Note, however, the Bloomberg report that shows Citibank returning to profitability this quarter. Analysts' estimates on Bloomberg all show BofA, Wells Fargo, and JP Morgan significantly profitable for the year. There are reports BofA may be able to raise private equity, and they say they are loaning massively. As long as these people are not taking new TARP money, why pull the trigger on nationalization? Why not some forbearance?
ThingsComeUndone
· 8 months ago
Because we do not trust their numbers anymore a year ago BOA and the rest all looked great Kramer and Ben Stein said so....that has since proven false.
Reason0Politics1
· 8 months ago
"The banks' potentially huge losses, which could be contained if the economy quickly recovers"
ROFLzzzzz
bacalove
· 8 months ago
It is very Unpatriotic that every morning Morning Joe opens up with how Team Obama is so Confused and so muddled, when in fact he has been very clear about getting America back on track in the many avenues which have been neglected for all of these years. This assumption is false when in fact Team Obama has been clear that they are doing Stress Tests on the banks to figure out how to proceed. Why that cannot be allowed to take place by some in the media, well we know the answer to that, Politics. And, actually is Unpatriotic to the American people to continue to falsely accuse Team Obama for actions that are not real and to pretend things are so confused when they have never been so clear. Daily they come out with their plans for the American people. And, please media, stop saying Main Street is confused, we are not. They are instituting policies for us now. When GOP bring up the era of "easy money" is over, we could ask, easy money for whom and to whom? Not us, not Main Street...
As of yesterday, robocalls are going out to ask people to sign up to restructure thier mortgage (that is not confusion but action on behalf of the American people.) It is too bad that when Republicans had their chance they did nothing for the people but use the word No, No, No, so it is no wonder they think Team Obama are doing to many things at once, being the party of no action that they were.
Let this Team have their chance and stop being unpatriotic, please.
Older_Wiser
· 8 months ago
Miserable Jackoff is unwatchable and so is his puppet, Moronic Zombie. How do you stand it?
bacalove
· 8 months ago
I can't, but since knowledge is power, I need to know what lies they are chanting today so I can hopefully disavow it.
Older_Wiser
· 8 months ago
I understand. This morning, following their re-run of Pres Obama's announcement on reversing Bush's banning of funding for embryonic stem cell research, CSPAN had on a bunch of RW lunatics raving against it. I've found once you understand the kernel of their "arguments" you've heard it all.
bacalove
· 8 months ago
However, they know that if you repeat it often enough, long enough and strong enough, people will start to believe it's true..., that is the danger in staying silent on their tactics.
LuZenMyMnd
· 8 months ago
LOL I wonder the same thing! But yet....at times I do while moving from room to room getting ready for work. And you gave them Both appropriate names, she sits and nods and bobbles her head, then tries to say something "quirky and cute" while he acts like a raging freakin bull dog.
This morning when he started in w/Cramer I turned off. As soon as I heard they were making Cramer a victim of the W.H. that was it for me! What happened to common sense and pulling together instead of constant criticizing. EVERYBODY'S got a plan........NOW.
Older_Wiser
· 8 months ago
But, but, but--Chris! Ken Lewis says all is well with BofA! He's raising "new capital" from private sources!! Yet BofA and Citi both remain under $5/share.
Buyer beware...
pdxprobert
· 8 months ago
Some of the big banks were forced to take TARP money because if only certain banks accepted it, it would cause a run on those banks, so all the big banks had to take some money... i don't know B of A's specific situation as they may be having problems with their acquisitions of Countrywide and Merril .. apparently stemming from some undisclosed aspects of thier books that they didnt know about until after the deal was made...
Older_Wiser
· 8 months ago
OT, but our president is a gifted multi-tasker. And who says he's not doing enough?
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama ordered federal agencies to get legal reviews of statements that his predecessors, including George W. Bush, used to challenge parts of new laws they viewed as unconstitutional.
Obama, in a two-page memorandum he issued yesterday, also preserved the right to rely on the so-called signing statements to make similar challenges.
[snip]
Obama’s memorandum instructed federal agencies to ask the attorney general’s office for guidance before relying on a past signing statement as a reason to disregard a statute’s provision. He said there can be “no doubt that the practice of issuing such statements can be abused,” words that signaled his latest break from Bush’s approach to executive authority.
