too big to fail

Leave It To The Bank Of Japan

By |2016-04-22T17:26:42-04:00April 22nd, 2016|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Japan has seemed unusually put upon by Mother Nature over the past few years, for which we can only express our sincerest sympathy. However, Japan’s most pressing problem is entirely man-made stemming from the fact that it was first among the world’s “developed” nations to have its economy subsumed by central banking. More than a quarter of a century later, [...]

There Are No New Banks; Dodd-Frank Hits Five

By |2015-07-21T11:12:11-04:00July 21st, 2015|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Today is the fifth anniversary of Dodd-Frank, the erstwhile government response to assure that the Panic of 2008 does not repeat. It was an ill-advised task to begin with as the panic itself took care of repetition. It is not, and never has been, past panic that should worry our future. Along with the legislation came the Consumer Financial Protection [...]

Basel III and The ‘Costs’ of Competition

By |2014-06-30T14:48:07-04:00June 30th, 2014|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

My colleague Margie Fernandez flagged a research report from Oppenheimer on the ongoing Basel implementation. It has been calculated, through various methodologies, that the implementation of both Basel III and Dodd-Frank may be “upwards of 15% of operating profits of small banks.” Now it should be noted that these figures were derived from a meeting with Frank Keating, former governor [...]

Friday FOMC Memories: TBTF

By |2014-03-28T14:45:24-04:00March 28th, 2014|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

It wasn’t all that long ago that bank stress tests were designed specifically to ensure 100% passing rates. The purpose of the exercise has nothing to do with bank safety or even oversight, it is a mode of pure psychology (bordering on propaganda). The first introduction back in 2009 was effectively that – to calm investor fears by stamping the [...]

State Of The Union

By |2013-02-10T18:29:21-05:00February 10th, 2013|Economy, Markets, Stocks|

The President will deliver the State of the Union address Tuesday night. He will probably offer a laundry list of programs that he'd like to spend more money on and the Republicans will respond with a laundry list of reasons why the President's list is a bad idea. The President will say that he intends to concentrate like a laser [...]

A Welter Of Worries

By |2012-05-29T18:28:53-04:00May 28th, 2012|Commodities, Currencies, Economy, Markets|

It is said that bull markets climb a wall of worry but if that were true, then Wall and Broad should look like downtown Pamplona in July with market bears gored, trampled, spindled, mutilated and wrapped around the buttonwood tree. The list of worries for investors seems to grow by the day with slowing Chinese growth center stage one day [...]

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