D. McHattie

Earnings Preview: Bank of New York

BK earnings may indeed look weak relative to some of their peers in the banking industry, despite the company being in much better shape.

Why is this? BK can't inflate its balance sheet using mark-to-myth accounting on its toxic assets because BK was too smart to invest in large amounts of toxic assets in the first place.

Do you see how these accounting rule changes thwart proper analysis, punishing good companies and favouring bad banks?

What the Treasury Plan Needs: Price Discovery, Writedowns and More

Why do so many authors refer to nationalizing the banks as an all or nothing proposition?

Why can't we just 'take over' (not 'nationalize') those banks that do not meet a certain solvency threshold?

Yes, the government is not good at running banks. This is why we would melt the taken-over banks down and sell them for scrap.

If we had taken over the insolvent banks a year ago we would probably already be half-way through selling off their assets, thus achieving 'price discovery, writedowns and more'... without encumbering several generations of taxpayers with trillions in obligations.

TARP Accountability: Bankers Say 'What, Me Sorry?'

I don't think every one of these guys is guilty. My understanding is that BK is and always was strong and only accepted the TARP money because they were given no choice - they had no need for the TARP money.

Perhaps I am just drinking the kool-aid but that was the understanding that I had.