In Northern Rock, A Template For US Bail-Outs?
The US government bailed out Chrysler all the way back in 1979. Nothing quite like it as been seen since then, but the financial sector has not been in as much trouble for decades…
Banking, finance, and taxes
All Banking, finance, and taxes Articles
Newest first · Page 298Qatar’s $15 Billion Bank Rescue Fund
The government of Qatar has begun investing in Credit Suisse (CS) and the country’s prime minister says that Middle East country is prepared to put up to $15 billion into US and European banks.…
Northern Rock Nationalized
According to The Wall Street Journal troubled British mortgage company Northern Rock wil be taken over by the British government. The newspaper writes "The U.K. Treasury has decided to nationalize troubled mortgage lender Northern…
A Split-Up Of Bond Insures Would Hurt Banks (MBI)(ABK)
If muni-bond insurers like Amback (NYSE: ABK) and MBIA (NYSE:MBI) are forced to break into two pieces, some banks could be badly hurt. The halving of the firms would leave the muni piece of…
Banks At Risk For Another $203 Billion In Write-Downs
UBS says that global banks may face another $208 billion in write-downs. The banks are at risk due to issues that could cause the failure of bond insurance companies. “Banks have made progress in…
Beating Down Investors In Auction-Rate Securities
Auction-rate securities are short-term investments which are often pitched as an alternative to cash. Investors look to them as "safe haven" instruments where they can put money and earn a modest interest rate. But,…
UBS (UBS) May Face $18 Billion More In Write-Downs This Year
An analysis out of Citigroup says that UBS (UBS) could be forced to write-down $18 billion more of its $80 billion in exposure to subprime instruments and other debt which it holds on its…
New Advice To Banks On LBOs: Take The Money And Run
Legal experts are beginning to advise their banking clients to take the hit on LBO break-up fees and walk away from their loan commitments. It is cheaper, they reason, to pay now and not…
Things Get Ugly At GMAC
After a big fourth quarter loss, private equity player Cerberus may regret buying a controlling interest in GMAC. The head of Cerberus said in a note to clients picked up by Reuters "… if…
Subprime & CDO Meltdown Worse than RTC/S&L Crisis
There is a new study out that has compared the current mortgage and subprime meltdown to the S&L and consumer crisis of the 1980’s that led to the creation of Resolution Trust Corp. (the…
Splitting Bond Insurers In Half–Nice Solution (ABK)(MBI)
New York State Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo has come up with the lame-brained idea of taking bond insurers like MBIA (NYSE: MBI) and Ambac (NYSE: ABK) and "breaking them in half." According to MarketWatch…
An FHA Bail-Out Of Bank Mortgage Loans?
It is a time-honored tradition. When big US companies get in trouble, they turn to the US government for financial help. Even Chrysler got big loans from Uncle Sam three decades ago. Cerberus is…
UBS (UBS): A Canary For US Banks
UBS (UBS) had an awful quarter. The Swiss financial firm reported a fourth-quarter loss of 12.45 billion Swiss francs ($11.3 billion), compared with profit of 3.41 billion francs in the year-earlier period. Worse, according…
Eliot Spitzer And The “Financial Tsunami”. (ABK)(MBI)
Eliot Spitzer, former prosecutor and now governor of New York State, will ape comments made by Deutsche Bank (DB) Chief Executive Josef Ackermann. If bond insurers fail its will create a "financial tsunami". Spitzer…
Visa Shows Year-End Numbers Ahead of IPO
Visa, Inc. has filed an amended S-1 to show its financials for the year-end December 31, 2007. The company posted revenues of $5.193 Billion, up from $3.902 Billion for 2006. Here are the growth…