ThinkstockLarge banks often use greater regulation by the government, particularly the Federal Reserve, as a reason to slow the pace at which they give loans. These banks may be right. When risk factors are…
thinkstockThe ADR shares of National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG) are having yet another rough day. News that the nation of Greece may not receive bailout funds is not helping matters for the…
thinkstockThe short sellers in America were already pounding on the National Bank of Greece S.A. (NYSE: NBG). Just on Wednesday we pointed out that the troubled Greek bank’s American depositary receipts (ADRs) in New York…
ThinkstockThe finance ministers of EU nations set rules for bank bailouts, which put the primary pressure on bond and stock holders. It sets up the kind of public/private war that already has happened with…
ThinkstockJeffrey Lacker of the Richmond Federal Reserve is considered very much a hawkish Fed president, but his comments on Wednesday are helping the stock market. After Ben Bernanke’s comments after the FOMC meeting last…
ThinkstockThe stock market has been pummeled from its highs just a month ago, and at the same time we have seen the unusual circumstance where the yields on long-term bonds have risen. It seems…
ThinkstockWhen Chinese interbank lending rates shot up last Thursday, the blame was laid at the feet of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the country’s central bank, which had refused for the first time…
ThinkstockThe general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, Jaime Caruana, warned that central banks have gone too far in terms of making easy credit available to their economies. What once was part of…
bitcoin.orgThe rise and interest behind the virtual currency Bitcoin has been more than interesting. After trading at a huge premium during the Cyprus crisis, now the Mt. Gox exchange located in Japan has said…
ThinkstockIn a sign of a loss of confidence in the balance sheets of some of the European Union’s largest banks, interbank lending has fallen among large financial firms. The falloff of this practice was…
ThinkstockThe Chinese equivalent of Libor is Shibor, the Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate, and since April the Shibor has soared from less than 3% to as high as 15% before settling back to just under…
thinkstockFollowing the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants in 2011, Germany said it would shut down all its nuclear generation and Japan has already closed down all but two of its reactors.…
ThinkstockWells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is supposed to be the best bank in America now. It has a solid balance sheet, trades above book value, has more than a dominant position in the…
ThinkstockThe government of China failed to sell more than a third of new debt it had on the auction block this morning, the first such failure to reach its target in nearly two years.…
ThinkstockAmericans generally have distrusted banks. And that lack of trust has been for several good reasons, which usually include high fees for simple matters such as checking account balances and overdrafts. A new Gallup…