The hidden gigantic risk of derivatives – Top 77 U.S. banks have their hand in $225 trillion in derivatives. The top 5 banks hold $7.8 trillion of all banking assets growing their asset base by $1.7 trillion from 2007.
The concentration of banking risk in the United States is immense. The Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury like to convey a pretense that we have a very diverse banking system with over 7,800 banking institutions. In the mind of most of the public, this seems like a very diverse industry. Imagine having 7,800 different kinds […]
Will the U.S. face a generation of underperforming housing values? It happened from 1915 to 1945 and the current trend is not looking favorable. Current U.S. housing values over priced by 30 percent.
It is hard to imagine a time in U.S. history when housing was actually perceived as cheap for an entire generation. Yet this is the exact experience that occurred from 1915 to 1945. Home values were cheap in relative inflation adjusted terms. Even after 1945, homes were still affordable and this is where the seeds […]
Bank of America has $2.3 trillion in assets but $956 billion of that is made up in loans. Think those loans are valued at current market levels? The FDIC would have a challenge even breaking up one too big to fail bank.
The FDIC has a herculean challenge in confronting the too big to fail banks. There is little doubt that having institutions that are too big is part of the reason for the current systemic crisis. Yet through the last few years the solution has been to make these banks even bigger allowing their web to […]
The status of the working and middle class American worker for fall 2010 – 42 percent of unemployed persons had been jobless for 27 weeks or more. Young workers have the highest unemployment rate on record at 19.1 percent.
There can be no sustained recovery without putting Americans back to work. We live in an odd time where GDP can be going up while middle class America is slowly dismantled. Let us be clear that the employment situation hasn’t improved. The recent job gains are largely part of the Census hiring that is now […]