jsc173

How Are Banks Spending Bailout Money? Anyone's Guess

How is the TARP investment "being spent?" Hopefully, not at all!

Do you know anything about banking? If you did, you would know that capital (which is what TARP investments are) is not "spent."

Capital is a cushion against future expected and unexpected losses. It isn't spent, it is held.

The spread earned from investing deposits and borrowed funds in loans and other types of investments is what is "spent" on day-to-day operations.

TARP investments, per se, would never be lent out or used to pay salaries or other expenses.

All the TARP investments have done, so far, is replace capital that was burned-off due to unexpected write-downs of non-performing loans and investments.

Wall Street, R.I.P. Now What?

Puh-leez.

Once the "big kids" on Wall Street started playing with other people's money -- e.g., when the firms converted from private partnerships with their own money at risk to public corporations, it was only a matter of time.

It wasn't pure greed that killed them.

It was simple arrogance.

Or, as a wise sage once told me during the peak of the bull market, "they're like fat guys riding their bicycles downhill thinking they're going fast because they're good athletes."

The Outlook for Financials Failure

The big ones won't fail, but they won't succeed, either?

What does that mean?

For me, it means it will be another 3-5 years for them to be able to get beyond the effects of their current problems and completely redefine themselves (which they must do to survive).