NewsTrust - Finance - Most Recent Stories: News

Fed under fire as public anger mounts

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Tom Raum - Nov. 23 (News Analysis) - Suddenly the Federal Reserve is everybody's punching bag. Strip the Fed of its bank regulation powers, some in Congress are demanding. Get probing audits of its behind-the-scenes operations, others say. The chairman of the Federal Reserve Board is always fair game for criticism and second-guessing, usually over interest rate actions. But this year the criticism is much broader as Congress responds to widespread public anger that the Fed bailed out Wall Street but not ordinary Americans, and with unemployment in double digits.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Danger lies in threat to Fed independence

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Alan Blinder - Nov. 19 (Special Report) - H.R. 1207 seems innocuous enough. The overall question it raises sounds fair: After all, why should the Fed be immune from audit?

NewsTrust Rating: 2.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

House Proposal Would Allow Feds To Break Up Biggest Banks

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Shahien Nasiripour - Nov. 18 (News Report) - A key House Democrat released on Wednesday his much-awaited proposal to end "too big to fail": Let the federal government break them apart. Paul Kanjorski's amendment would give federal regulators the authority to force the country's biggest financial firms or those that pose the biggest risk to the financial system to sell assets or entire divisions.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

GOP Blocks Freeze On Credit Card Interest Rate Hikes

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Ryan Grim - Nov. 18 (News) - Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic effort Wednesday to immediately freeze increases in credit card interest rates, fees and finance charges. Shortly after Democrats passed credit card reform legislation in May, the card companies began jacking up rates in advance of its implementation. Major parts of the act won't take effect until February and August of 2010. Earlier this month, to combat the rate hikes, the House passed legislation to move the effective date up to December 1st. The Senate moves much more slowly

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

What is expert advice worth on the stock market?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Haaretz - By Eli Malki - Nov. 12 (Special Report) - How seriously should you take their forecasts? Does an understanding of economics and the capital market give you tools to peer into the future? A paper by psychology professors Gustaf Torngren and Henry Montgomery of Stockholm University - "Worse Than Chance? Performance and Confidence among Professionals and Laypeople in the Stock Market" - demonstrates that Lao Tzu nailed it on the head.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Nine states pose fiscal threat to US recovery

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Financial Times - By Nicole Bullock - Nov. 11 (News Report) - Some of the same financial troubles that have pushed California toward economic disaster are wreaking havoc in nine other states and posing a threat to the nascent recovery, according to research released

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Anti-Statism In America

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By John B. Judis - Nov. 11 (News Analysis) - Liberals and progressives have fared poorly in the face of this staunch anti-statist tradition, but there have still been periods when they have broken through and enacted major reforms--during Woodrow Wilson’s first term, Franklin Roosevelt’s first term, Lyndon Johnson’s first two years, and Richard Nixon’s first term. They succeeded for different reasons at different times, but several conditions recur.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Windfall Is Seen as Bank Bonuses Are Paid in Stock

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Louise Story - Nov. 08 (Special Report) - Even as Washington tries to rein in Wall Street pay, bankers are likely to make unusually large gains on the stock grants and options they received after shares in their companies fell sharply during the financial meltdown.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Why did blue-chip Goldman take a walk on subprime's wild side?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

McClatchy - By Greg Gordon - Nov. 04 (News Report) - Goldman Sachs was one of the last Wall Street giants to enter the subprime lending world, but when it did, it quickly climbed into bed with profligate, highflying firms — companies such as New Century Financial Corp. In at least nine deals from 2002 to 2007, Goldman sold bonds backed by more than $5 billion of New Century's mortgages, one even after the California lender's underwriting criteria all but disintegrated and a cash squeeze paralyzed its operation. Goldman also marketed at least three secret offshore deals bearing New Century's name.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

CIT files for bankruptcy: A prepackaged pratfall

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Economist - Nov. 02 (News Analysis) - THE most gut-wrenching failures may be over, but the financial crisis continues to claim the occasional big victim. CIT, a lender to small and medium-sized businesses, from clothing retailers to Dunkin’ Donuts franchisees, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday November 1st after failing to garner enough support for a debt-restructuring plan. With $71 billion in assets, the century-old firm is only one-ninth the size of Lehman Brothers, which collapsed in September 2008. Nevertheless, its Chapter 11 filing augurs ill for America’s corporate minnows, whose financing options have narrowed dramatically over the past year.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Why Keep Geithner?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

MSNBC - By Dylan Ratigan - Nov. 02 (News Analysis) - A year ago it was revealed to the American people that our banking system was a legalized Ponzi scheme in which bank and insurance CEOs paid themselves billions of dollars in personal compensation to lend and insure assets with money they didn't have

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

How To Spam Facebook Like A Pro: An Insiders Confession

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

TechCrunch - By Dennis Yu - Nov. 02 (Special Report) - How To Spam Facebook Like A Pro: An Insiders Confession

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Economy grows by 3.5 percent, signals recession may have ended