Obama said he would attach signing statements to legislation “only when it is appropriate to do so as a means of discharging my constitutional responsibilities.” He also laid out a set of principles that will govern his use of signing statements. (more at bloomberg.com)
Indigo
· 8 months ago
it's perfectly true that the bank losses would be quickly recovered if the economy were to turn around. So would my nest egg and so would many peoples' 401ks. The issue as it stands isn't about that, true as it might be, the issue is that only now are the auditors beginning to understand the extent of the damage. It's so much worse than anyone imagined.
Remember 9/11? The extent of the damage wasn't clear for months because the surface of the ruin was only the surface. Once the contractors started to dig into the mess in order to clear it away, it became clear that under the mess was another bigger mess. Thus too, the banking system.
Phil
· 8 months ago
My question is why on earth did the government allow any bank to become too big to fail?
Maybe somone needs to take a real close look the next time a financial institution announces a merger or acquisition. I've lost count of how many times my bank was bought out by another, always larger bank over the last 30 years.
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 8 months ago
Keith Olbermann answered your question last night.
Thousands of financial services "industry" lobbyists on Capitol Hill since the 1980s, in essence, rewrote the laws and Congress rolled over. Travelers and Citicorp merged even before the repeal of Glass-Steagall, knowing that that the law was going to be changed (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999).
The Commodities Futures Modernization Act (2000) was passed on the last day of Congress without anyone debating it. And nobody read it, either.
pdxprobert
· 8 months ago
Congress is just as responsible for this mess as are the bankers... I think thats why we don't see any prosecutions for malfeasance... the public wants justice... who will pay for this destruction of our economy besides the taxpayers? this we must look forward ruse, only works so long...
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 8 months ago
When Bank of America's Eloise Hale lies like this:
"We do not believe our derivatives exposure is a threat to the bank's solvency,"
there can be no investor confidence in American capitalism.
She should say, as we know, "Bank of America has been insolvent for six months because of our derivatives exposure."
ThingsComeUndone
· 8 months ago
You want a plan here is one all the hedgefunds got bank loans at $30 to every $1 of assets to buy companies they put up their own stock or the stock of companies they already owned as collateral. That stock has now dropped in value. The banks should be asking the hedges for more collateral for these loans. Notice Mitt sold 2 of his four mansions recently in a down real esate market I think that was a forced sale. We need more of them even if the hedgefunds go under.
As you rush toward the abyss America, realize that this is your final wake-up call.. For God's sake, let your financial institutions fail. Most of them deserve to fail. Let those that are currently making it, prove that it can be done. Chapter 11 is not a four-letter word. Charity begets more charity..and more...and.... Save jobs? What will they do when unemplyment funds are exhausted ? Is American ingenuity and self-reliance dead? Are you becoming a nation of beggars and the king of the major debtors. Is this really the decline of the American Empire?
Capitalism in an un-modified form won't do the job for you. The current crisis is testament to this., and something of a difficult lesson in humility.
America, read the history of FDR, one of your true champions who, unflinchingly, toughly did what had to be done; stop pretending you're not on the verge of a depression. Stop holding out your hand for more and more of what's left of the good life. Are those tent cities on the outskirts of towns by the RR tracks not beginning to look a little like the 1930's hobbo jungles?; or the ever-growing line-ups at the food banks and missions a little like those by-gone days soup kitchens?; or the mounting number of stock cash-ins. Depression, too, is not a four-letter word but one, today, fraught with fear and possibility, hence rarely uttered in the media, or anywhere else.
Get out of your hibris and petroleum- driven war and spend the billions on worthwhile projects at home. History will judge a country among other things by the manner in which it treated its elderly. What about the flower of it's youth coming home in pieces and with missing smiles. Wasn't the horror of Viet-nam enough to bring you to your senses? The vets of the latter conflict were not welcomed home as heroes by the majority of Americans nor by their government. They are now old men bragging about their experiences to whomever will listen.
The UN did not sanction this (Iraq) war. Your body politic and your government are too weak or too proud or too preoccupied to consider withdrawl.
America, now is the time to sacrifice, to be strong, to help each other. Now is the time to confront, not to hide. Face your fears and overcome them as did your forefathers.
