Zro

BankFirst in South Dakota becomes No. 55 to fail, costing the FDIC insurance fund $91M.

Vineyard Bank, Rancho Cucamonga, CA
The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $579 million.

Temecula Valley Bank, Temecula, CA
The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $391 million.

iSuppli deconstructs the iPod Shuffle (AAPL) and finds its components cost a mere 28% of its retail price - a fat profit margin.

Now, 'iDevelop' needs to see how much it costs to write the software, licensing of codecs, etc for the shuffle and factor that into the price. (not to mention marketing and so forth)

No doubt APPL is still sitting pretty on profit margins, but they are not being completely honest when relating hw costs to retail price to profit margins.

I did enjoy the article though :p

Holiday weekend or no, it's back to Bank Failure Friday. Latest casualty (number 22 for 2009) is North Carolina's Cape Fear Bank. Carolina-based First Federal has agreed to assume all Cape Fear's deposits and its 8 branches will reopen on Monday under the First Federal banner. Estimated cost to FDIC: $131 million.

New Frontier Bank of Greeley, Colorado also went under.

The FDIC did not tap a buyer for New Frontier Bank, and instead created the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Greeley. The FDIC named San Francisco-based Bank of the West to manage the entity, which will stay open for about 30 days to give New Frontier Bank's customers time to open accounts at other insured institutions.

New Frontier Bank has $2 billion in assets and $1.5 billion in deposits, $4 million of which potentially exceeded the insurance limits. Regular deposit accounts are insured up to $250,000.

finance.yahoo.com/news...

IATA almost doubles its forecast for global airline losses to $4.7B. "Demand has deteriorated much more rapidly with the economic slowdown than could have been anticipated even a few months ago. Combined with an industry debt of $170B, the pressure on the industry balance sheet is extreme," it says.

bailout the airline suppliers!

NY AG Cuomo warns AIG: Provide details ("each individual's job description and performance") on bonus recipients by 4:00 p.m., or we'll issue subpoenas. "Taxpayers of this country are now supporting AIG (AIG), and they deserve at the very least to know how their money is being spent."

It'll be interesting in how the NY AG plans to sidestep any of the bonus-related contract provisions.

GE's (GE) Immelt wants Congress to pass stimulus now. "The U.S. is in the eye of its most severe financial storm in nearly a century and urgent action is needed... Time is absolutely of the essence."

As a taxpayer, I'd like to get a likely set of events (and their probabilities) of what will happen during this financial storm if our money isn't spent on this stimulus bill.

I dislike how every politician (left and right) states this impending doom with no details just to further along this stimulus bill.

Gold ETF Reaches New Inventory High

Buy GLD. Everyone's doing it!

Chart of the Week: Gold

Usually a 'more confirmed' breakout is formed after heavy volume. Not 1/3 volume of GLD as seen on 12/27 and even less on 12/24.