Tag:
Troubled Assets
Latest Headlines
Latest Headlines
Banks face severe revenue drought
Are the glory days over for the top U.S. banks? The industry, which until the financial crisis was among the most prosperous, has been hit with a painful revenue drought. Goldman Sachs's revenue fell 28 percent in the third quarter. At Morgan Stanley, net revenues dropped 20 percent. At JPMorgan C
Can quarterly window dressing by big banks be stopped?
The media coverage surrounding the use of Repo 105s by Lehman Brothers ( Lehman Brothers news) as a way to mask billions of dollars worth of troubled assets on its books was intense and in some ways damning. Lehman Brothers' executives took a severe whipping. But the fact is that a lot of banks
Why Lehman Brothers really went belly up
"The Wall Street equivalent of a coroner's report." That's what the New York Times calls the 2,200 page tome delivered by bank examiner Anton Valukas about the demise of Lehman Brothers ( Lehman Brothers news). It's something of a bombshell and the legal ramifications, at least at the civil
Are troubled assets still plaguing the industry?
We've long said that it would be colossal if the government gave TARP banks a clean bill of health only to watch them tank anew. The fact is that there is no public money left for them. The Congressional Oversight Panel, which keeps tabs on the bailout of the financial sector, has raised that spec
Citigroup puts TARP funds to use
The big TARP banks took some PR lumps earlier when it appeared they were not using their TARP funds to expand their lending. Has that changed at Citigroup? The bank's committee overseeing the use of taxpayer money approved $44.75 billion in lending initiatives as of March 31, reports the AP . T
Life as a TARP wife
The wife of a big time financier whose firm has accepted billions in TARP funds has penned an article for Portfolio . "Confessions of a TARP wife" is all about her new "financial abstinence," which no longer includes "multi-star Michelin hotspots." The essay reads like a parody (as if cribb
High stakes in the bonus battle
The banking industry is fighting back in Washington, pressing its case that onerous bonus restrictions would be bad for the industry and the economy. But Congress remains in a "fever pitch," according to the Washington Post , about the unfortunate move by AIG to pay out $165 million in bonuses.
Big announcement coming today--or tomorrow?
The Treasury's Tim Geithner was scheduled to provide details of the new bank bailout plan today. But it may get pushed back to Tuesday to allow Geithner to work on the stimulus package. Geithner is currently scheduled to appear in front of the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday morning to discuss th
Global accounting standards a pipe dream?
The move to IFRS has been couched by supporters with the idea that a single set of accounting standards makes sense in the global economy. But what happens when individual countries start tinkering with the rules, making special rules for specific circumstances? We're getting a glimpse of that rig
Government gambling on Citi?
There has been lots of talk about whether the U.S. struck a good deal on behalf of taxpayers when it agreed to yet another intervention to prop up Citi. A column in the Financial Times offers an interesting analogy: The U.S. has effectively sold a put option on Citi. In return for
