Archive for the ‘Financial crisis’ Category
The financial system established in England after 1688, based on usurious lending to the state by private bankers, is reaching its final blowout in the form of a series of devastating bubbles and a massive bailout of the financiers with public money. But the issuance of money doesn’t have to be in the hands of a private consortium: another credit system is possible.
Posted by seumasach on September 16, 2008
“Goldman’s profits are likely to have been hit by a dramatic fall-out in commodity prices in August, an area in which the bank is known to take significant positions”
Neatly sidestepping the sub-prime market Goldman look to have been caught up in the commodities bubble. Note that oil has hit $92 on Asian markets this morning: the bubble has burst.
James Quinn
Telegraph
16th September, 2008
Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein is today expected to reassure shareholders in the top-tier investment bank about the outlook despite the turmoil facing financial markets following the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
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Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: failing banks, financila collapse, Goldman | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 15, 2008
The crisis gripping the US financial markets shows no signs of ending after an unprecedented weekend of drama
Richard Adams
Guardian
15th September, 2008
Has Wall Street ever seen a weekend like the one it has just been through? Perhaps, in the depths of the great depression – but nothing in recent memory, not even the collapse of the hedge fund LTCM 10 years ago, comes close to the drama and crisis that the US financial system is going through.
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Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: AIg, financial collapse | 1 Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 15, 2008
Whilst Gordon has now got the idea and is intent on shovelling every last penny the way of the bankers, a problem has arisen: such a policy would sink the £ and the City’s financial primacy with it. The empire is in a quandary.
Bank of England governor threatens to resign if Brown forces through state-backed mortgages
By James Cusick, Westminster Editor
Sunday Herald
THE GOVERNOR of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, has privately warned Downing Street that he will resign if Gordon Brown directs the bank to become the key agency in a state-backed mortgage guarantee system.
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Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: collapse of pound, financial collapse | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 12, 2008
By Sean Farrell, Financial Editor and Stephen Foley in New York
Independent
Friday, 12 September 2008
A desperate attempt by Lehman Brothers to retain its independence looked doomed last night as the US investment bank’s shares plunged yet again and the company began soliciting takeover bids.
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Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: financial collapse, Lehman | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 6, 2008
Ellen Brown
Global Research
5th September, 2008
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own or guarantee nearly half the $12 trillion U.S. mortgage market. Not long ago, they were the darlings of Wall Street, ranking next to U.S. bonds as among the safest and most conservative investments in the world. They are called “government-sponsored enterprises” (GSEs), although they are entirely privately owned and specifically disclaim government backing on their prospectuses. The market has taken these disclaimers with a wink and a nod and has assumed that the GSEs are “too big to fail,” forcing the government to save them from their reckless investment schemes. Fannie and Freddie’s preferred shares have been considered so safe that banking regulators let banks count them in the capital required as a cushion against loan losses. This is now proving to be a serious problem, because both the common and preferred shares of the distressed duo are suddenly plunging. Between May 15 and August 25, Fannie’s common shares lost 77% of their value, while its preferred shares lost 58.8% in that short time. Freddie Mac’s preferred shares plunged even more, down 65.5%.1 That could be a disaster for many banks, which are loaded to the gills with these preferred shares. Banks already reeling from losses on mortgages and mortgage-backed securities are now being hit at the core, shrinking their capital base. Loss of bank capital works as leverage in reverse: at a capital requirement of 10%, $1 lost in capital wipes out $10 in loans. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: failing banks, fanny and freddie, natonalisation | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 6, 2008
Sept. 4, 2008 (EIRNS)—Under intense Congressional pressure, even the Bush Administration Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), since late May, has been doing its job—investigating the commodities futures markets—and the results are getting extremely interesting.
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Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: CFTC, oil speculation | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 6, 2008
John Hoefle
EIR
5th September
While the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has gone to great lengths to assure the public that their bank deposits are safe—at least up to the insured limit—it is obvious that the agency lacks the capital required to back up its claims. As long as the FDIC closes only small banks, it can meet its responsibilities, but it does not have the resources to even begin to deal with the magnitude of the crisis it faces.
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Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: FDIC, financial collapse, Lehman | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 4, 2008
Phew – Thank you Evan Davis for restoring some sanity ContractJournal
I freely admit this is an indulgent blog and rather outside what I see as my scope, but I felt an obligation to make some points on the subject of the attacks on Alistair Darling and to record a thank you to Evan Davis of the BBC for saving me time in expressing many of my concerns (not that he was or probably is aware of my concerns).
I had been fearing that I was alone – and perhaps misguided – in my assessment of the holiday outpourings of Chancellor Alistair Darling that appeared in the Guardian.
I had been of the view that the Government had, up to that point, been either underplaying or was simply blissfully unaware of the scale of the potential economic problems we face. Admittedly, the strength of my views may be partly down to the housing industry – a sector I cover – being at the centre of the storm. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: Alistair Darling, economic collapse, Evan Davis | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 4, 2008
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: Add new tag, Ireland | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 3, 2008
“UK banks have been campaigning for an extension to the scheme, under which the Bank provides banks with highly liquid government bonds in return for illiquid AAA-rated mortgage-backed securities.”
Good to see the bankers remembering their student days and getting down to Threadneedle Street with their banners and placards:
What do we want?
Public money!
When do we want it?
Now!
Patrick Hosking
Times
2nd September, 2008
British banks soon could be scrambling for short-term funding once more amid reports that supplies from Threadneedle Street and from Frankfurt may be drying up.
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Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: financial collapse | Leave a Comment »
Posted by alfied on September 3, 2008
Even the Sun Newspaper, which can be fairly described as a jingoistic rag for the hard of thinking, is starting to whimper. Although nowhere near conveying what lies in store to their loyal readership, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for Britain’s biggest selling daily to deny reality.
However this is probably about as far as the their Media will go. Declaring that Britain is in terminal decline, financially, intellectually and morally bankrupt, is not something they are likely to do anytime soon.
The SUN
By IAN KING
Business Editor and
GRAEME WILSON
Deputy Political Editor
BRITAIN will be the only one of the world’s seven richest nations to slide into recession this year, experts warned last night. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: End of empire | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 