Important News - Oct. 15
By Daniel at 15 October, 2009, 12:03 am
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1) “Worst retail sales in three years”
“Retail sales suffered their biggest drop in three years last month, as American households reined in spending amid a tough job market, the financial crisis and falling home values.”
2) The Dow doesn’t represent the economy
The market only represents the sentiment of the the traders and investors that participate in it. That being said this only represents a small percentage of Americans.
The market is made up of people and what they are willing to pay based on what they believe the future has in store.
“Big business has access to capital; small business doesn’t. Big businesses have been earning lots of money; small businesses say profits are falling. Big business could afford to hire workers, if it wanted to; small businesses can’t.
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But it matters now. The health of big business — and the rebound in the stock market — may be blinding us to just how weak the rest of the economy is.”
3) U.S. banks may take big hit from U.K. liquidity rules
Many countries are looking at tougher liquidity rules, but the U.K.’s decision to move before an international consensus has been reached, and to apply its rules widely, could cost U.S. and European firms “potentially billions of dollars,” said Simon Morris, a partner at law firm CMS Cameron McKenna in London.
4) Fed officials were conflicted over revival program (AP)
“AP - Amid uncertainties about strength of the budding recovery, Federal Reserve policymakers last month were conflicted over whether to expand or cut back a program intended to drive down mortgage rates and prop up the housing market, according to a document released Wednesday.”
5) Madoff Investors Sue SEC for Negligence
Two former investors are suing the Securities and Exchange Commission for $2.4 billion in damages, claiming the agency acted with negligence while examining Bernard Madoff’s investment business.
6) Bank regulators: Real estate loans biggest concern
It seems nobody is concerned with this issue.Wait till next year when the stock market gets a little shakey and gold continues to rise.America is going to loose trust in these so called banks.
“The smaller, community banks are especially exposed to commercial real estate loans, which now pose the biggest challenge for many financial institutions and their overseers, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair told lawmakers at a Senate hearing.”
Civilians Unemployed - 15 Weeks & Over (Graph)
9) Ignore Dow 10,000, The Economic Scoreboard Is Still Horrible
The best investor in the United States basically ignores Wall Street. Warren Buffett has billions he could trade in and out of stocks. Thousands of analysts would clamor to give him hot tips. But Buffett ignores it all. Serene, he sits in his office, reading annual reports, newspapers, and thinking about opportunities for growth. He isn’t drinking champagne tonight. And you shouldn’t be either.
10) The Next Big Bailout? FHA Facing “Cataclysmic” Default Rates (Video)
How big of a hook? The FHA’s mortgage portfolio is now approaching $1 trillion. You can’t assume all those mortgages will default but you can assume the FHA’s exposure will only grow in the months ahead as politicians continue to look for ways to support the housing market (especially in an election year.)
11) Doing the Wrong Things with Derivatives – Stiglitz has the Right Idea…
This is a critical issue, one that is central to our current economic crisis and the debt that has saturated our society… so please forgive the length of this article, I hope you will take the time to read and understand what’s happening with the unregulated and untracked shadow banking world of financial engineering, profiteering, and looting.
12) Day Traders Know Far More About Investing Than Most Pros
13) Number of homeless students soaring
“Public schools are used to dealing with children in poverty, but this school year, San Antonio school districts are seeing more children than ever from families that have gone from struggling to put food on the table to keeping a roof over their heads.
14) Mortgage Lending Business Expected to Sink Next Year
15) FDIC May Borrow from Treasury as Banking Losses Grow
“The Problem Bank List grew to to 416 institutions from 305 last quarter. The total assets at Problem Banks increased to $299.8 billion from $220 billion last quarter. This is the largest number of problem banks since June 30, 1994. The number of FDIC insured institutions declined to 8,195 from 8,247 last quarter.”
16) Is current dollar devaluation a blessing in disguise?
It was deja vu back between 1930 and 1934, in the Great Depression, when Australia led major economies in leaving the gold standard and devaluing their currencies, resulting in economic recovery, in some cases rapid.
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While some take the current devaluation as auguring well for the embryonic economic recovery now appearing in parts of the world, others fear the intentional move by the U.S. Federal Reserve may nip the recovery in the bud outside of the United States.
17) Obama calls for $250 payments to seniors (AP)
Obama is determined to Bankrupt the US ASAP so he can become the next Hitler. We have a very dangerous situation in power right now in the United States and Real Americans had better wake up and realize their Country is being strangled to death by this administration. If you love freedom. If you love your family and want to keep your children safe, get up off your butts and do something. Fight for your Country and your rights before you lose everything.
Hitler did not gain power until he made the german mark worthless. He did it by spending, spending, spending. Those who ignore the evils of history will be the ones responsible for allowing it to happen again.
18) Watchdog: Treasury and Fed failed in AIG oversight
WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is “ultimately responsible” for regulators’ failure to rein in massive bonus payments at American International Group because he led the agencies that provided AIG’s lifelines, according to a bailout watchdog.
Geithner was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York before taking over at Treasury in January. He has said he did not learn until March about the $1.75 billion in bonuses and other compensation promised to AIG employees. But Geithner’s subordinates at the New York Fed learned of the payments in November, according to Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the $700 billion financial bailout.
19) Thanks to greedy BANKSTERS 1.02 bln people are hungry
“The global economic crisis has a devastating effect for the world’s undernourished. The sharp spike in hunger triggered by the global economic crisis has hit the poorest people in developing countries hardest, revealing a fragile world food system in urgent need of reform, according to a report released today by the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP).
This is an historic level for hunger worldwide. Nearly all the world’s hungry live in developing countries. In Asia and the Pacific, an estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic hunger; in Sub-Saharan Africa 265 million; in Latin America and the Caribbean 53 million; in the Near East and North Africa 42 million; and in developed countries 15 million.”
20) JPMorgan Dares Traders To Make Calls On Banks
“Shortly after JPMorgan Chase (JPM) announced an impressive $3.9 billion profit for the third quarter, an entire series of Wall Street analysts began spreading the message of hope on the popular networks: despite problems in the broader economy, banks have entered a new era of prosperity. In reality, on closer scrutiny, JPM’s performance raises two fundamental questions which traders need to answer before they make short or long calls on Wall Street’s majors:
(1) Can the revenues achieved in JPM’s investment banking business, particularly fixed-income trading, be sustained and enhanced in the forthcoming quarters?
(2) Is JPM’s potential for shareholder returns relying almost entirely on its finding a “favourable balance” between investment banking income on one hand and the need to make provisions on credit cards, consumer loans and home mortgages on the other?”
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