SubscribeAll Posts Tagged With: "Treasury Department"
Why the $700 Billion Bailout Bill Will Fail US Taxpayers
My sister lives in a landmark building in Coral Gables, Fla. There was a fire in one apartment in the building. After that fire was brought under control, the fire department – for some unknown reason – dropped a hose in the burned apartment, and left the water running … for hours.
That inane maneuver destroyed many apartments, crippled the building’s infrastructure and resulted in the building being temporarily condemned. The entire building was closed down for many months. Every person who lived there had to relocate. My sister, fortunately, had the wherewithal to take up temporary residence in the world-famous…
15Dec2008 | Money Morning | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Treasury Department is Choking on Debt, But You Don’t Have To
The U.S. Treasury Department announced Nov. 3 that it intended to borrow a record $550 billion in the fourth quarter. That represents a staggering $408 billion increase over Treasury’s borrowing estimate from early August and includes $260 billion for the recapitalization of U.S. banks.
Make no mistake about it: There will be enough U.S. Treasury bonds to choke on, as the government tries to finance this debt.
In the three months to Sept. 30, the Treasury Department borrowed $530 billion; in the first quarter of the New Year – which ends March 31 – it expects to borrow $368 billion. The…
7Nov2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | ContinuedWhen will stock market selling end?
All year long, as I guided my subscribers into the intermediate-term rallies and then the subsequent corrections, I said in these columns that the rallies would be worth going after but should be sold into as they failed, and downside positions should be taken, as our work called for "the market’s low for the year to take place in the Oct/Nov time frame."
But this far down? No, I did not expect this. Our downside target for the Oct/Nov low was the lower limit of the Dow’s bear market trading band, which was around 10,250. That would have been a serious…
15Oct2008 | Street Smart Report | Comments Off | ContinuedMoney Markets: How Safe Is Your Cash?
Last week investors panicked. You can’t really blame them considering the state stocks and money markets were in:
-A 158-year-old investment bank failed.
-The nation’s largest brokerage rushed into the arms of Bank of America to stave off a similar fate.
-The world’s largest insurance company was on the verge of going belly up before Uncle Sam showed up at its bedside.
-And the country’s oldest money market fund – the Reserve Primary Fund – “broke the buck,” handing back shareholders less than a dollar a share.
Apparently, investors found this last development the most unnerving of all. To paraphrase Mel Brooks: Fat-cat bankers and…
25Sep2008 | Investment U | Comments Off | ContinuedFed Steps in and Bails Out AIG to the Tune of $85 Billion in Taxpayer Funds
In a stunning reversal, the U.S. Federal Reserve offered American International Group Inc. (AIG) access to $85 billion in exchange for a 79.9% stake in the largest domestic insurer.
After AIG shares were violently whipsawed in the market, first on reports of a possible bridge loan, then later on reports that the $40 billion emergency loan request from the government had been denied, representatives from the Fed and U.S. Treasury Department met to discuss the fate of the insurer deemed by many “too large to fail”.
“The administration is approaching an unprecedented step, but unfortunately we are living in unprecedented times. Hearing…
18Sep2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | ContinuedInside Wall Street: Why Hocus-Pocus Accounting Will Perpetuate the Capital Markets Credit Crisis
I once asked my friend – world-famous magician Lance Burton – if he could show me how he did a particular trick.
“Can you keep a secret?†he asked.
“Of course,†I replied.
“So can I,†he said.
The point is that the U.S. Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury Department and federal regulators are keeping secret the true precariousness of the capital markets credit crisis and the banking system’s close-to-the-precipice predicament. They need to give banks and investment banks room to maneuver their balance sheets by whatever “hocus-pocus accounting†methods they can utilize – without being outright fraudulent. It’s a matter of putting on…
10Sep2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | ContinuedCracks in the Monetary Facade
We are writing today from the annual Agora Financial Investment Symposium in Vancouver, British Columbia. Your editors are currently traveling from Europe to Canada and finishing the companion book to I.O.U.S.A., respectively, so today’s missive will be shorter than usual.
The Telegraph warns this morning of a global financial meltdown. Although the IMF has upgraded the world forecast for 2008, they have also said there is a “chance of a global recession.” Hmmm…
The eurozone is sliding into a recession faster than the United States, the British paper continues. The U.S. current fiscal crisis is the push over the edge that the global…
22Jul2008 | Daily Reckoning | Comments Off | ContinuedAs Treasury’s Paulson Prescribes Bailout for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Guru Jim Rogers Predicts an “Unmitigated Disaster”
Standing on the steps of the U.S. Treasury building across the street from the White House, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson asked Congress for the power to prop up Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), the two failing mortgage giants involved with nearly half of the $12 trillion U.S. mortgage market.
“The president has asked me to work with Congress to act on this plan immediately,” Paulson said Sunday. “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play a central role in our housing finance system and must continue to do so in their current form as shareholder-owned companies. Their support for the housing market is particularly…
15Jul2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | ContinuedThe Treasury Proposes More Alphabet Agencies
While the Treasury Department’s proposals for overhauling regulatory oversight of the financial industry have been in preparation almost since the day Secretary Paulson assumed office, their release at this time almost certainly is a reflection of the realities and massive concerns which have arisen resulting from the near-collapse of Bear Stearns.
As its guiding principle in preparation of the proposals, Treasury states that it “has developed each and every recommendation in this report in the spirit of promoting market stability and consumer protection.â€
The short-term recommendations contained within the proposals seem likely to receive immediate consideration by Congress. The intermediate-term and longer-term…
31Mar2008 | William Kurtz | Comments Off | Continued
Loading ...
