Posted on 06/14/2009 11:20:29 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
As focus turns to regulation reform, she says ''many more bank failures'' lay ahead.
Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, said Friday that while the crisis that swept through the financial world last year has subsided somewhat, it was far from over and there would be "many more bank failures" ahead.
"I think there's still some challenges, I think we need to be realistic. There are still some troubled assets on the books and we still have an economy that's under significant stress," said Bair in a 90-minute interview with Forbes reporters and editors on Friday.
"We still don't know how deep the recession is going to be," she said, adding, "we'll still be well below what we were in the S&L days."
Her cautious comments come as investors have been increasingly cheered by news in the banking sector. Markets were reassured by the results of government "stress tests" that evaluated how the 19 largest banks would perform during a worsening recession. This week, 10 of the country's largest financial firms were approved to pay back the money they received from the government's TARP program. Most important, banks now find themselves able to raise private capital at levels not seen since the panic that ensued with the collapse of Lehman Brothers ( LEHMQ - news - people ) last September.
Still, Bair reminded, 21 insured institutions failed in the first three months of 2009, the most bank failures since 1992. The FDIC's list of problem banks grew to 305 from 252. Those 305 banks at risk of failure have some $220 billion in assets. The good news: The type of panicked runs that brought down Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, where the banks found themselves unable to obtain short-term financing and facing liquidity stress have likely passed.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
She needs to get the memo that everything will be fine once we take over health care, finish bank nationalization; inflate the currency beyond recognition and get involved in World War III......
Happy days are just around the corner following a soft economic landing in a deep deep pile of warm brown stuff.....freshen your drinks folks?
“Would somebody please get this woman on the Obama bus or under it?”
She was appointed to a Five-Year term as Chairman three years ago by President Bush. She is 55 Years old and probably doesn’t give a rat’s ass what Prez Obama thinks.
June 2011 is two years away, after the mid-term elections. If the economy is still in the tank, Obama looks like a dope (while she looks like a realist).
If the economy is churning along full steam ahead two years from now, she can probably retire.
Has anyone else been hearing radio adds for FDIC insured banks with a narrator that sounds like a soul singer trying to sex you up?
Sometimes Cavuto has her on for an interview. She’s very blunt and not what you’d called “on cue” with the other messages coming from the Obama administration.
Anybody else smell a potential “run on the banks” a la 1932? Fellow Freepers, I urge you to keep a reserve of greenbacks. Even the mighty Fed guvmint cannot save us if the Big 7 banks go belly up.
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