Tom Jacobs

U.S. Banks Putting 'Lipstick on a Pig'

Jeff,

I generally find your posts, this one included, credible and in the right direction, but I believe that the inflammatory language detracts from your analysis. There is nothing wrong with tact. You have strong arguments and the only perception I get from "crime syndicate" or "feces" is to question your judgment.

I have not observed Bloomberg to be a Wall Street mouthpiece at any point of the crisis. They took the lead on challenging the Fed's secrecy regarding its actions, not a step that a Wall Street mouthpiece would pursue when the Fed has repeatedly acted to protect Wall Street and the status quo.

Tom

Fed Finds a Way to Use Stress Tests to Screw Bank Shareholders One More Time

You seem to write from a vacuum. These very banks negotiated to lower the bar on these supposed stress tests. Further, they have succeeded in watering down the "market values" at which they carry their assets. Finally, they generated their earnings in the first quarter from a combination of AIG using tax payer money to buy out various CDOs at par as opposed to anything like market value as well as some such as Citi booking gains buying back their own debt. Now you object to requiring that the banks not get to include their own internally generated profit projections. Again, I don't know where you are coming from...

FDIC Regulation: Reason for Alarm

Thanks to Alan for making the point on the differing means of government handout. The Wells Fargo deal will actually cost us more as taxpayers than the proposed Citi offer, an unclear conclusion from the link shared by Alan. The original story along with the unconstitutional nature of the administrative law change enabling Wells to proceed was broken by the Washington Post:

www.washingtonpost.com...