Edward does a nice job to sum up the flurry of the past week which saw the ongoing problems in Greece elevated to a full fledged systemic crisis in the Eurozone economy which, if it ultimately blows, will have ramifications far beyond the borders of the European continent. Being a firm believer in the notion [...]

As we are about move into the fourth day of the week where EU policy makers together with the IMF and the ECB launched an unprecendented series of aid tools to combat the mounting risk of a collapse in Greece and elsewhere in the European periphery I am finally ready to move in with some [...]

Earlier this week Edward mused about whether we were about to see movements in the Greek trenches as yields on 10 year bonds rose to a record 7.76 per cent at one point and closed up 26 basis points on the day. Today, as yields on 2 year bonds flirted with the 10% marker Greece [...]

You may remember that last year Citigroup (C) got a $25B bailout that was much bigger than the rest of the big banks. Now — about a year later — the company is about to pay dearly for the taxpayer provided lifeline.
In today’s market, the TARP’s 27% take in Citi has grown in value [...]

Via the terrific Girl on the Right Blog, these helpful suggestion from A. Nonymous:
Most of us are not doing God’s work trading credit derivatives at Goldman Sachs. You may be stunned when I tell you this, because I sure as heck was when I found out: the TARP program covers none of our credit card [...]

What’s A Trillion Dollars?
Economists are anticipating that the federal budget deficits will be in the trillions of dollars for a number of years. There are estimates that, with all federal efforts combined, the bailout and stimulus packages will be upwards of $7 trillion. I wonder if politicians who are so cavalier about using [...]

This past week Warren Buffett said that is is now very clear that the low point in the US economy has already passed, with “enormous” progress being seen over the past year.
Buffett attributes much of the strong uptick to swift government action last fall and winter. The actions were paramount in keeping the economy [...]

Federal taxpayers received a 23% annualized return on their investment in Goldman Sachs. On Wednesday Goldman announced that calculation by combining the interest it paid before repaying the Treasury’s $10 billion principal loan with the warrant buyback payments it made this week.
Goldman as led the way this week with surprise Q2 earnings… profits made [...]

On Friday it was announced that State Street Corp. became the first of 10 large banks to repurchase warrants held by the US Treasury. The warrants were put in place to assure that taxpayers are rewarded for their collective TARP loan to banks as the finance sector recovers.
The transaction occurred on Wednesday and cost [...]

Sometime in the next couple of months The Federal Government is going to give the state of California a lot of money. After lavishing more than a trillion dollars on Banks, Insurers and Auto Companies, there is a 0% probability that the government will sit idly while the largest state collapses.
There [...]