I received an Email this morning from Charles Goyette about the state of our banking system. One Day At The Bank Branch By Charles Goyette An old farmer walked into a rural branch of Washington Mutual to open a savings account. Being a conservative sort, he asked, “What happens if Washington Mutu ... Read more

Two articles from the NY Times Dealbook: ING to Split in Two Amid $11.3 Billion Rights Issue ING Group, the Dutch financial services company, said Monday that it planned to break up its insurance and banking businesses and raise up to 7.5 billion euros, or $11.3 billion, in a stock issue, after ... Read more

FINTAG COMMENT Back to ordering the last wine on the list. Why the media is so surprised at the latest stellar profits from the Investment Banks is rather bizarre. Any company that can offload its bad debts and get a decent fair value as well as pushing its hard to price illiquid assets into off ... Read more

Wells Fargo (WFC) announced results and had a curious quote from the CFO Howard Atkins; which makes one wonder if Wells Fargo is becoming the new market barometer. They will do well in bad times but stay out of relative trouble when their peers blow their brains out with fads and manias. ... Rea ... Read more

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has been out in his last three or four speeches now trying to address the “too big to fail” issue.  What is interesting is that he is now ringing the tune that (as possible systematic risk regulator) he doesn’t want this to be the case in the future ... Read ... Read more

It’s is great that Jon Stewart informed the world last week that the media pundits at CNBC  failed to provide accurate information about the impending financial crisis.  But by using technical analysis, I warned my readers last June what the charts were telling me and transferred ... Read more

Professor Scott Shane of Case Western University is at it yet again.  He made waves last year for assailing entrepreneurship education, particularly if they have anything to do with small business, or what he calls "marginal businesses" that he asserts actually hurt employment in ... Read more

In a follow-up to the post I wrote yesterday, the Nashville Post has a story today that confirms my outlook for bank lending to entrepreneurial ventures in 2009. From Geert De Lombaerde's story : The credit crisis taking its toll on parts of Nashville's banking sector could be set ... R ... Read more

From the FDIC: FDIC Adopts Assessments for Insured Institutions for 2009 The Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today voted to adopt a final rule increasing risk-based assessment rates uniformly by 7 basis points (7 cents for every $100 of deposits), on an annual ... Read more