All Comments
ROFLzzzzz
As of yesterday, robocalls are going out to ask people to sign up to restructure thier mortgage (that is not confusion but action on behalf of the American people.) It is too bad that when Republicans had their chance they did nothing for the people but use the word No, No, No, so it is no wonder they think Team Obama are doing to many things at once, being the party of no action that they were.
Let this Team have their chance and stop being unpatriotic, please.
This morning when he started in w/Cramer I turned off. As soon as I heard they were making Cramer a victim of the W.H. that was it for me!
What happened to common sense and pulling together instead of constant criticizing. EVERYBODY'S got a plan........NOW.
Buyer beware...
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama ordered federal agencies to get legal reviews of statements that his predecessors, including George W. Bush, used to challenge parts of new laws they viewed as unconstitutional.
Obama, in a two-page memorandum he issued yesterday, also preserved the right to rely on the so-called signing statements to make similar challenges.
[snip]
Obama’s memorandum instructed federal agencies to ask the attorney general’s office for guidance before relying on a past signing statement as a reason to disregard a statute’s provision. He said there can be “no doubt that the practice of issuing such statements can be abused,” words that signaled his latest break from Bush’s approach to executive authority.
Obama said he would attach signing statements to legislation “only when it is appropriate to do so as a means of discharging my constitutional responsibilities.” He also laid out a set of principles that will govern his use of signing statements. (more at bloomberg.com)
Remember 9/11? The extent of the damage wasn't clear for months because the surface of the ruin was only the surface. Once the contractors started to dig into the mess in order to clear it away, it became clear that under the mess was another bigger mess. Thus too, the banking system.
Maybe somone needs to take a real close look the next time a financial institution announces a merger or acquisition. I've lost count of how many times my bank was bought out by another, always larger bank over the last 30 years.
Thousands of financial services "industry" lobbyists on Capitol Hill since the 1980s, in essence, rewrote the laws and Congress rolled over. Travelers and Citicorp merged even before the repeal of Glass-Steagall, knowing that that the law was going to be changed (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999).
The Commodities Futures Modernization Act (2000) was passed on the last day of Congress without anyone debating it. And nobody read it, either.
"We do not believe our derivatives exposure is a threat to the bank's solvency,"
there can be no investor confidence in American capitalism.
She should say, as we know, "Bank of America has been insolvent for six months because of our derivatives exposure."
Notice Mitt sold 2 of his four mansions recently in a down real esate market I think that was a forced sale.
We need more of them even if the hedgefunds go under.
Animated Cartoon
And never, never, let them get 'too big to fail'.
Bush should have done this 6 months ago.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/10/jpmorg...
As you rush toward the abyss America, realize that this is your final wake-up call.. For God's sake, let your financial institutions fail. Most of them deserve to fail. Let those that are currently making it, prove that it can be done. Chapter 11 is not a four-letter word. Charity begets more charity..and more...and.... Save jobs? What will they do when unemplyment funds are exhausted ? Is American ingenuity and self-reliance dead? Are you becoming a nation of beggars and the king of the major debtors. Is this really the decline of the American Empire?
Capitalism in an un-modified form won't do the job for you. The current crisis is testament to this., and something of a difficult lesson in humility.
America, read the history of FDR, one of your true champions who, unflinchingly, toughly did what had to be done; stop pretending you're not on the verge of a depression. Stop holding out your hand for more and more of what's left of the good life. Are those tent cities on the outskirts of towns by the RR tracks not beginning to look a little like the 1930's hobbo jungles?; or the ever-growing line-ups at the food banks and missions a little like those by-gone days soup kitchens?; or the mounting number of stock cash-ins. Depression, too, is not a four-letter word but one, today, fraught with fear and possibility, hence rarely uttered in the media, or anywhere else.
Get out of your hibris and petroleum- driven war and spend the billions on worthwhile projects at home. History will judge a country among other things by the manner in which it treated its elderly. What about the flower of it's youth coming home in pieces and with missing smiles. Wasn't the horror of Viet-nam enough to bring you to your senses? The vets of the latter conflict were not welcomed home as heroes by the majority of Americans nor by their government. They are now old men bragging about their experiences to whomever will listen.
The UN did not sanction this (Iraq) war. Your body politic and your government are too weak or too proud or too preoccupied to consider withdrawl.
America, now is the time to sacrifice, to be strong, to help each other. Now is the time to confront, not to hide. Face your fears and overcome them as did your forefathers.