Bank of America

Lending drops at big U.S. banks – WSJ

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Jan 26 (Reuters) – Lending at many of the largest U.S. banks fell in recent months, the Wall Street Journal said, citing an analysis of banks that recently announced their quarterly results.

Ten of the 13 big beneficiaries of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), saw their outstanding loan balances decline by a total of about $46 billion, or 1.4 percent, between the third and fourth quarters of 2008, according to the paper.

Those 13 banks have collected the lion’s share of the roughly $200 billion the government has doled out since TARP was launched last October to stabilize financial institutions, the paper said.

Read moreLending drops at big U.S. banks – WSJ

Merrill banksters paid bonuses as losses mounted ahead of sale to BofA

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More bonuses for total failure:

“Despite the magnitude of the losses, Merrill had set aside $15bn for 2008 compensation…”

“The bulk of $15bn in compensation was paid out as salary and benefits throughout the course of the year. A person familiar with the matter estimated that about $3bn to $4bn was paid out in bonuses in December.”

I have posted so much evidence that it should be obvious now that the entire financial crisis is fabricated by the elite to loot the taxpayers’ until there is nothing left and to bankrupt the U.S.

The majority of the banksters are not even aware of what the elite is planning, but many billionaires have already left the U.S. and they knew that they had to be gone by early 2009.

Merrill paid bonuses as losses mounted ahead of sale to BofA

Merrill Lynch took the unusual step of accelerating bonus payments by a month last year, doling out billions of dollars to employees just three days before the closing of its sale to Bank of America.

The timing is notable because the money was paid as Merrill’s losses were mounting and Ken Lewis, BofA’s chief executive, was seeking additional funds from the government’s troubled asset recovery programme to help close the deal.

Merrill and BofA shareholders voted to approve the takeover on December 5. Three days later, Merrill’s compensation committee approved the bonuses, which were paid on December 29. In past years, Merrill had paid bonuses later – usually late January or early February, according to company officials.

Within days of the compensation committee meeting, BofA officials said they became aware that Merrill’s fourth-quarter losses would be greater than expected and began talks with the US Treasury on securing additional Tarp money.

Last week, BofA said it would be receiving $20bn in Tarp money, in addition to the $25bn that had been earmarked for it and Merrill last year. It was then revealed that Merrill had suffered a $21.5bn operating loss in the fourth quarter.

Despite the magnitude of the losses, Merrill had set aside $15bn for 2008 compensation, a sum that was only 6 per cent lower than the total in 2007, when the investment bank’s losses were smaller.

The bulk of $15bn in compensation was paid out as salary and benefits throughout the course of the year. A person familiar with the matter estimated that about $3bn to $4bn was paid out in bonuses in December.

Nancy Bush, an analyst with NAB Research, described the size of the 2008 Merrill bonus payments as “ridiculous”.

Read moreMerrill banksters paid bonuses as losses mounted ahead of sale to BofA

Roubini: U.S. banking system is effectively insolvent

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Roubini Predicts U.S. Losses May Reach $3.6 Trillion

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) — U.S. financial losses from the credit crisis may reach $3.6 trillion, suggesting the banking system is “effectively insolvent,” said New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini, who predicted last year’s economic crisis.

“I’ve found that credit losses could peak at a level of $3.6 trillion for U.S. institutions, half of them by banks and broker dealers,” Roubini said at a conference in Dubai today. “If that’s true, it means the U.S. banking system is effectively insolvent because it starts with a capital of $1.4 trillion. This is a systemic banking crisis.”

Losses and writedowns at financial companies worldwide have risen to more than $1 trillion since the U.S. subprime mortgage market collapsed in 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

President Barack Obama will have to use as much as $1 trillion of public funds to shore up the capitalization of the banking sector, following the $350 billion injection by the Bush administration, Roubini told Bloomberg News. Congress last year approved a $700 billion rescue fund, of which half remains to be disbursed.

Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank by assets, posted a quarterly loss of $1.79 billion last week, its first since 1991, and received $138 billion in emergency government funds. Citigroup Inc. posted an $8.29 billion fourth-quarter loss, completing its worst year, and plans to split in two under Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit’s plan to rebuild a capital base eroded by the credit crisis.

