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Archive for the ‘stress tests’ Category

Banks, U.S. look for TARP end game | CharlotteObserver.com & The …

www.charlotteobserver.com2/21/12

The federal government's desire to end the politically unpopular bank bailout program could change how a number of Charlotte-area community banks pay back their share.

Pulling back the TARP | Richmond BizSense

www.richmondbizsense.com2/21/12

Essex Bank and its holding company Community Bankers Trust Corp. is seeking approval to once again begin making payments to the TARP Capital Purchase Program.

The U.S. Treasury has given ten banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley the go ahead to buy back almost $68 billion of government shares, which will effectively free them government oversight and political interference.

Other banks which are said to have met government approval are
JPMorgan, American Express Co., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., BB&T Corp., Capital One Financial Corp., Northern Trust Corp., State Street Corp. and U.S. Bancorp.

The repayments come almost eight months after the Treasury provided nine banks with the first $125 billion from the $700 billion TARP fund.

Amongst banks which didn’t win approval are Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said, “These repayments are an encouraging sign of financial repair, but we still have work to do”, and Jennifer Thompson, who is an analyst at Portales Partners LLC in New York said, “They’re in some ways picking winners and losers. There might initially be somewhat of a cloud lifted off the banks that are able to repay TARP”.

The Treasury announced today, June 9th, that combined with repayments that have already been received from twenty other firms, the government will have gotten back about $70 billion so far, and added that dividend payments on the shares issued to the government under the Capital Purchase Program total about $4.5 billion to date, including $1.8 billion from the ten banks that have now been released.

The treasury statement also noted that, “Proceeds from the TARP repayments will help reduce the federal government’s borrowing and the national debt”. “The repayments also boost the cushion to respond to any future financial instability that might otherwise jeopardize economic recovery”. “Firms buying back the government’s preferred shares also have the right to repurchase warrants the Treasury holds at fair market value”.

Question for Ron Paul: Why Do the Most Socialist Countries Have …

my.firedoglake.com1/21/12

Also, the debate on war within these socialist style political regimes was much more intellectual because of the socialist nature of the government. These countries use smart tariffs, to protect their standard of living.Their model …

What “Classical America” Are You Talking About Newt? | FDL Action

fdlaction.firedoglake.com1/23/12

Only with a lot more people doing it. reply Login to Reply … Some of the “Socialist” countries, have done as well if not better, just as with the comparison between our predatory healthcare system and theirs. “…People are …

Results just published by the Swiss business school IMD, not only suggest that socialist countries are weathering the present recession better than outright capitalist ones like the US, but they also indicate that they are likely to recover much faster too.

The rankings are based on twenty criteria, then divided into four categories:

Economy Forecast/Perspectives – Government – Business – Society

Economic forecasts.

Government stability.

Which society is better equipped to weather the present global financial crisis.

The stability of the business sector.

Denmark achieved the highest overall score of 100 and is followed by Singapore, Qatar, Norway, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Sweden.

The United States finished a fairly shocking, overall 28th, due in part to its perceived weakness of resistance to the financial crisis.

Perhaps surprisingly, Israel (20) not only precedes the US, Germany and Britain on the list, but also leads Taiwan (21), Germany (24), Japan (26), South Korea (29) and Britain (34).

In spite of Britain’s poor score it still fared better than France (44), Italy (47) and Spain (50).

Singapore led the ranking of governmental steps taken in order to eradicate the crisis, while Italy came in last.

Russia ranked 51st and was followed only by Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Ukraine, Argentina, and Venezuela, which finished last.

You can download the report directly from IMD at Stress Test Rankings or if their link goes bad for some reason you can get it here,

Our Changing Globe, Stress Test Rankings.