Warm_Paw

Banks Scramble to Refinance Their Long-Term Debt

For our commentators.
If you dislike the reality of the situation, don't pick on the messenger.
I want to continue to be informed.
Positive news always makes me say "Yeah Right"
Negative news is hard to deliver, so it carries more weight in truth, in my opinion.
Bottom line is - there has been no transparency on where the banks are in ridding themselves of their toxic assets. The fact is, that is the heart of the crisis so just to go into denial on the subject did not make the problem go away.
The govt does not have another $700 billion to throw at this and it hasn't mitigated the damages because the banks have refused to write down the toxic assets in trying to put a positive spin on earnings. So toxic assets are still there, Fed dumping money into market has created Fed Bubble.
When Fed runs out of money - bubble gets pricked.
Banks who then can't get funding will fall like dominos.

Most of 19 Banks Passed the Stress Test

It's obvious the stress tests are some feel good tonic for worried investors.
The devil's in the details.
I'd read BAC's balance sheet for Dec 2008.
Liabilities outweigh assets by close to a trillion dollars.
How the F did that get by a stress test.
Need to raise capital? They owe more than some countrys.

If the govt wants to instill confidence with me, tell me this:

#1. How much of each banks securities have been marked to market - on an actual mark to market basis?

#2. How much of the toxic assets of each bank has been unwound.

#3. Can the banks accurately assess what IS toxic?

#4. What percentage of each banks toxic assets faces future delinquincy due to defaulting homeowners,/creditors?

Real numbers.
Not a bunch of headlines telling me the banks are much better now and that swine flu is causing the market crash.

Credit Card Cancer

The government doesn't have a choice but to pump us out of this mess.
Allowing banks to fail in true capitalistic fashion would put America out of work.
The real issue is that we have offshored employment to third world countries and imported their cheap goods to save money, using credit due to the lack of employment.
A handful of elite businessmen have gotten rich.
The country as a whole now has to introduce protectionism to put people back to work.
Pricking the real estate bubble is common sense to me.
While our wages become comparable to third world countries, there's no way we'll afford present day housing prices.
The Chinese threaten to sell a trillion in T-Bills if we devalue our dollar, what they don't realize is that selling those T-Bills will help us devalue the dollar.
Devaluing will put us back to work.
The party's over, back to the old fashion way of making money - working for it.