Posted on 01/23/2009 12:27:03 PM PST by Golddigger3
Banking regulators across the country are struggling with a new phenomenon: Banks are failing with accelerating speed, exposing holes in the regulatory infrastructure designed to catch collapsing institutions. . . .
Of the 25 banks that failed in 2008, nine toppled before regulators publicly cracked down, including IndyMac Bank and the banking operations of Wahington Mutual Inc., two of the biggest seizures in U.S. history. . . .
The problem illustrates a fundamental weakness in the country’s regulatory infrastructure. The government is positioned to help banks if there is erosion in their capital levels, referring to the cushion banks hold against unexpected losses.
But that isn’t what happened last year. Instead, many banks faced a liquidity crisis as customers and business partners lost faith, shutting off the banks’ access to short-term cash. [Have we already had runs on various banks?]
“In 2008, we have seen institutions fail with greater velocity than in prior years,” says Scott Polakoff, senior deputy director at the Office of Thrift Supervision. “That greater velocity is driven by liquidity crises, not capital crises.” . . .
“For the most part, I think it was a tidal wave,” says Rob Braswell, the top bank regulator in Georgia, where five banks failed last year. Only one was under a public enforcement action at the time. [If last year was a tidal wave, what will this year be since the loses are now seen as much, much greater]. . .
Liquidity kills banks faster than anything, and regulators just don’t have time to issue cease-and-desist orders and take formal enforcement actions,” says Jaret Seiberg, a Washington analyst at Stanford Group, a financial-services company. “We’ve seen banks die within a matter of days and weeks, You go from having a cold to buried.”
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Got any data to back up that claim? Their prospectus's say otherwise. Of course they could be lying.The following two bullets are pasted from the iShares prospecuts for the Comex Gold Trust(IAU). The third bullet is the daily accounting of the exact amount of physical gold they are holding, from their web site.
According to Wikipedia's Gold Reserves article the two largest gold ETF's together hold about 800 tons of gold, making them the 7th largest holder of gold. The largest holder is the "Eurozone", which represents the combined holdings of the Central Banks that make up the Euro currency, and holds over 10,000 tons. The 6th largest is Switzerland which has 1,064 tons. Japan was the 7th largest, but they have been passed by the ETF's which keep getting bigger.
All of the above COULD be lies, perhaps.
Do you have any sources for your claims, or did you just make them up?
I only borrowed for my primary home and it’s been paid for for 19 years.
I bought my condo and everything else i’ve ever oened including my airplane for cash.
I have a convience card (credit card to you) but it is always paid in full as soon as the monthly statement is available.
No one should be allowed to default on any loan or contract.
I believe they passed a bill allowing people to forgo the mandatory distributions this year to give them time to recover their losses.
To elaborate on that some...
The FED, the Banks, and Institutional investment houses created an environment which drove housing catastrophically high and completely dislocated credit and money under a system that remains patently unconstitutional.
The FED was SPECIFICALLY formed by private banks under the promise that what is occuring right now WOULD NEVER HAPPEN. We got sold a bill of goods by these crooks to create the system, one which I might add enables the ONLY means by which vast enough quantities of debt based “money” can be created to allow politicians to create social welfare systems to insure their perpetual re-election.
Under this crooked facade of a system I don’t begrudge ANY working individual who bought a home for their living quarters at grossly inflated prices and which has susequently lost say, 50+% of its value, just giving the keys back to the bank and walking away from it.
You’re under NO obligation to sequester yourself in perpetual debt servitude while the people and institutions that created this monstrosity loot your hard earned-to-pay- taxes at a rate akin to a firehose wide open.
You can NOT judge someone walking away from financial servitude during this disaster as “immoral” (and we’re NOT talking about the speculators here, screw them, risk was in the mix). The average working people have held up their end of the bargain at levels ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL over the decades and it’s time they say “**** THIS NOISE!”
No. There is a reason we have bankruptcy laws. The alternative you suggest leads to debtors prisons, etc. It is a fact of capitalism that failures occur. It is a fact of capitalism that capitalists take risks. A "no default ever" rule doesn't make sense. Say you ran a business and had it failed. You owe $10 million to the bank and have nothing. How are you going to pay that back? Does the bank now own you? Do you owe them 100% of everything you make? Not possible, you still have to eat and sleep to have a job.
“What incentive do CEO’s have it this year’s bonus gives him set-for-life financial independence.”
For that reason in addition to cutting top CEOs back to the 40 to 1 CEO pay/low level worker pay ratios that existed 35 years ago, they should also pay large bonuses over a period of years say 1/5th each year for 5 years. Also only allow them to cash in 1/5th of their stock options each year. At least then they would have a 5 year viewpoint rather than a 1 year viewpoint.