‘Bankrupt’ System

“The problems of Citi, Bank of America and others suggest the system is bankrupt,” Roubini said. “In Europe, it’s the same thing.”

Read moreRoubini: U.S. banking system is effectively insolvent

GAO: 83% of big U.S companies, contractors use offshore tax havens

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“Citigroup – which has received $25 billion from the bailout fund, plus $300 billion in government guarantees – has set up 427 tax haven subsidiaries to do business: 91 in Luxembourg, 90 in the Cayman Islands and 35 in the British Virgin Islands. Other havens include Switzerland, Hong Kong, Panama and Mauritius.”


The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has just issued a report showing that most of the nation’s largest public companies and government contractors rely on offshore subsidiaries to do business and cut their tax bills. Some of these same firms – including big banks and insurers – have already received tens of billions in taxpayer money from the federal bailout fund.

Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, American International Group, American Express have set up hundreds of tax-haven subsidiaries, the report states. All have taken billions from the bailout fund. Pepsi and Caterpillar, both of which have received billions in tax dollars from being major government contractors, also shelter revenue in offshore subsidiaries, The Washington Post says.

Read moreGAO: 83% of big U.S companies, contractors use offshore tax havens

Bank of America Receives $138 Billion of Rescue Funds

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– Paul Craig Roberts On The U.S. Leadership: “They Are Criminals” – The Potential Here Is Far Worse Than The Great Depression:
Paul Craig Roberts served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as the “Father of Reaganomics”. He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service. In 1992 he received the Warren Brookes Award for Excellence in Journalism. In 1993 the Forbes Media Guide ranked him as one of the top seven journalists in the United States.

– Paul Craig Roberts: Our Collapsing Economy:
According to the methodology used in 1980, the US unemployment rate in December 2008 reached 17.5 percent.
Yes, “our” government lies to us about economic statistics, just as it lies to us about “terrorists,” “weapons of mass destruction,” “building freedom and democracy in the Middle East,” and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
An objective person would be hard pressed to find any statement made by the US government that is reliable.

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) — Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank by assets, received a $138 billion emergency lifeline from the government to support its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. and prevent the global financial crisis from deepening.

The U.S. will invest $20 billion in Bank of America and guarantee $118 billion of assets “as part of its commitment to support financial-market stability,” the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a joint statement shortly after midnight in Washington.

The bailout raises doubts about the future of Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis, who engineered the takeovers of New York-based brokerage Merrill Lynch and mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. during the worst market slump since the Great Depression. Bank of America has plummeted 75 percent in New York trading since the Merrill acquisition was announced in September, falling to the lowest level in almost two decades.

“This thing is unraveling so fast Lewis may know his job is lost,” said Paul Miller, an analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey Group Inc. in Arlington, Virginia, who has an “underperform” rating on Bank of America. The management team has “lost credibility” after spending more than $20 billion in the past year to buy unprofitable Merrill and ailing mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. of Calabasas, California, he said.

(The Bank of America did not ‘want’ to buy Merrill. It had to buy Merrill. This is all part of a bigger plan to loot US taxpayers’, destroy the middle class, the dollar and the economy and create the greatest depression ever.)

Read moreBank of America Receives $138 Billion of Rescue Funds

Bank of America to get more billions of government help: WSJ

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Extra billions will help bank digest Merrill acquisition, newspaper says

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The government is close to committing billions in additional aid to Bank of America Corp. to help the giant bank digest its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co., the Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation.

“Even with help from the government, we think Bank of America’s tangible equity levels are low relative to peers and that it will need to cut its dividend and or raise equity capital in the coming months,” Stuart Plesser, a diversified financial services analyst at Standard & Poor’s Equity Research, said.

More:
– BofA may need billions for Merrill – report (CNNMoney)
– Bank of America seeks billions from US to cinch Merrill deal (USA Today)
– Merrill Lynch Turns into a Black Hole for BofA (BusinessWeek)
– BofA, Citi May Need Another Slice Of TARP (Forbes)

Scott Silvestri, a spokesman for Bank of America, declined to comment, as did a Treasury spokeswoman.

