Andrew Hughes

Derivatives and Bank Collapse - The Scam That Went Largely Unreported

Excellent point. With regard to an International Clearing House, that's exactly what needs to be done. It is the most logical way to defuse the derivatives bomb. The question that arises though is why was this not done previously as a top priority to ensure that any Tarp funds injected in to the banks would actually have a positive effect.
No sane investor is going to pump capital in to a bank without inspecting it's balance sheet and credit exposure.
With the OCC data out in the open, any further capital injection or purchase of "bad assets" without bringing the data and the balance sheets to the table and dealing with the neutralization of the derivative instruments only amounts to either incompetence on a monumental scale or, more likely, a deliberate fleecing of the taxpayer.

How Do You Recapitalize $1.8 Trillion in Bank Loan Losses?

"The tragic history of financial crises is a history of failures by governments to act with the speed and force commensurate with the severity of the crisis."

I think what Geithner meant to say was ..

"The real history of financial crises is a history of SUCCESSES by governments who acted with speed and force to inflate severe and unsustainable bubbles that lead to crises for the taxpayers"

Banks: Nationalize, Cleanse and Get It Over With

Over $8 Trillion has been used to prop up a Banking sector that created it's own destruction. Loving free markets is not just for the good times. If they have bankrupted themselves, let them fail. With regard to holding toxic assets in a "Bad Bank", all that would achieve is postponing the problem to a future date. The Banking sector needs to be cleansed of it's unhinged casino mentality once and for all. The policies of the Fed and Treasury have so far achieved only one thing. Taxpayer funds that could have been put to real use have been squandered in the greatest transfer of wealth in History. The sad thing is the incoming Administration seems hell bent on continuing this lunacy.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

With Consumer spending in freefall, credit card debt spiralling upwards along with unemployment, who is GM going to sell cars to even if they survive long enough to retool and reorganise ? If they get their bailout and eliminate all unnecessary costs, reduce workers wages, pensions etc. and make it , still standing, to end of 2009, the last thing on consumers' minds will be an overexpensive hybrid like a Torus lookalike.