Articles About Financial Crisis

Author:
James I. Clark III
Posted:
11.13.2012

QE3 A Boon to CMBS

If history repeats itself, QE3 will be good for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS). The Fed’s third round of quantitative easing – which is purchasing $40 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) each month from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – will free up money for the commercial real estate market and lure investors away from […]

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Author:
James I. Clark III
Posted:
06.06.2012

Basel III Compliance Requires 29 Biggest Banks to Raise $556 Billion

The world’s largest banks need to raise as much as $566 billion of common equity to meet Basel III rules on capital to be implemented by 2019, cutting shareholder returns, according to analysts at Fitch Ratings.  The 29 global banks that regulators believe are too big to fail need new capital that equals nearly 23 […]

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Author:
Mike Ochs
Posted:
04.25.2012

March Housing Starts Down, While Construction Permits Rise

American homebuilders started construction on new houses in March at a slower pace, but in an ironic twist, the number of construction permits jumped to their highest level in 3 ½ years.  This is a positive signal for the slumping residential industry.  According to the Department of Commerce, housing starts fell 5.8 percent to an […]

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Author:
James I. Clark III
Posted:
04.18.2012

Rising Unemployment Could Push Eurozone Into a Double-Dip Recession

Europe’s unemployment has soared to 10.8 percent, the highest rate in more than 14 years as companies from Spain to Italy eliminated jobs to weather the region’s crisis, according to the European Union’s (EU) statistics office.  That’s the highest since June 1997, before the Euro was introduced.  European companies are cutting costs and eliminating jobs […]

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Author:
James I. Clark III
Posted:
04.04.2012

Treasury Makes $25 Billion in Successful MBS Sale

The Treasury Department just raked in a cool $25 billion for the American taxpayer. It sold the agency-backed mortgage-backed securities (MBS) that it bought during the financial crisis.  “The successful sale of these securities marks another important milestone in the wind-down of the government’s emergency financial crisis response efforts,” said Mary Miller, Treasury assistant secretary […]

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Author:
Tom Silva
Posted:
03.06.2012

Gordon Gekko Changes His Mind, Says Greed Is Bad

Actor Michael Douglas is playing a new and rather surprising role as spokesman for the FBI to fight corruption on Wall Street.  The actor – famous for his line “greed is good” in the 1987 film “Wall Street” – is sending a new message in a public service announcement, explaining that insider trading is a […]

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Author:
Tom Silva
Posted:
12.27.2011

Fewer Couples Are Going to the Chapel

The number of American couples marching down the aisle to get married is in decline, with just 51 percent of adults reporting that they are married, according to the Pew Research Center and the Census Bureau. The Pew Center’s study determined that new marriages in the United States fell five percent between 2009 and 2010; […]

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Author:
James I. Clark III
Posted:
12.13.2011

Banks Getting Healthier

Bank earnings rose to their highest level in more than four years, while the number of troubled banks declined for the second consecutive quarter.  The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said the banking industry earned $35.3 billion in the 3rd quarter, an increase from the $23.8 billion reported in the same timeframe last year.  More […]

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Author:
Tom Silva
Posted:
11.08.2011

Recent College Grads Can Expect Starting Salaries 10 Percent Below 2000 Levels

Recent college graduates can expect to earn 10 percent less than they did as long ago as 2000.  In fact, one of the longest-lasting legacies of the great recession may be its negative impact on the lifetime careers of young graduates.  The current high unemployment rate will leave many of them a step behind throughout […]

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Author:
James I. Clark III
Posted:
10.24.2011

Federal Reserve Asks for Comments Before Implementing the Volcker Rule

Federal regulators have requested public comment on the Volcker Rule — the Dodd-Frank Act restrictions that would ban American banks from making short-term trades of financial instruments for their own accounts and prevent them from owning or sponsoring hedge funds and private-equity funds.  The Volcker rule, released by the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance […]

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