Bank Failures: 115 and Counting

If my count is right and nothing more happens this evening, the FDIC took down 9 more banks today and I believe that is 115 for the year. Three or four years back we had zero closures for the year. Quite the change. Not S&P crisis levels in quantity, but the dollar values are right up there.

Continued Real Estate Woes

Remember Fannie Mae (FNM)? You should, because we own it. Lest you missed the news, virtually all new mortgages issued these days are ending up with the GSEs, either Fannie, Freddie (FRE) or Ginnie. In any event, it would appear they are not doing so well. Below is a chart I have borrowed from Calculated Risk and I link here the actual blog, which I highly recommend. As you can see from the chart, things are not going as well on the real estate front as the media would have you think. I cannot recall many charts this extreme.

What does this all mean? I think it means the market was right to go down today.

Disclosures: None.

Comments

[Roger Knights:]

The termites are riddling the foundations, so the higher we built the Tower, the sooner it will fall.

Oct 31 12:19 AM

[Ponchovilla:]

About 1 yr ago the Fed was hiring bank examiners in Dallas at a fast pace. Little was mentioned of this activity. The talking heads (bobble heads) would only say that the number of bank failures was insignificant compared to 8000+ in existence. MJP at Carpe Diem continues to downplay the significance of the bank failure activity. Sometimes Kudlow & Klowns mentions Perry as a source (green shoots anyone?) Most of their trash talk is
PIXIE DUST = confirmation bias + data mining.

Oct 31 01:00 AM

[feces-fungatur:]

Another massive wave of foreclosures are coming. Those directly affected by this depression

Oct 31 09:55 AM

[a. palmer jr.:]

I guess the Fed needs to buy some more printing presses, this one is working too slow! I don't know just how much debt the government is going to put our great-grandchildren in before they finally admit that they're going to have to let some of their friends fail. The longer they wait, the more painful it will be.

Oct 31 10:48 AM

[The Geoffster:]

It seems the U.S. Government is prepared to backstop the entire economy. Consequences? Anyone? Anyone?

Oct 31 01:43 PM

[BullnBear:]

This chart really surprised and concerns me.

I can’t believe that the discussion of extending home buyer credits and supporting of the home building industry still takes place when solidifying our current market environment seems to be failing and is in serious need of a “rethink” on recovery steps.

Oct 31 06:12 PM

[Graham and ...:]

Right now, the number is 15 PLUS 100 (115). But some day, it will be 15 TIMES 100 (1500).

Oct 31 06:22 PM