The news suggests that the worst of the banking crisis may not have passed. The KBW Bank Index has dropped 19% so far this year. Citigroup lost more than a third of its market value this week as it became clear the bank will try to shrink itself under pressure from big losses.

Bank of America shares dropped 3.3% to $9.87 during after-hours trading on Wednesday. That followed a decline of more than 4% during regular trading.

Read moreBank of America to get more billions of government help: WSJ

Banks in Need of Even More Bailout Money

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Ben S. Bernanke, right, said that the bailout program needed to pour more into banks that already received federal money.

WASHINGTON – Even before word came on Tuesday that Citigroup might split into pieces to shore up its finances, an unpleasant message was moving through Congress and President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team: the banks need more taxpayer money.

In all likelihood, a lot more money.

Mr. Obama seems to know it; a week before his swearing-in, he is lobbying Congress to release the other half of the financial industry bailout fund. Democratic leaders in Congress seem to know it, too; they are urging their rank and file to act quickly to release the rescue money. And Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, certainly knows it.

Related article: Bernanke tells Obama $775bn fiscal package is not enough (Independent)

On Tuesday, Mr. Bernanke publicly made the case that one of the most unpopular and most scorned programs in Washington – the $700 billion bailout program – needs to pour hundreds of billions more into the very banks and financial institutions that already received federal money and caused much of the credit crisis in the first place.

The most glaring example that the banking system needs even more help is Citigroup. Though it already has received $45 billion from the Treasury, it is in such dire straits that it is breaking itself into parts.

Like many banks, Citi is finding that its finances keep deteriorating as the economy continues to weaken.

Read moreBanks in Need of Even More Bailout Money

Bank of America to Cut 30,000 to 35,000 Positions

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Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — Bank of America Corp., the third- largest U.S. bank, said it plans to cut 30,000 to 35,000 positions over the next three years because of its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. and the weak economic environment.

The final number of job cuts won’t be decided until early next year, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company said in a statement today. The takeover of the New York-based investment bank is expected to be completed later this month.

Read moreBank of America to Cut 30,000 to 35,000 Positions

Credit-card industry may cut $2 trillion lines: analyst

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Michael Lipsitz signs his credit card bill for the groceries he purchased at the WalMart in Crossville, Tennessee March 21, 2008. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

(Reuters) – The U.S. credit-card industry may pull back well over $2 trillion of lines over the next 18 months due to risk aversion and regulatory changes, leading to sharp declines in consumer spending, prominent banking analyst Meredith Whitney said.

The credit card is the second key source of consumer liquidity, the first being jobs, the Oppenheimer & Co analyst noted.

“In other words, we expect available consumer liquidity in the form of credit-card lines to decline by 45 percent.”

Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co represent over half of the estimated U.S. card outstandings as of September 30, and each company has discussed reducing card exposure or slowing growth, Whitney said.

Closing millions of accounts, cutting credit lines and raising interest rates are just some of the moves credit card issuers are using to try to inoculate themselves from a tsunami of expected consumer defaults.

Read moreCredit-card industry may cut $2 trillion lines: analyst

Financials need at least $1 trillion: analyst

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Pedestrians are reflected in the window of a Citibank branch in Hong Kong’s financial Central District November 18, 2008. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

(Reuters) – The U.S. financial system still needs at least $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion of tangible common equity to restore confidence and improve liquidity in the credit markets, Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Paul Miller said.

Eight financial companies — Citigroup Inc, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Wells Fargo & Co, JPMorgan Chase & Co, American International Group Inc, Bank of America Corp and GE Financial — are in greatest need of capital, he said.

“Debt or TARP capital is not true capital. Long-term debt financing is not the solution. Only injections of true tangible common equity will solve the current crisis,” he said in a note dated November 19.

Currently, the U.S. financial system has $37 trillion of debt outstanding, he noted.

