As the list grows of ponzi perpetrators, it’s inspiring more heady criminal profiles about these desk jockey sociopaths from the mainstream press. Meanwhile with job losses up and GDP down (Q4 report Friday) the good old fashioned smash and grab caper business is going strong, inspiring great new Hollywood plots. First this $100m diamond caper
January 2009
Tim Geithner was sworn in as Treasury Secretary this afternoon. According to CNBC: “We are at a moment of maximum challenge for our economy and our country,” Geithner said at a swearing-in ceremony as he stood by the President Barack Obama’s side. “Our agenda is to move quickly to help you do what the country
After it was revealed that Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain paid $1.2m to fix up his office in the midst of this crisis, he was dismissed from Bank of America. Now he says he will repay the fees to Bank of America.
More Wholesale Rumors I am not a big fan of rumors. (Although they say that language was invented so that people could gossip.) Last Thursday was an example of a rumor whereby CitiMortgage was ending their entire wholesale business channel. It was apparently started by a client, reportedly in Southern California, who was suspended with
Even though the latest retail sales numbers are dismal, the topic of shopping is still a winner: Mall Cop, starring Mr.-King-of-Queens Kevin James, stayed on top of the box office for the second week in a row. It has now brought in $64.8m. Even during these belt-tightening times, a fat cop stumbling over himself can
Freddie Mac needs up to $35 billion in Treasury aid following the $13.8b they already got in November because they said their fourth quarter losses will drive net worth below zero. Jim Lockhart who runs their regulator the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said that Fannie Mae will likely need additional aid as well. They report
1st Centennial Bank, Redlands, California, was closed today by the California Department of Financial Institutions, which then appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with First California Bank, Westlake Village, California, to assume the insured deposits of 1st Centennial. The
New San Francisco condo projects are changing strategy from purely selling properties to also offering rentals. More from SF Chronicle: — The company behind Millennium Tower, the 60-story luxury project in SoMa set to open in April, will soon announce it is slicing all prices by 15 percent to entice buyers. In a surprising move,
This week was the third week of a $500b mortgage bond purchase program by the Federal Reserve—here’s week 2. Beginning on January 15 and ending on January 21, the Fed bought $19b of mortgage bonds—below is a table breaking down the amounts for each coupon and maturity across the three agencies that issue mortgages: Fannie
So your Lock Desk is getting heat from the agents about pricing. And they say, in addition to the profit margins the owners want, there is the spread between best efforts and mandatory loan sales that investors are charging. “Well over a point, maybe even two points now,” they claim, “that’s why we’re getting beat
The House of Representatives voted 270-155 to reject the release of the remaining $350b of TARP funds that are left over from the original $700b Troubled Asset Relief Program. They want Treasury to provide more definitive information on how to use the TARP funds. Treasury under Paulson was in a triage situation and needed to
John Thain, former Merrill Lynch CEO until his firm was taken over by Bank of America in September, was ousted from BofA after it was revealed that he advanced bonuses to top execs knowing that BofA was taking them over and may even be using government funds to do it. It was also revealed that,
Tim Geithner was approved by the Senate Finance Committee as Treasury Secretary, the vote was 18-5.
JPMorgan Chase has posted a surprise profit for 2008. Wall Street was shocked by the bank’s radical business plan that included not paying $100 million bonuses to failed executives and only lending money to people who could pay it back. Fifth Third Yesterday Fifth Third Bancorp, Ohio’s second largest bank, announced that they had lost
The Economist recently pointed out how private equity is gearing up for some serious financial sector investing, saying that 60 private equity funds that focus on financial services were set up in 2008 and 114 are in the works. One key reason for the trend is that non-banking firms previously could not own significant stakes
Half of Bay Area home sales in December were foreclosures, and the median home price for the whole nine-county region was $330,000, down from 43.8% from a year ago—this includes condos and single family homes. This according to DataQuick and a San Francisco Chronicle report: A total of 5,171 existing homes changed hands in December,
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