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08 Dec 2011 11:05

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World: Deutsche Bank CEO targeted in mail-bombing incident

  • The return address was listed as a European central bank, which would likely increase the chances of him opening it.
  • New York Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne • Discussing the package received by Josef Ackermann, the CEO of Germany’s Deutsche Bank, which contained a fully-functioning bomb. The bomb didn’t detonate and was intercepted before it reached the CEO. Officials are saying that mail rooms at financial institutions should tighter up their security after the incident. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Oct 2011 10:55

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World: Wikileaks temporarily suspends operations amidst financial issues

  • what A year after first drawing significant attention for its whistle-blowing ability, Wikileaks is temporarily stopping publication, leader Julian Assange said Monday.
  • why Rather than the significant legal issues he’s facing, Assange blames a bank transaction blockade has that decimated their ability to raise revenue. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Aug 2011 11:22

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Biz: S&P facing Justice Department scrutiny over mortgage securities ratings

  • what The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether S&P kept the credit ratings on certain bonds backed by mortgage debt higher in an effort to protect the company’s business concerns.
  • why See: The financial crisis, which happened in part due to toxic mortgage securities that had inflated credit ratings. S&P’s ratings played a huge role in this whole mess, BTW. source
  • » And in case you were wondering: This investigation began before S&P lowered the U.S. credit rating, though there’s a good chance it will now be informed by it. Anyway, if you don’t understand the credit ratings issue, here’s a good way to put it: Companies pay the agencies for high ratings.  Kinda like if Warner Bros. paid Roger Ebert to recommend the latest Harry Potter movie. Now imagine if Ebert recommended “Birdemic” based on his financial interests. This would be extremely unethical behavior for journalists. But did S&P do something like that?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Apr 2011 11:04

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Biz: That was a big loan: Goldman Sachs just paid back Warren Buffett

  • $5
    billion     the amount Warren Buffett loaned to Goldman Sachs at the nadir of the financial crisis back in 2008; wish we could loan out that kind of cash
  • $5.64 billion the amount they paid Warren back last quarter, including interest earned — that’s on top of dividends they already paid out source
  • » A pretty hefty one-time charge: While Goldman Sachs’ profits for the current quarter, $2.74 billion, were down 21 percent from a year earlier because of the payday to their sugar daddy, if you don’t count the payment to Warren, their profits — $8.38 billion — would have been up by 49 percent from a year earlier. In other words, they’re richer than we are and Wall Street is celebrating.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2011 10:26

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Politics: Carl Levin rips “financial snake pit” Goldman Sachs into shreds

  • Our investigation found a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest, and wrongdoing.
  • Sen. Carl Levin • Offering an assessment of a report that his subcommittee, which is searching for the causes of the financial crisis, released about the crisis. The report singles out Goldman Sachs, calling it a “case study” for the conflicts of interest that abound around Wall Street — specifically for betting against the very subprime mortgage packages it was selling. Levin also wants to bring perjury charges against Goldman’s CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, for his testimony in Congress last year. In other words, someone has watched “Inside Job.” The stock market is down on the news of the 600-page report. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Dec 2010 20:27

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Biz: This bailout number is easily the biggest we’ll post today

  • $9 trillion in emergency overnight loans made during the crisis source
  • » Whoa! Did your heart just stop? Ours did too. It actually created a short delay in posting this. *whew* Now that we’ve caught our breath, let us explain. After Bear Stearns went under in early 2008, a special plan was put in place to offer emergency, quickly-paid-back loans to banks during the financial crisis to ensure they continued to run smoothly. All loans required collateral, all were low-interest, and all have already been paid back. The program also ended in May of last year, so no worries about any residual effects. But yeah. Have you ever seen $9 trillion? It would probably require dozens of Scrooge McDuck’s money vaults.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Oct 2010 09:43

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Biz: Financial reform bill puts Bank of America in the red this quarter

  • $7.3 billion in quarterly losses for Bank of America
  • $10.4
    billion     the size of the company’s one-time charge the company will take due to fees caused by the Dodd-Frank financial reform act
  • $3.1
    billion     the size of the company’s net income otherwise, which beat estimates; they plan to be more transparent about fees in the future source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

15 Jan 2010 08:52

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Biz: Banks say screw populism, increase bonuses by 18% for 2009

  • $145 billion in dollar-shaped middle fingers source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Dec 2009 15:01

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Biz: Poll: Will legislative attempts to regulate the financial system work?


Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Dec 2009 14:51

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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
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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