Combined, these eight companies have roughly $12.2 trillion of assets and only $406 billion of tangible common capital, or just 3.4 percent, the analyst said in his note to clients.

Miller said these institutions need somewhere between $1 trillion and $1.2trillion of capital to put their balance sheets back on solid ground and begin to extend credit again, given their dependence on short-term funding and the illiquid nature of their asset bases.

Read moreFinancials need at least $1 trillion: analyst

Merrill CEO says economic environment recalls 1929 – UPDATE 2

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(Recasts; adds Thain comments, share prices, byline)

NEW YORK, Nov 11 (Reuters) – Merrill Lynch & Co (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive John Thain said the global economy is in a deep slowdown and will not recover quickly, and the environment recalls 1929, the advent of the Great Depression.

Speaking Tuesday at his bank’s annual financial services conference, Thain said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the outlook for the industry. But he said credit remains constricted and asset prices generally are still falling.

“The U.S. economy is contracting very rapidly,” creating uncertainty “at least over the next few quarters,” Thain said. “We are going to be in a very difficult economic environment for a significant period of time.”

Conditions deteriorated as the U.S. housing market collapse mushroomed into a more general crisis of confidence.

Read moreMerrill CEO says economic environment recalls 1929 – UPDATE 2

U.S. Stocks Post Biggest Post-Election Drop on Economic Concern

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Nov. 5, 2008. Photographer: Ramin Talaie/Bloomberg News

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) — The stock market posted its biggest plunge following a presidential election as reports on jobs and service industries stoked concern the economy will worsen even as President-elect Barack Obama tries to stimulate growth.

Citigroup Inc. tumbled 14 percent and Bank of America Corp. lost 11 percent as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average sank more than 5 percent. Nucor Corp., the largest U.S.-based steel producer, slid 10 percent after bigger rival ArcelorMittal doubled production cuts amid slowing demand. Boeing Co., the world’s second-largest commercial planemaker, lost 6.9 percent after UBS AG forecast a 3 percent drop in global air traffic next year.

Read moreU.S. Stocks Post Biggest Post-Election Drop on Economic Concern

Broken Securities Industry Still Has $20 Billion to Pay Bonuses

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Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) — Five straight quarters of losses and a 70 percent slide in its stock this year haven’t stopped Merrill Lynch & Co. from allocating about $6.7 billion to pay bonuses.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, both still on track for profitable years, have set aside about $13 billion for bonuses after three quarters, down 28 percent from a year ago. Even some employees at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which declared the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history last month, will get the same bonus they received a year ago.

The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, a $700 billion taxpayer bailout, public outcry over excessive pay and the demise of three of the biggest securities firms won’t deter Wall Street from offering year-end rewards to employees on top of their salaries, compensation experts say.

“Critical producers and critical managers will be retained with the same bonus they had last year,” said Robert Sloan, head of U.S. financial-services recruiting at Egon Zehnder International, a New York-based executive-search firm. “The others will see sharp cuts.”

Goldman, the biggest and most profitable Wall Street firm until it opted to become a bank holding company last month, has set aside about $6.85 billion for bonuses, or an average of $210,300 for each employee, down 32 percent from $339,400 a year ago. Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest securities firm until it also converted to a bank, has $6.44 billion for bonuses, or $138,700 per person, down 20 percent from last year. Both firms accrue a fixed percentage of their revenue for compensation, so the decline in bonus pools matches the drop in revenue.

Merrill’s Compensation

The money Merrill has set aside for bonuses equates to an average $110,000 for each of its 60,900 people, up from $108,000 a year ago because more than 3,000 jobs have been cut.

Read moreBroken Securities Industry Still Has $20 Billion to Pay Bonuses

Georgia’s Alpha Bank & Trust Seized as U.S. Closings Rise to 16

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Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) — Alpha Bank & Trust in Alpharetta, Georgia, with $346 million in deposits, was seized by regulators and closed as the collapse of the housing market and loan defaults claimed a 16th U.S. bank this year.

