloomberg, New Treasury Secretary, Treasury Secretary, Warren Buffett, Business News
DJ news

Read More: AIG Bailout, Barney Frank, Bonuses, Comedy, Edward Liddy AIG, President Obama, Satire, Stephen Colbert, Tim Geithner, Comedy News | AIG
Face The Nation Videos | Charlie Rose

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered..'

2009 moreGoogle below

From Economist.com, Friday June 12th 2009

The following have been newly published on Economist.com:

Reforming bank regulation in Britain
Plans to avoid another crisis prompt feuding within Britain and with Europe
Adnan Yousif, an Islamic banker with global ambition
Adnan Yousif wants to build the first truly global Islamic bank
TPG exits Shenzhen Development Bank
A foreign banking expedition in China reaches a premature but successful end
Financial reform in America
A much-trailed financial overhaul is a curious mix of audacity and timidity
Tax havens under pressure
Britain's offshore financial centres race for respectability
Reforming financial regulations in America
Barack Obama's plan for regulatory reform is not bold enough

Articles-by-subject alert: Banking, pensions and financial regulation
The sale of BGI
Barclays to sell the family silver?
Banks' exposure to eastern Europe
Western banks have supported their eastern European subsidiaries—so far
Wall Street and the taxpayer
Banks should be encouraged to pay back governments—but not to rewrite history
Public and private pensions
Britain's pensions apartheid looks unsustainable
Repaying TARP money
Funds returned by healthy big banks will be redeployed among smaller ones
The biggest bill in history
Banking catastrophes and recession have led to vast increases in rich countries' public debts. Getting their finances back into shape will be painful
Ten big American banks will start to repay government funds
Ten big banks begin repayments of TARP funds
Angelo Mozilo, former boss of Coutrywide, is charged with fraud
Regulators charge, Angelo Mozilo, the former king of America's mortgage market with fraud

Sunday 14 June 2009 MONTREAL: BANKS TOLD TO REIMBURSE CREDIT CARD CUSTOMERS
Canada's six major banks and four other financial institutions have been ordered to pay more than $200 million to tens of thousands of people who hold credit cards in the province of Quebec. The Quebec Superior Court ruled against the 10 financial institutions for charging a fee for foreign currency transactions on customers' credit cards. The banks claimed the fees are service and administrative charges. But the court ruled they are credit charges which are covered by Quebec's consumer protection law.

OTTAWA: CENTRAL BANKER WANTS MORE PRIVATE-SECTOR RISK
Bank of Canada Gov. Mark Carney says he wants governments to devise exit strategies from their intervention in the global economy. Mr. Carney says that such public-sector interventions have been necessary because of the recession, but that it won't be entirely overcome until private business resumes normal operations and accepts risks which governments are now assuming.

Wednesday 24 June 2009 Banks' profits Red and black ink

Wednesday 10 June 2009 OTTAWA: WORLD BANK CHIEF ADVISES AGAINST TRADE RETALIATION
The head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, has advised Canadians against retaliatory trade measures against the U.S. Speaking in the Canadian capital, he acknowledged that American trade protectionism represents a threat to global economic recovery from recession. Mr. Zoellick was critical of the economic stimulus package that requires local governments to buy U.S.-made goods and steel in infrastructure projects. Last weekend, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities voted by a narrow margin on the weekend to block bids by American companies on Canadian municipal projects. The resolution was in response to the blockage by American cities and towns of Canadian bids on projects funded by the stimulus package. Mr. Zoellick says such actions would hurt both countries.

From Economist.com, Friday June 5th 2009

The following have been newly published on Economist.com:
Banks and private equity
Buy-out firms chafe under ownership restrictions, but pile in nonetheless
Germany's banking system faces change
Plans for a "bad bank" scheme in Germany
Reforming finance in Britain
Confused regulators face a rising European tide
The Fed's exit strategy
The Federal Reserve weighs plans to unwind its unconventional stimulus
An interview with William Buckley
The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York speaks to The Economist about quantitative easing and exit strategies

Wednesday 03 June 2009 OTTAWA: FEDERAL DEFICIT STILL UNDERESTIMATED: TD BANK
Toronto Dominion Bank says the federal government continues to overestimate its future budget deficits. The bank's report on the matter says it agrees with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty that this year's deficit will come to more than $50 billion, but that the deficit for the 2010-2011 will be $45 billion not $30 billion. TD's economists forecast a five-year shortfall of $172 billion, or twice as much as Mr. Flaherty has predicted. The bank's pessimism is based on a much more modest economic recovery after the recession ends than what the government sees.