Thanks for the link. Are the numbers for the green circles and the blue circles the value of the company, or the price per share. Could you explain it for us neophytes to the stock market.
1st there is no reason to ever get to the point of 10 million in debt.
When my 57 year old business was failing because of illegal aliens invading the industry I put over $250k of my personal savings into it before closing the corporation so that it owed no one a cent when I closed it.
Bring back debtor prisons!!!!
No one should be allowed to default on any loan or contract.
Nor should anyone be able to fraudulently pyramid the money supply at 60-1 leverage and do it by roping in myriads of people who in any real world arena would never be able service a large debt.
If you recall, in that old document that the current crop of bottom feeders in DC seem to be utilizing as toilet paper, the penalty for debasing the currency is death...
“roping in myriads of people who in any real world arena would never be able service a large debt.”
They were forced to make those loans by the clinton administration.
Those people thar took out those loans and are defaulting should be thrown outin the street.
If their loans are modified I consider it theft from me.
I mean NO disrespect here, contrarily, that’s WAY cool on your part.
But you are/were an anachronism. You are a Morgan dollars/Silver and Gold Certificates/Double Eagles guy who operated up to and past the threshold of the total fiat money and financial instrument oligarchs.
The system is designed to work people who operate on your principles out. One of the reasons there’s so many illegals here is because their own country is a kleptocracy which has repeatedly devalued their currency. It’s encouraged that you survive by loading on massive debt and then attempting to find a means to garner a return that supports servicing it.
That helps keep the politicians in “pander” money and creates an expanding underclass for them to pander to...
They were forced to make those loans by the clinton administration. Those people thar took out those loans and are defaulting should be thrown outin the street. If their loans are modified I consider it theft from me.
Making those loans was one thing, but the destroying factor was people figuring out a means to push them off on others in packages and the subsequent evolution of an industry to "insure" them via unregulated instruments. If it weren't for the latter (and it applies to all types of loans as we'll be seeing going to the next couple of quarters) we'd be barely noticing the forclosures and the people would just be out on their asses.
As it stands, these instruments and the corruption of their creators has quite possibly destroyed the economies of the western world.
The thing about your comment on modifications is spot on too. When the politicians address the "poor wittle homeowner", the do not just nothing for the mortgage package holder, they actually throw more chaos into the unravelling system. The modification "steals" downstream revenue from tranches cut out of the morgage blocks and still throws the CDS and CDO instruments that back them in default...
Look at the top left corner, under “Banks: Market Cap”.
Hi
IAU is owned by Barclays
British banks are awful right now
IUA is small compared to GLD
Which is a much bigger gold bullion ETF
By the way there is GDX which gold mining ETF
Also other gold ETFs that your bet is multiplied by two (leveraged) and you can bet on gold going up or down
Real hard money people don’t trust these gold and silver ETFs
They vastly prefer physical gold and silver
They have their reasons and one is that they don’t think GLD can deliver in a serious situation
They don’t think COMEX can either on gold futures in a serious situation
Both are derided as paper gold
Premiums on gold coins are 10% above COMEX spot prices
You should ask yourself why the physical gold trades so far above the theoretical paper gold
The answer is the paper gold price is fake and manipulated while real gold (physical in your possession) plods along
Your best gold reference
http://www.jsmineset.com/
You mean collateralized mortgage obligations. CMOs. Bundles of mortgages traded like bonds and other securities and that usually have derivative bets embedded
and the subsequent evolution of an industry to "insure" them via unregulated instruments.
Unregulated instruments = credit default swaps (which are derivatives) that insured the CMOs (phony insurance to be sure) so that the stooge rating agencies would give these (toxic) bundles an A+ rating. Thus making them marketable
If it weren't for the latter (and it applies to all types of loans as we'll be seeing going to the next couple of quarters) we'd be barely noticing the foreclosures and the people would just be out on their asses.
Go buy GLD ETF
Just be careful because in a real crunch they can’t deliver. My opinion is that if a wave of redemptions (I want my money) hits them then they cannot deliver
But if you own gold directly with no intermediary you are in the best position. This means gold and silver buried in your back yard or in a safe deposit box .... you get the idea
Those are the complete holdings (Value) of the companies before and after... Something the Government and press are not telling you, The information has to searched out even though WE are paying the bills!...
Just shows the devastating losses, these banks are trying to write off... and its only going to get worse, you have to remember that BILLIONS have been pumped into these institution with little or no impact and now you can see why.
The Dux Bank is really nifty. I can't see breaking the bank to buy the bank, however
I sure am glad that we own our house and vehicles.
For all the wheelers and dealers who talk about how much money you can make by wheeling and dealing, well, if it works for them, good for them.
I can sleep at night.
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