Alpha, with $354 million in assets, was shut by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sold the deposits to Stearns Bank N.A., of St. Cloud, Minnesota. Alpha’s two offices north of Atlanta will open on Oct. 27 as branches of Stearns Bank, the FDIC said yesterday.

Regulators have closed the most banks in 15 years, and the collapses of Washington Mutual Inc. and IndyMac Bancorp Inc. were among the biggest in history. About 4.4 percent of Alpha’s assets were defaulted real-estate loans it took back on its balance sheet, quadruple the total for most U.S. banks, based on data compiled by Charlottesville, Virginia-based SNL Financial.

Read moreGeorgia’s Alpha Bank & Trust Seized as U.S. Closings Rise to 16

Bank of America Credit-Card Unit Loses $373 Million

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Related article: Banks Hoard Cash as Credit Card Defaults Rise

“We have to be prepared that it gets a lot worse,” J.P. Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said about the overall economic outlook.
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Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) — Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. consumer bank, lost money in its credit-card unit for the first time since its January 2006 purchase of MBNA Corp. as more borrowers missed payments amid the slowing economy.

Card services, which includes unsecured loans, lost $373 million in the third quarter, compared with a profit of $1.04 billion in the same period last year, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company said today in a regulatory filing. Defaults on cards, consumer loans and home mortgages contributed to a 47 percent decline in operating profit at the consumer and small-business division.

Bank of America provided more details on its third-quarter results today, two weeks after reporting a 68 percent decline in profit. Those earnings, released early as the bank announced plans to raise $10 billion by selling common shares, were worse than analysts expected. The world’s biggest financial companies have disclosed $661 billion in losses and raised $634 billion in fresh capital.

“Credit cards have typically been among the most profitable parts of Bank of America’s business,” said Jim Campen, executive director of Americans for Fairness in Lending, a Boston-based nonprofit that studies the credit card industry. “As we enter the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, more people aren’t going to be able to pay their credit cards.”

Read moreBank of America Credit-Card Unit Loses $373 Million

Merrill Chief Thain Expects Thousands of Job Cuts

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Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) — Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive Officer John Thain said he expects “thousands” of job losses from the bank’s $50 billion takeover by Bank of America Corp.

Most of the cuts will fall in information technology, operations and “corporate functions,” Thain, 53, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Dubai today. Jobs in the fixed income and commodities divisions won’t be eliminated after the deal, he said.

“We haven’t mapped it out in terms of actual number of people, but we are committed to saving $7 billion across the combined platforms, and that will be a challenge,” Thain said. “Between our two companies it will be clearly thousands of jobs.”

Read moreMerrill Chief Thain Expects Thousands of Job Cuts

Citigroup’s $13bn writedown raises fears of a crisis beyond Wall Street

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America’s leading banks continued to announce hefty losses yesterday as Citigroup reported a further writedown of more than $13 billion (£7.5 billion) for the third quarter and Merrill Lynch took another $9.5 billion hit.

The latest writedowns brought Citigroup’s total hit from the credit crunch to about $60 billion and left it with an overall group loss, of $2.8 billion, for the fourth consecutive quarter.

Merrill Lynch, which has clocked up about $50 billion of credit-crunch related charges, reported its fifth consecutive quarterly group loss, of $5.15 billion, for the third quarter. The group agreed a fire sale to Bank of America last month to boost its capital reserves.

Citigroup’s loss was larger than the $2.2 billion deficit the bank recorded the year before, but considerably smaller than the $3.8 billion loss analysts had collectively forecast for the period. Group revenues fell 23 per cent to $16.7 billion.

Although Citigroup’s results came in ahead of expectations, analysts were concerned that they provided further evidence that the financial crisis was spreading from Wall Street to Main Street.

Read moreCitigroup’s $13bn writedown raises fears of a crisis beyond Wall Street

JPMorgan Net Income Drops 84 Percent on Writedowns

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Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank by market value, said third-quarter profit fell 84 percent on about $5.8 billion of writedowns, losses and credit provisions.

Net income dropped to $527 million, or 11 cents a share, from $3.4 billion, or 97 cents, a year earlier, the New York- based bank said today in a statement. Shares of the company rose as earnings beat the 18-cent loss analysts predicted on average in a survey by Bloomberg.