Sunday 24 May 2009 The world's best banks
As the dust starts to settle, which banks deserve the most plaudits?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American International Group Inc said on Thursday that its Chief Executive and Chairman Edward Liddy would step down as soon as a successor is found to take over running the bailed out insurer. Full Article

Wednesday 20 May 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday the Obama administration was making headway in calming financial markets and would have a program to cleanse toxic assets from banks' balance sheets up and running by July. Full Article

Friday 15 May 2009 Articles-by-subject alert: Banking, pensions and financial regulation
From Economist.com, Friday May 15th 2009

The following have been newly published on Economist.com:

The future of banking
Banks will still make money, just less of it
Swedish lessons for banks
More Swedish lessons for the banking industry
Gaining from the crisis
Who will gain from the crisis?
Bank balance-sheets
The shifting shape of bank balance-sheets
Rebuilding the banks
A tamer banking industry is already emerging from the debris of the old, failed one, says Andrew Palmer
Russian banks face trouble
With bad debts stacking up, Russian banks face serious trouble
Stress testing America's banks
Stress tests for America's banks sets the bar for minimum capital too low
A proposal to regulate banks
Using market signals to gauge a bank's health
Banks pass the stress test
America's stress tests were too easy
Banking and risk
The way banks manage risk—including how they reward managers for taking it—will change greatly
The future of securitisation
The future of securitisation is the industry's most pressing question
Canada's banks
A country that got things right
Banks and society
The contract between society and banks will get stricter
Changes to the banking industry
There is no single big remedy for the banks' flaws. But better rules—and more capital—could help .

Sunday 10 May 2009 Banks unveil cash-raising plans
US banks Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America unveil plans to boost reserves after failing 'stress tests'.

Friday 08 May 2009 US banks 'safe from insolvency'
No US bank being examined by regulators is at risk of insolvency, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says.

Friday 08 May 2009 OTTAWA: MORE GOVT. STIMULUS UNNEEDED: CENTRAL BANK
Bank of Canada Gov. Mark Carney predicts that the country's foundering economy will recover next year, achieving 2.5 per cent in 2010. However, the central banker also forecasts a mild recovery that will see the economy contract by three per cent this year. Mr. Carney affirms as well that the government and the Bank of Canada have provided sufficient financial stimulus to jumpstart the economy. He cites as encouraging signs the improvement of the world economy, the betterment of housing markets in the U.S. and Canada, the depreciation of the Canadian dollar and the country's sound financial system.

Friday 08 May 2009 Ten US banks fail 'stress tests'
Ten US banks need a combined $74.6bn (£50bn) of extra funds to boost their cash reserves, the government says.

Tuesday 05 May 2009 Opening View: Bulls Balk as 10 Banks Might Need Additional Capital
The Wall Street Journal has reported. The figure represents more than half of the 19 that underwent government stress tests. The reaction from traders is muted so far, but the path of U.S. stock futures has trended lower as the open approaches, pointing toward a negative start.

Monday 04 May 2009 Canadian Banks - Becoming More Positive
RBC CM’s view on the Canadian bank sector is turning more positive based on recent improvements in indicators of future profitability and the view that banks have enough capital to handle the negative impact of challenging economic conditions on loan losses over the next 6 to 12 months. The upgrade of the sector is not reflective of a positive outlook for bank earnings over the near term, as RBC CM continues to believe that loan losses will negatively exceed expectations. However, the key to investing in bank shares is not to look at the immediate future for earnings but rather at whether the outlook for future earnings is improving and whether bank capital positions are adequate to face challenges until earnings actually turn. Negative news flow on the economy and credit is likely to continue, and consensus earnings expectations continue to appear vulnerable to further decline. As a result, a pull back in bank shares is quite possible, so the change of view is not a trading call. RBC CM believes that fundamentally, a pullback should be viewed as a buying opportunity as long as key indicators of future profitability trend in the right direction. RBC CM believes that upside in share prices over the next two years if leading indicators continue improving could be in the 40%-80% range on top of the annual dividend yield of 5-7% at current share prices.

Wednesday 29 April 2009 OTTAWA: CENTRAL BANKER SAYS UNPRECEDENTED INTERVENTIONS ONLY A LAST RESORT Bank of Canada Gov. Mark Carney says that the use of non-traditional monetary policies would be used only as a last resort to fight the current recession. Several weeks ago, Mr. Carney mentioned the possibility of the central bank printing large amounts of currency to loosen credit markets and to become involved in the frozen market for non-bank paper assets. Mr. Carney assured the House of Commons finance committee that he has no interest in trying out strategies that are unnecessary. Last week, the bank lowered its growth projection for the economy, saying growth would shrink by three per cent this year, twice the decline its foresaw in January. The governor of the central bank explained that the new forecast was required because the U.S. and Europe had moved more slowly than expected to deal with the worldwide crisis. Mr. Carney says the first sign of whether the U.S. has accelerated its intervention will come next Monday when its releases a report on the top 19 American banks.

Sunday 26 April 2009 OTTAWA: FINANCE MINISTER HOPES FOR G20 COMMITMENT

Saturday 25 April 2009 Banks' capital shortfalls
Americans fret about bank stress tests. Europeans keep their eyes wide shut
Tim Geithner's baptism of fire
The treasury secretary is torn between politics and policy
The Fed and the rating agencies
The Fed is perpetuating a discredited oligopoly
A messy future awaits central bankers
The simple rules by which central banks lived have crumbled. A messier, more political future awaits

Saturday 25 April 2009 G7 offers hope crisis is easing
Finance ministers from the G7 say the world economy is showing positive signs but warn the financial crisis is not over.

