Free Republic

My colleagues Hester Peirce and Robert Greene have put together a series of charts showing the recent concentration of the U.S. banking system — small banks are disappearing and large banks are growing in number. Here is one of their charts that shows the changes: Repeated waves of bank regulation — most recently Dodd-Frank — can be particularly burdensome for small banks. Peirce and Green explain: Regulatory compliance can be a particular challenge for small banks with limited compliance expertise. Regulatory expenses absorb a larger percentage of small banks’ budgets than of their larger counterparts’ budgets. Although correlation is not...

he economy isn't growing fast enough to lower unemployment and still needs the benefit of the Federal Reserve's $600 billion Treasury bond-purchase program. That was the assessment Wednesday of Fed policymakers as they ended their first meeting of the year. The Fed made no changes to the program, and the decision was unanimous. The decision came from a new lineup of voting members that includes two officials who have criticized the bond purchases. They have said the purchases could eventually ignite inflation or speculative buying in assets like stocks. The bond-buying program is intended to lower rates on loans and...

For many years, I’ve been a fan of Warren Buffett’s long term approach to value investing. Understanding the value of a company, regardless of its momentary stock price, is a great long term investing strategy. But it pains me whenever I read commentary from Buffett that glosses over reality or is somehow self-serving. His OpEd in the NYT today – Pretty Good for Government Work – paints an artificially rosy picture of the Bailout, ignores the negatives, and omits his own financial interest in government actions. What might he have written if Sir Warren was dosed with some sodium pentothal...

Posted by Karl Denninger in Editorial at 08:12 Ok, You're A Crook Obama I was willing to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt. Not any more: May 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration may call for stripping the Securities and Exchange Commission of some of its duties under a regulatory reorganization that could be unveiled as soon as next week, people familiar with the matter said. The proposal, still being drafted, is likely to give the Federal Reserve more power to supervise financial firms deemed too big to fail. The Fed may inherit some SEC functions, with others...