JPMorgan took $18.8 billion of writedowns and credit costs before today, less than a third of what Wachovia Corp. and Citigroup Inc. reported. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon has capitalized on the market crisis by taking over Bear Stearns Cos. and Washington Mutual Inc. as they collapsed earlier this year. JPMorgan will get $25 billion from the U.S. government under a bank rescue plan announced yesterday.

Read moreJPMorgan Net Income Drops 84 Percent on Writedowns

U.S. Is Investing $250 Billion in Banks

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Treasury Chief Says Banks Must Deploy New Capital


Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., speaking in Washington on Tuesday morning, described the government’s bailout as “extensive, powerful and transformative.” The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, is at right.

WASHINGTON – Describing the government’s financial bailout plan as “extensive, powerful and transformative,” Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said on Tuesday that the injection of $250 billion into the nation’s banks was needed to restore confidence and avoid a collapse of the financial system.

Speaking shortly after President Bush used similar terms to describe the proposal, Mr. Paulson said the Treasury would make $250 billion available to banks to help recapitalize those banks and to get them lending again, among themselves and to businesses and consumers.

“The needs of our economy require that our financial institutions not take this new capital to hoard it, but to deploy it,” Mr. Paulson said, who offered some details of the plan along with the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, and the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Sheila C. Bair.

With the proposal, the United States follows similar plans announced Monday across Europe – almost all intended to inject money into the banks and unfreeze the credit markets. Markets around the world have rebounded on news of the coordinated efforts. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 936 points, or 11 percent on Monday, the largest single-day gain in the American stock market since the 1930s, and gained more than 300 points more in the opening minutes of trading on Tuesday. European markets were up at least 5 percent on Tuesday after rising nearing 10 percent Monday.

Read moreU.S. Is Investing $250 Billion in Banks

U.S. Stocks Drop; S&P 500, Dow Post Worst Retreats Since 1937

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Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, speaks on a television above a trader in the S&P pit at the Chicago Board of Trade in Chicago, on Tuesday Oct. 7, 2008. Photographer: Joshua Lott/Bloomberg News

Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index below 1,000 for the first time since 2003, on speculation banks and real-estate companies are running short of money as the credit crisis worsens.

Bank of America Corp. tumbled 26 percent after cutting its dividend in half and saying it plans to sell $10 billion in common stock to brace for a recession. Morgan Stanley, KeyCorp and JPMorgan Chase & Co. slid more than 10 percent as investors shrugged off signs the Federal Reserve will reduce interest rates. General Growth Properties Inc., a mall owner, plunged 42 percent on concern it won’t be able to repay debt.

The S&P 500 slid 60.66 points, or 5.7 percent, to 996.23, extending its 2008 tumble to 32 percent in the market’s worst yearly slump since 1937. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 508.39, or 5.1 percent, to 9,447.11, giving it a 29 percent retreat in 2008 that would also be the worst in 71 years. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 5.8 percent to 1,754.88.

“We’ve approached the edge of the cliff,” Leon Cooperman, 65, who manages $6 billion at hedge fund Omega Advisors Inc., said at the Value Investing Congress in New York. “Do we go over the cliff or begin to recede? History says we recede, but there’s no guarantee. This is the most difficult financial environment I’ve lived through.”

Read moreU.S. Stocks Drop; S&P 500, Dow Post Worst Retreats Since 1937

The Dollar is Doomed

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When the precious metals were smashed out of nowhere and the dollar started climbing this summer I became very worried. I didn’t question my conviction that commodities are in a bull market, or that precious metals in particular are undervalued. I felt something sinister was at work. Neither move was justified on a fundamental level. I assumed that something very bad was about to happen and the metals needed to be brought lower in advance of the bad news.

Now we have a glimpse at the ugly consequences foreseen by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve. In early September, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were nationalized with a financial commitment of USD$200 billion from the taxpayers. Incredibly, the loan limits at the former GSEs were raised from $417,000 to $729,750 in March when it was more than obvious these institutions needed to be reined in. Like most bailouts and bank failures, this one was announced on a weekend to limit the impact on the stock markets.