Friday 24 April 2009 Regulators Disclose Criteria for Bank ‘Stress Tests’
Federal regulators released the criteria they used to assess the financial health of the nation’s 19 biggest banks on Friday, but provided little new information for investors to distinguish the industry’s weak players from the strong.
In a 21-page report, the Federal Reserve regulators broadly laid out the tools they used to project bank losses if the economy worsens, and officials established an unspecified baseline to measure how much additional capital the banks should add as a buffer against higher losses. But they provided no concrete metrics to assess the depths of the troubles facing the industry or specific banks.

Thursday 23 April 2009 OTTAWA: GOVT. WEIGHS REGULATION OF CREDIT CARD FIRMS
The finance minister, Mr. Flaherty, says the federal government is considering regulating credit card companies but didn't give any information about what form the regulation might take, particularly whether the regulation of interest charges is intended. The comments coincided with testimony before the Senate banking committee by the heads of Visa Canada and MasterCard Canada, who argued against regulation. Tim Wilson of Visa and Devin Stanton of MasterCard argued as well in favour of allowing their firms to enter the debit-card market, which at president is dominated by chartered banks. The price of debit-card purchases is withdrawn directly from customers' bank accounts without charge. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business opposes permitting to credit card firms entry into the debit-card business on the grounds that they'll charge the same high rates as those imposed on their own cards. Mr. Wilson and Mr. Stanton said debit charges would be modest and wouldn't be charged to the customer.

Saturday 18 April 2009 The federal government has named the president and CEO of mortgage giant Fannie Mae, Herbert Allison Jr., to run the government's US$700-billion bank rescue effort. Mr. Allison will assume the position of assistant Treasury secretary for financial stability and will be a counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Mr. Allison will be in charge of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which has injected billions of dollars into the banking industry in the hope of releasing jammed credit. Fannie Mae was one of the principal mortgage firms mired in the subprime mortgage disaster that was one of the original detonators of the world financial crisis.

Wednesday 15 April 2009 OTTAWA: PRINTING PRESS SEEN AS ECONOMY'S SILVER BULLET
A research paper prepared for the C.D. Howe Institute says the Bank of Canada hasn't been as unorthodoxically aggressive as it should be to alleviate the economic recession. Its author, economist David Laidler, says that the central bank's reduction of short-term interest rates won't be of any long-term effectiveness against a shrinking economy and falling inflation rates. Mr. Laidler says that unless the bank takes other action the few encouraging economic signs will wither on the branch. The economist argues that the Bank of Canada should start printing money. Mr. Laidler says that normally the danger of running the printing press is inflation, but that in the present case the odds of an inflation problem arising are slight and that the current recession is a worse one.

Tuesday 14 April 2009
Goldman sparks bank shares rally
Financial shares across Europe rise sharply after US banking giant Goldman Sachs announces surprisingly good results.

Tuesday 14 April 2009 OTTAWA: BUSINESS CONFIDENCE REMAINS ABYSSMAL
The Bank of Canada had mostly, if not entirely, bad news on Monday. According to the central bank's quarterly survey of 100 selected firms, business confidence is negative on a range of questions, including sales volumes, product pricing, investment intentions and credit conditions. However, business sentiment wasn't as negative as it was in the previous survey three months earlier, when it recorded the lowest level since the surveys began in 1997. A separate survey by the Bank of Canada of lenders found that the cost of obtaining credit remains a problem. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada Gov. Mark Carney have made improved credit conditions a key condition for resumption of economic growth in Canada and the world.

April 3, 2009 video with Bill Moyers
The financial industry brought the economy to its knees, but how did they get away with it? With the nation wondering how to hold the bankers accountable, Bill Moyers sits down with William K. Black, the former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. Black offers his analysis of what went wrong and his critique of the bailout

Wednesday 01 April 2009 OTTAWA: DEVELOPMENT BANK ISSUES WARNING
The Business Development Bank of Canada is warning that the ability of Canada to develop the new technologies of the future is in jeopardy because entrepreneurs can't get financing to see them through the recession. The Crown corporation, which helps finance Canadian businesses, says the disappearance of venture capital in the country will snuff out hundreds of innovative small companies in infancy and their technology with them. The assessment was made by Edmee Metivier, the development bank's executive vice president of financing, to House of Commons subcommittee on Tuesday. Ms. Metivier said the BDC is a shareholder in about 150 technology firms and believes it may have to let a majority go to protect the best of these companies from becoming victims of the recession. She added that there are hundreds more such companies across the country that can't find capital to fund research and get new products to the markets.

Friday 27 March 2009 Articles-by-subject alert: Banking, pensions and financial regulation
From Economist.com, Friday March 27th 2009

The following have been newly published on Economist.com:

The G20 and tax-haven hypocrisy
Targeting tax havens
Will banks sell assets?
Are America's banks prepared to sell their toxic assets?
A new effort to sort out America's wretched banks
Tim Geithner's new effort to sort out America's wretched banks
New aspects of American banking regulation are unveiled
Tim Geithner unveils new aspects of American banking regulation
Will Geithner's plan work?</