It’s earnings week on Wall Street, and analysts had estimated that megabank Citigroup would break even in the first quarter. This morning, it announced a $4.4 billion profit — meaning the bank made around $49 million a day in the first three months of the year. Sure, markets More…
At the end of last week, the Obama administration reportedly told Senate Democrats to drop the $50 billion liquidation fund — often referred to as a “bailout fund” — from the financial regulation bill as a concession to Republicans. Senate Democrats broached the deal with Republican leadership. They More…
As a quick follow to Annie’s nice wrap of yesterday’s gathering of the commission investigating the recent financial crack-up, it’s worth noting that Alan Greenspan — once contrite about the “flaw” surrounding his blind trust in free markets — is now making the claim that he’d been More…
This morning, Goldman Sachs, among the most lucrative of the Wall Street firms, released an eight-page shareholder note, a preface to its 2009 annual report, which will be out later this month.
Underscoring the extent to which taxpayers saved bankers during the crash, the words “Washington” and “government” and More…
Now that there are only a few banks left that haven’t repaid their TARP funds — and many did so to get out from under Pay Czar Ken Feinberg’s pay-restricting thumb — and bonus season has passed, Feinberg has just a little time on his hands. The Wall Street Journal More…
The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy examiner’s report is the gift that just keeps on giving to critics of the administration, the bank bailout and the current efforts at financial market reform. Today, Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post reports that Tim Geithner, already under fire for encouraging Goldman More…
For an administration that once said that it would pay more attention to Main Street than Wall Street, the failure of the its signature initiative for Main Streeters — the mortgage modification program — should be a wake-up call that it’s far past time to pay attention to the problems More…
Over and over again, the Greek government has stated that the currency trades that Goldman Sachs arranged to allow the Greek government to hide a portion of its debt were perfectly legal at the time, and that appears to be the case. But economist Simon Johnson has uncovered More…
A new report from the Treasury Department — the last of its kind — shows that despite all the regulation-avoiding PR campaigns, new loans at the nine largest banks that still owe bailout funds to the government dropped by 35 percent in January.
The nine banks
The Swiss bank UBS — last seen by The New York Times supposedly donating to Republicans to avoid regulation — is doing something more in line with President Obama’s calls to limit executive bonuses when companies fare poorly. UBS, which posted a $2.56 billion loss in 2009, is More…
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