As I mentioned in last month’s issue, Treasury Secretary Paulson was under severe pressure to act, as the Chinese started selling Fannie and Freddie bonds while threatening further retribution. Common shareholders were left with nothing, while bondholders like Pimco and Asian central banks benefited. The small investor was stung again, as taxpayer dollars were used to bail out foreigners and wealthy Americans in a policy that Jim Rogers terms “socialism for the rich.”

Unfortunately, $200 billion is just the tip of the iceberg. As the government has assumed responsibility for Fannie and Freddie’s $5.4 trillion in liabilities, the Congressional Budget Office correctly states that these institutions “should be directly incorporated into the federal budget.” The Bush Administration has strongly opposed this move.

Read moreThe Dollar is Doomed

FDIC Announces Citigroup to Buy Wachovia

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Citigroup has agreed to buy Wachovia bank in a deal brokered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to avoid another major corporate failure in the midst of the ongoing financial crisis.

The FDIC announced the deal on its Web site this morning. No price for the transaction was included in the announcement. But the FDIC said that the deal hinged on a loss sharing arrangement between Citigroup and the FDIC, the agency responsible for insuring bank deposits.

Wachovia has been saddled by mortgage-related losses. Under the terms of the deal, Citigroup will absorb up to $42 billion of losses on a $312 billion pool of loans. The FDIC will be responsible for any losses beyond that, but was given $12 billion in Citigroup preferred stock and warrants in return for that guaranty.

The Wachovia purchase is the second major bank buyout orchestrated by the FDIC in the last week. The agency also helped arrange the sale of the failed Washington Mutual to J.P. Morgan Chase.

Read moreFDIC Announces Citigroup to Buy Wachovia

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Become Banks, Ending an Era for Wall Street

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U.S. flags fly outside the headquarters of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., in New York, Sept. 16, 2008. Photographer: Gino Domenico/Bloomberg News

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — The Wall Street that shaped the financial world for two decades ended last night, when Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley concluded there is no future in remaining investment banks now that investors have determined the model is broken.

The Federal Reserve’s approval of their bid to become banks ends the ascendancy of the securities firms, 75 years after Congress separated them from deposit-taking lenders, and caps weeks of chaos that sent Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. into bankruptcy and led to the rushed sale of Merrill Lynch & Co. to Bank of America Corp.

“The decision marks the end of Wall Street as we have known it,” said William Isaac, a former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. “It’s too bad.”

Goldman, whose alumni include Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary presiding over a $700 billion bank bailout, and Morgan Stanley, a product of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act that cleaved investment and commercial banks, insisted they didn’t need to change course, even as their shares plunged and their borrowing costs soared last week.

Read moreGoldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Become Banks, Ending an Era for Wall Street

Capitalism in convulsion: Toxic assets head towards the public balance sheet

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In the space of just two momentous weeks, the landscape of global finance has been dramatically transformed. President George W. Bush’s administration has mounted a multi-billion-dollar rescue of the financial system at the cost of inflicting severe damage on the US model of free- market capitalism.

Heavy costs will be inflicted on the American taxpayer, who is now subsidising Wall Street – and indeed financial institutions around the world – in a bail-out of unprecedented size.

Read moreCapitalism in convulsion: Toxic assets head towards the public balance sheet

Stocks rally on report of entity for bad debt

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Stocks end sharply higher on report that government will create entity to hold banks’ debt

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rallied in a stunning late-session turnaround Thursday, shooting higher and hurtling the Dow Jones industrials up 400 points following a report that the federal government might create an entity to absorb banks’ bad debt. The report also cooled investors’ fervor for the safest types of investments like government debt.

The report that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is considering the formation of a vehicle like the Resolution Trust Corp. that was set up during the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s left previously solemn investors ebullient. Wall Street hoped a huge federal intervention could help financial institutions jettison bad mortgage debt and stop the drain on capital that has already taken down companies including Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Read moreStocks rally on report of entity for bad debt