FINANCIAL News, Money, Banks, Economic and Financial Crisis, Aug 29, 2011

Ms. Lagarde's recapitalization plan makes sense Globe and Mail Which would effectively mean adopting the much-criticized but largely effective US policy that forced major banks to accept capital infusions from Washington whether they wanted the money or not. Ms. Lagarde suggested the European FinancialStability ... See all stories on this topic »

Europe's Big Mistake New Yorker by James Surowiecki September 5, 2011 In July, 2008, on the eve of the biggestfinancial crisis in memory, the European Central Bank did something both predictable and stupid: it raised interest rates. The move was predictable because the ECB's ... See all stories on this topic » New Yorker

Fully fledged credit crisis may be ahead: Satyait Das Moneycontrol.com "The rapid and marked deterioration in economic and financial conditions means that the risk of a serious disruption is now significant," he said. "If markets seize up again, then "this time it will be different". There might just not be enough money ... See all stories on this topic » Moneycontrol.com

European Travails Continue Seeking Alpha In Europe, financial regulators in France, Italy, Belgium and Spain have in the meantime extended the short selling ban on certain financial shares (a number of banks and insurance companies), seemingly oblivious to the historical experience with such ... See all stories on this topic »

Impoverishing a continent The Southern Times Sikazwe asked the question in 2007, before financial crises hit Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain (PIGS). Her concerns are in line with queries raised by many observers over the years who have pointed out that the IMF and the World Bank deliberately ... See all stories on this topic »

The perilous urge to merge Sydney Morning Herald By staying away from shoddy mortgage lending, derivatives trading and investments in mortgage-backed securities, it is the rare large financial institution that never reported an unprofitable year through the financial crisis. ... See all stories on this topic » Sydney Morning Herald

Debt crisis: Is the Great Reckoning upon us? Telegraph.co.uk (blog) Four years after the financial crisis began, in the summer of 2007, we still send tens of billions more, every few months, to bail out the banks – though these days we have rebranded our banking sector bailouts “sovereign debt bailouts”. ... See all stories on this topic » Telegraph.co.uk (blog)

In praise of DealBook Reuters Blogs (blog) We can all remember what things were like before 2008: Wall Street was king, New York was the center of the financial universe, the titans of finance were gods. DealBook's offerings remain closely aligned with that paradigm, even though the titans have ... See all stories on this topic »

Analysis: EU oil jolt may not be enough to rock Assad Reuters Even the international financial crisis did not affect the economy because it was such a closed and small economy," he said. A businessman in Syria, who imports European hydraulic equipment, said German firms had told him they were freezing future ... See all stories on this topic » Reuters

Stocks jump as Irene damage less than forecast MSN Money Financial stocks were the best-performing sector of the market, with insurance stocks rallying strongly. Allstate (ALL), one of the biggest property-casualty insurers, was up 6.9% to $25.81. Travelers Companies (TRV) had added 4.7% to $50.55. ... See all stories on this topic » MSN Money

Offshore Banking a Definition Shelter Offshore Today there are about 70 offshore financial centres in the world, as defined by the likes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). However, if you choose to bank in any jurisdiction... See all stories on this topic » Shelter Offshore

Asia to lead global economy out of crisis People's Daily Online In fact, the impact caused by current crisis on Asia's emerging-market countries was not too severe. That's because countries and regions of Asia have widely improved their economic structures and debt constitutes after the financial crisis in 1998. ... See all stories on this topic »

Uncertainty dominates as groups cut debts Financial Times By Alistair Gray The scale of UK corporate deleveraging since the financial crisis is laid bare by data showing the country's biggest listed companies have reduced their overall debt burden by £57bn during two years – cutting their gearing to its ... See all stories on this topic »

Italy Tests Investor Appetite for Debt When ECB Buying Absent: Euro Credit Bloomberg The bond-buying program didn't provide enough support to prevent Ireland and Portugal following Greece in requesting financial aid. Ireland's 10-year yields fell to 4.72 percent on May 10, 2010, the day the ECB began buying, from 5.86 percent the ... See all stories on this topic »

Bank Of America (BAC) Problems Are Traceable To Countrywide Purchase istockAnalyst.com (press release) BAC's problems are traceable to the company's purchase of Countrywide Financial back in January 2008. Countrywide was the nation's largest mortgage company. Within months of buying Countrywide, the real estate mortgage crisis turned Countrywide into ... See all stories on this topic »

How Will Warren Buffett's Latest Investment Affect Sports Sponsorship? Forbes The timing and structure of the deal makes it clear that the bank is not only still weighed-down by decisions made around the prior financial crisis, but raises the prospect that such a “confidence building move” portends a larger financial crisis. ... See all stories on this topic »

Banks asked to restructure MSME loans Livemint Banks have to set aside more money to provide for restructured loans. In the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, Indian banks restructured debt to assist crisis-ridden sectors. According to data from rating agency Credit Analysis and ... See all stories on this topic »

Wonkbook: Meet Alan Krueger Washington Post (blog) Bank executives and analysts had expected a temporary drop in profits in the aftermath of the 2008financial crisis. But a deeper jolt did not materialize as trillions of dollars in federal aid helped prop up the banks and revive the industry. ... See all stories on this topic »

Euro Vision Newsweek Mayhem in the euro zone is a major contributor to the international financial crisis. The immediate cause may be reckless policies pursued by governments and banks, but the institutional structure of the European Monetary Union is the stubborn root of ... See all stories on this topic » Newsweek

The Bogus Crisis Huffington Post Socially liberal members of the banking community may provide support for some Democrats, but would-be candidates who would reimpose stringent regulations on Wall Street cannot hope to raise enough financial support to mount competitive races. ... See all stories on this topic »

Bank regulation 'risks recovery' BBC News The banking commission was set up by the government last June to review the UKbanking sector after bailing out some of the UK biggest banks during the financial crisis. However, the government is under no obligation to implement its recommendations. ... See all stories on this topic » BBC News

Financial Markets and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) 4-traders (press release) China's financial institutions increased lending to small businesses in the first half of 2011 by 18.2% YOY to $3.1 trillion. In June 2011, China's banking regulator enacted measures to boost lending to small businesses, many of which are struggling ... See all stories on this topic »

Bank Stocks Are So Cheap, Buy Now: Bove Yahoo! Finance (blog) Other banks Bove considers cheap, whose net cash exceeds their common equity include: JPMorgan (JPM), Citigroup (C), BNY Mellon (BK), State Street (STT), Northern Trust (NTRS), and Synovus Financial (SNV). As for the European banking crisis, ... See all stories on this topic »

Prepare to Be Forgiven, Ye Mortgage Sinners Gold Seek In fact, this issue alone has the ability to capsize the global financial system, since “clear title” is exactly what ceased to exist when the feather merchants of the bankingworld leveraged out real estate to-the-max earlier in the decade to create ... See all stories on this topic » Gold Seek

Somaliland: Less Money Has Brought More Democracy UNPO Because Somaliland's government cannot access funding from the World Bank, IMF, or other major donors, officials were forced to negotiate with citizens and business leaders for financial support. This negotiation created the responsive political ... See all stories on this topic » UNPO

Q+A-What's behind China's latest reserve move? Reuters ... when Beijing was criticised for over-tightening policy before the global financial crisis struck. But it is too early to declare a victory on inflation. Speculative money flowing into China to chase itseconomic growth, relatively higher interest ... See all stories on this topic »

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