maryanne

An Angry Banker's Foreclosure Solution

US is one of the few countries with NON-recourse mortgages - ie, those deatbeats can walk away anytime. This should only be allowed by bankruptcy course otherwise otherwise they should be forced to pay back the loan even if it takes the rest of their lives (garnish all wages and income)

Citigroup: Bargain Basement Price for Long Term Investors

mdpath has great point. I want to see an author WITH SKIN IN THE GAME. and right, I'm holding onto my preferreds (took profits on the priority ones when they rocketed to $22) Good luck trying to cash in the new post-conversion shares!

Credit Cards: Higher Loan Losses Mean Higher Interest Rates

Whatever happened to PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ? Don't charge more than what you can afford! Those who are irresponsible should pay higher interest rates NOT make the responsible cover those deadbeats by being hit with annual fees.

Conversion of Citi's Preferred Shares Could Bring Stock Down Temporarily

Exactly, most preferred holders brought it for the income. Once the income disappears, they're going to dump. I'm really considering selling C-M and C-F now than to get greedy and try to get $24+ post conversion when everyone else probably got the same idea.

Top 12 Indicators That the Economy Is Still Bad

BGF is good to have, also OTT, the only other US-traded EIS (Rest are all in Canada) Great piece on humor, we really need it during those trying times

Banks, Oligopolies and Ever-Rising Fees

If these people MANAGE THEIR MONEY BETTER, then they wouldn't be hit with fees in the first place! And they should save more to build a better cushion as well. Always read and understand everything. With online and now mobile banking, there is no excuse for not regularly checking your balances and transactions.

Counterparty Risk and the Subprime Fiasco

Excellent article with the best ever (1.5 years later) clear example of counterparty risk. Highly recommend! Note that the author had the foresight to see the credit crisis coming and those two failed counterparties turned out to be Lehman Brothers and AIG. The taxpayers were forced to make good on AIG's obligations. .

Credit Card Crunch: Creating a New Generation of Subprime

Excellent article and fully relevant to the financial crisis and investing. Chase and Citibank closed over 5 of my idle credit cards with NO warning last November-December. I quickly inventoried all the remaining cards and made small purchases (ie, supermarket and EBAY) to keep them "live". Did not seem to dent too much, my FICO score last week is 767. I'm going to refinance an Option ARM to fixed (Unlike many of those borrowers, I was fully aware of the risks and how it works, besides my mortgage is backed up by 4X the assets)

Too Big to Fail, Or Too Dumb to Survive?

Above list of preferred is not complete. Go to quantumonline.com to find them all. I have BWF (Wells Fargo) and USB-L. Nice history of all those brokerages.

Taxpayer Takeover of Citi Should Bring More Fear

NITRAM: Wells Fargo brought Wachovia

I believe Citi is too big to fail and the government's stake will cause it to make every effort to fix it. A failure will cause even worst disaster than Lehman (They should never have let Lehman fail either, instead rescue it like AIG) I got out at C stock at $8 and instead brought Preferred and Trust Preferred (senior debt) - at least its good that I'm equal or higher (if conversion goes thru) than the government.

Citigroup: Too Big to Fail or Succeed

Hi,
exactly my sentiment too, thanks for excellent article. I had C for over 15 years, exited in yesterday's rally. Now reinvest in C-M. Question, why C-P instead of C-M? It seems higher yielding series keep the value better. Otherwise not much diffference % wise. All bank holdings are preferred only (C, BAC, WFC, USB) U.S. doing a lot better than Europeans (RBS, DTT, CRP, BCS)

Financial Landscape: Writedowns, Losses and Capital Raised

I would think so, RBS preferreds are going for less than half of par value AGAIN. sold one at $15 going down on monday, brought it back at $10 tuesday. so that helped reduced my loss (originally brought at par!)