With the passing of each hour, there are more media reports that talks between GE (NYSE:GE) and Vivendi for the French company to sell its 20% of NBCU to the American conglomerate have moved closer to collapse. Without Vivendi’s cooperation, GE cannot form the joint venture it is creating wi ... Read more

Note: The FDIC will probably release the Q3 Quarterly Banking Profile next week. The report will show the number of banks on the problem bank list, and the status of the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF). The FDIC closed another bank on Friday, and that brings the total FDIC bank failures to 124 in ... Read more

From Tim Duy: The Fed in a Corner Over the years, I have warned a seemingly countless number of undergraduates that Fed's hold on monetary independence was tenuous at best. Independence is not guaranteed by the Constitution. Congress made the Fed, and Congress can unmake the Fed. The Fed could on ... Read more

Florida regulators seized a bank in Naples, Fla., on Friday, making it the 124th to be closed this year.   The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed as the receiver for Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida . It arranged for Central Bank , of Stillwater, Minn., to assume the ... Re ... Read more

Sony (NYSE:SNE) said it might not have its e-reader, the Daily Edition Reader, ready to ship before Christmas. It has given customers a range of dates for availability of its product that could be as early as December 18 or as late as January 8. Now, Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) has come up short ... Read more

Speaking of the TED spread, from NFTRH9 dated November 22, 2008: TED Spread & LIBOR Still With the Program [TED & LIBOR 1 Mo. charts omitted] Again, these are not the kind of charts I want to be posting on NFTRH. What I want to be doing is looking at markets, stocks, bonds and currenc ... Read more

Jim is featuring a few trustee sale opportunities recently ... the total loan on this one is about $650,000 and the opening bid is $331,500 for a 2100 sq ft house on over 4 acres in a remote area of San Diego: ... Read the full post ... Read more

This is an unofficial list of Problem Banks compiled only from public sources. Changes and comments from surferdude808: The Unofficial Problem Bank List increased by a net six institutions to 513 while aggregate assets declined to $302.3 billion from $304 billion. There were 12 institutions a ... Read more

Turkey on table Carved up by the Central Bank MMMM Commerce Bank, Yum! by Soylent Green is People From the FDIC: Central Bank, Stillwater, Minnesota, Assumes All of the Deposits of Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida, Fort Myers, FloridaCommerce Bank of Southwest Florida, Fort Myers, Florida ... Read more

The trust that controls Hershey has asked the company to make a bid for UK sweets company Cadbury (NYSE:CBY). The Wall Street Journal reports that the offer would be approximately $17 billion which would top the current offer from Kraft (NYSE:KFT) Douglas A. McIntyre Posted in Mergers and Buy Outs ... Read more