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Neil Irwin - Oct. 29 (News Report) - The U.S. economy roared to life in late summer, as gross domestic product rose at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the July through September period. It was the best quarter for growth in two years though analysts warned that it was fueled largely by government recovery programs.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

American bank failures: An uncelebrated century

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Oct. 26 (News Analysis) - Partners Bank of Naples, Florida, earned a dubious distinction on Friday October 23rd. It became the 100th American bank failure of the year. On the same day six other lenders—two more in Florida and banks in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Georgia—joined the rollcall of failure in the aftermath of the credit crisis.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Trying to Rein In ‘Too Big to Fail’ Institutions

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Stephen Labaton - Oct. 26 (News Report) - Congress and the Obama administration are about to take up one of the most fundamental issues stemming from the near collapse of the financial system last year — how to deal with institutions that are so big that the government has no choice but to rescue them when they get in trouble.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

How to change too-big-to-fail ethic?

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Philadelphia Inquirer - By Harold Brubaker - Oct. 26 (News Report) - Thirty years ago, the biggest bank in Philadelphia was in deep trouble because of a bad bet on interest rates. First Pennsylvania, then the oldest bank in the nation, had invested heavily in long-term government securities paying fixed rates of interest. When Paul Volcker, then the chairman of the Federal Reserve, raised interest rates in 1978 to fight inflation, the bank was crushed; it had to pay more to borrow than it earned on the bonds.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

U.S. to Order Steep Pay Cuts at Firms That Got Most Aid

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Stephen Labaton - Oct. 22 (News Report) - The seven companies that received the biggest bailouts are expected to cut the salaries of their 25 best-paid executives by an average of about 90 percent from last year.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Wall Street's Naked Swindle

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Rolling Stone - By Matt Taibbi - Oct. 20 (Special Report) - Like all the great merchants of the bubble economy, Bear and Lehman were leveraged to the hilt and vulnerable to collapse. Many of the methods that outsiders used to knock them over were mostly legal: Credit markers were pulled, rumors were spread through the media, and legitimate short-sellers pressured the stock price down. But when Bear and Lehman made their final leap off the cliff of history, both undeniably got a push — especially in the form of a flat-out counterfeiting scheme called naked short-selling.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

How Moody's sold its ratings -- and sold out investors

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

McClatchy - By Kevin G. Hall - Oct. 18 (Investigative Report) - As the housing market collapsed in late 2007, Moody's Investors Service, whose investment ratings were widely trusted, responded by purging analysts and executives who warned of trouble and promoting those who helped Wall Street plunge

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Obama advisers say all options weighed for creating jobs, let stimulus spending keep working

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Douglass K Daniels - Oct. 18 (News Report) - WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is considering all options to create jobs, including another stimulus package, while trying to pull the economy out of a deep recession and deal with a record deficit, White House advisers said Sunday. With more

NewsTrust Rating: 2.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

As Foreclosures Hit All-Time High, Wall Street on Pace to Hand Out Record $140B in Employee Bonuses

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By William Black, JUAN GONZALEZ,AMY GOODMAN - Oct. 15 (News Report) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average has topped 10,000 for the first time in a year, as JPMorgan Chase reported massive profits in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that major US banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their employees about $140 billion this year—a record high. But on Main Street, foreclosures are also at record levels, and the official unemployment rate is expected to top ten percent.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Geithner Aides Reaped Millions Working for Banks, Hedge Funds

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bloomberg - By Robert Schmidt - Oct. 14 (News Report) - Some of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s closest aides, none of whom faced Senate confirmation, earned millions of dollars a year working for Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and other Wall Street firms, according to financial disclosure forms.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Snowe Voting Yes On Senate Finance Health Care Reform Bill

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Ryan Grim, Jeff Muskus, Sam Stein - Oct. 13 (News Report) - Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said Tuesday that she intends to vote for the Senate Finance Committee's health care reform package. She cautioned that her vote should be seen as a sign of her faith in the process going forward, not as support for the final package that will arrive on the Senate floor. "Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it," said Snowe. "Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls, and I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time." Snowe's statement came several hours before a scheduled committee vote. "My vote today is my vote today. It doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow," she said. It does keep her at the negotiating table and at the center of the debate; Snowe risked marginalizing herself if she voted no. Snowe is well aware of the math. Her vote, she said, comes with knowledge that Democrats don't need Republicans to pass the landmark legislation.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average - 7 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

US FDIC Chief: "Too Big to Fail" Must End for All

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By David Lawder - Oct. 05 (News Report) - FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, speaking to the Institute of International Finance meeting here, said a U.S. proposal to create the authority to shut down failing systemically important financial firms may need to be extended to insurers and hedge funds.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Coalition Talks: Merkel's New Government Unlikely to Pursue Radical Reforms

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Der Spiegel - Sep. 28 (News Report) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and their new partners, the Free Democrats, could reach a coalition deal by the end of October. But it may not be easy. Tax cuts and burgeoning government debt could slow down the talks.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer