Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on TwitterBe a Facebook FanTumble us!

02 Jan 2010 16:40

tags

Biz: Happy New Year! Banks are figuring out new ways to screw you

  • $50B the amount of income banks stand to lose due to the Credit Card Act of 2009
  • 43% of bank execs feel that consumer trust has eroded in the last six months; no, really
  • fees the solution banks plan to offset losses – let the nickel & diming commence source

23 Dec 2009 15:26

tags

Biz: Big banks pay back TARP, but small banks are simply screwed

  • 55 banks and other companies missed their TARP interest payments in November
  • 140 banks have closed this year, the most since 1992, which is depressing source

17 Dec 2009 09:39

tags

Biz: Bank of America’s new CEO: Will this guy be better than the last one?

Brian Moynihan, who came from the inside, will have an easy time besting predecessor Ken Lewis, who drove the company off a cliff. source

14 Dec 2009 09:50

tags

Biz: TARP also-rans: Citigroup the last bank to pay back bailout funds

  • $20 billion the amount Citigroup is paying back – a loss of $5.1 billion in TARP funds for the good guys
  • $45 billion the amount Bank of America paid back to the government last week – so Citigroup stands alone source

13 Dec 2009 10:18

tags

Biz: Mortgage rates super-low, but good luck taking advantage

  • 4.7% the low point of mortgage rates, hit in the 1940s thanks to post-WWII government intervention
  • 5+% the place it’s been most of the time since the 1950s – at one point, it was near 17%, which is insane
  • 4.8% the current rate, caused by massive government intervention; too bad banks don’t want to refinance source

11 Dec 2009 14:51

tags

Biz, U.S.: About time: The House passes a financial regulation bill

  • The Senate doesn’t have a comparable one ready yet. Today, the House took the initiative to more strictly regulate the failings of the financial industry – big bonuses, “too big to fail” corporations – at a 223-202 clip. Republicans largely didn’t go for the bill because they feared it would limit credit, force job losses and lead to future bailouts. They also argued that “too big to fail” companies didn’t need hand-holding and could handle bankruptcies, which sounds less like something they believe and more like something they can use against the Democrats. source

31 Oct 2009 09:36

tags

Biz: Bank Failure Friday continues to live up to its name

  • nine more banks failed this Friday, including CalNational, the fourth-largest to fail this year
  • 115 banks have failed since January, which is the worst year since 1992, by the freaking way source
 

23 Oct 2009 18:17

tags

Biz, U.S.: Bank Failure Friday takes victim number 101

  • 1992 the last year with so much bank fail source

26 Sep 2009 12:11

tags

Biz: The 2009 bank-closing tally has gone up yet again

  • 95 banks have closed this year, the latest in Georgia source

14 Aug 2009 22:53

tags

Biz, U.S.: It’s Friday. Guess it’s time for more banks to fail.

  • five number of banks that failed today, including the fairly huge Colonial Bank
  • 77 number of banks that have failed this year, which is far too common right now source