"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse." -- James Madison - (1751-1836)


"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force. " :
Ayn Rand in "The Nature of Government"


"Throughout history there have been tyrants and murderers. And for a while they seem invincible, but always they fall. Always."-Mahatma Gandhi

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings: Helen Keller


The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is , more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime ; he is a good citizen driven to despair.--H.L Mencken


"When even one American-who has done nothing wrong-is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth-then all Americans are in peril" Harry S. Truman


"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist."- Winston Churchill, Nov. 21, 1943


"When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed: Ayn Rand - (1905-1982) Author - Source: Atlas Shrugged, Francisco's "Money Speech"

"Loss of freedom seldom happens overnight. Oppression doesn't stand on the doorstep with toothbrush moustache and swastika armband -- it creeps up insidiously...step by step, and all of a sudden the unfortunate citizen realizes that it is gone." ~ Baron Lane

U.S. Constitution - R.I.P.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Bank Failures: Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You

FDIC Says At Least 90 US Banking institutions In Trouble

Several points of data indicate a rocky road for banks. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the amount of non-current loans, those more than 90 days behind, on the portfolios of its institution has grown rapidly. In the last three months of 2007 and the first three months of 2008, the value of these loans rose by $53 billion to represent 1.71% of all loans from FDIC-insured institutions.

In the case of bank collapse, the FDIC has to step in to insure the value of deposits. Normally the FDIC attempts to maintain a fund at 1.25% of the value of its potential obligations. In recent months, however, this fund has slid to 1.19%, driven primarily by a rise in deposits, said Sheila Bair, chair of the FDIC. If this figure slides further to 1.15% it forces the FDIC to make moves to shore up the fund.

Bair said the FDIC is monitoring 90 institutions with assets of $26 billion that it has identified as troubled. The entire size of the FDIC reserve fund is $52 billion. As a precaution, the FDIC is running bank failure readiness exercises, she said.

Can Banking Shake The Crisis?

While Wall Street and Washington fret about how badly investment banks could damage the economy, Tuesday provided a fresh reminder that commercial banks could be a bigger problem as the second wave of the credit crisis begins its run.

National City (nyse: NCC - news - people ), the Cleveland bank that, in the end, might become the poster child for the credit crisis, confirmed it was under a memorandum of understanding with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Treasury Department arm regulating national banks. This is a form of heightened scrutiny, though informal and less severe than some other options, and looks at a bank's capital and risk management, loan quality and liquidity.

...Ominously, the Federal Deposit Insurance is staffing up in anticipation of bank failures. It's already tracking 90 troubled banks, 18% more than the end of last year. None of this is good news for the troubled industry, which has been hoping for a rebound.

Monday, New York Fed chief Timothy Geithner, the architect of JPMorgan Chase's (nyse: JPM - people ) rescue of Bear Stearns in March, was drumming up support for greater regulation of Wall Street firms to lessen the risks of systemic meltdown. news -


And.in case you missed it..more news for IndyMac customers:

Deposits are insured up to $100,000 per depositor. As of March 31, IndyMac had total deposits of $19.06 billion. Some 10,000 depositors had funds in excess of the insured limit, for a total of $1 billion in potentially uninsured funds, the FDIC said.

Well, you can pretty much figure that the problems they are actually admitting to are just the tip of the iceberg. Things are bound to get pretty interesting over the next few months.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How can I resist the urge to wish for a time machine? Ah, to be a child again (30 years ago, of course). It's really happening, isn't it? Phil

Melinda L. Secor said...

Yep, it is. I had hoped that I would be chuckling at myself in a couple years, feeling foolish for overreacting to the ominous economic signs I've been seeing.

Instead, unfortunately, my family and I are feeling a little foolish for not reacting earlier as we scramble to install solar and wind power, set up water catchment, and get food crops in the ground before all hell breaks loose. I hope they manage to keep the smoke and mirrors working for a few more months.

The Militarization of Our Police