Articles

The $300 billion bailout has been great for banks. Many have taken the TARP money and set is aside for toughter times or for future acquisitions. Many banks admit the public money has been a windfall that they feel no pressure to spend in any particular way. Most are also saying that they have not changed their behaviour because of the money. And what was the point?

Ken Lewis saved Angelo Mozilo from doing a perp walk, and gave Merrill a sweetheart deal of century, but also took down the largest financial institution in the country and now has put the entire US economic in still further jeopardy.

Hank Paulson made a series of bad choices when he changed the focus of the $700 billion TARP. Here is what I think happened.

After a short three weeks and in an increasingly dire economy, municipal bonds have already proven to be the trade of 2009.

The disintegration of General Electric, once the nation's largest company, will be spectacular and it will be swift.

Sure, it is pretty impressive that America has elected its first black president. Sure, we are a country at the brink of a major depression and need to celebrate something. Sure, someone has to feed the media's insatiable appetite for glitz. But at the very precipice of financial disaster, to see our new leader turn a blind and unfeeling eye on the financial woes of millions of Americans is disconcerting at the very least.

I've been trying to move large amounts of money out of Smith Barney to the higher yielding online savings and CD accounts listing on this site. This week, Smith Barney made it very difficult.

What is one person's misery is another's opportunity. Billionaire Wilbur Ross just received permission from regulators to buy a majority stake in Florida's First Bank and Trust Co. Many believe this is a platform to purchase other distressed banks.

Freddie Mac's weekly survey says that the rate on a 30 year fixed rate loan has fallen below 5% for the first time ever. But you may have trouble finding a rate this low.

Etrade is offering $25 to open a new online savings account and fund it with $1. The $1 minimum deposit required to receive the $25 is as low as they get.

For some time it looked like Bank of America might fly over the banking crisis and actually prosper by vulture investing in Countrywide and Merrill Lynch. Now, it looks like it is choking on the bones it tried to swallow. It's stock is at its lowest point since 1992 and the future doesn't look so bright.

I don't care whether Steve Jobs comes back or doesn't.