In recent history, governments have nationalized banks when the pressures of internationalized financial markets and international competition have made it difficult for them to control and stabilize their finances and currency. During the last couple of decades, countries as different as Mexico, France, Sweden, and Japan carried out partial or more or less complete bank [...]

The Federal Reserve was created 95 years ago to prevent banking crises as an independent agency whose Washington-based governors are appointed by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. Its officials usually steer clear of the most heated political debates in a bid to protect their freedom to make the tough [...]

On October 1, 90-year-old Addie Polk, distraught over her home’s impending foreclosure, shot herself twice in an attempted suicide.
Fortunately, Ms. Polk’s attempt was unsuccessful. Even better for her, Fannie Mae – which had taken possession of her mortgage after numerous missed payments – forgave Ms. Polk’s debt and signed the house over to her, free [...]

The Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has not put an end to the woes of these two companies. The two companies have now received subpoenas from federal prosecutors in New York seeking information on the companies’ accounting, disclosure, and corporate governance. The two companies have also received requests from the Securities and [...]

If you watch the news at all these days (and a case could definitely be made for avoiding this habit), then you already know that the United States imports way more cheap stuff from China than it sends over there for sale to the Chinese people. That big difference between the huge amount we import [...]

The present financial crisis – probably the worst in decades – is making the lawmakers in Washington, D.C., strongly consider the need to dust off a 1980’s era plan to help save the banking industry and stabilize the economy.
The idea of setting up a government corporation to deal with toxic assets has invoked strong [...]

In 1932, Congress created the Federal Home Loan Banks to prop up thrift institutions during the Great Depression. Today, there are 12 regional Federal Home Loan Banks. Their main business is low cost loans to their more than 8000 owners, which include commercial banks, thrifts, credit unions, and insurance companies. Like Freddie Mac and Fannie [...]

I confess I wasn’t happy to wake up Wednesday morning and find out that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson had decided to put taxpayers on the hook for up to $85 billion in loans to AIG, the world’s largest insurer of mortgage-backed securities.
I was even more dismayed [...]

On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average – the bluest of Wall Street’s blue chips – lost 4.4% in a single day. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been “seized” by the government. Oil continues to drop while gas prices rise. Inflation runs high while jobless claims continue to soar and gold falters. What a [...]

OK, I know Lehman Brothers just tanked, Fannie and Freddie have been seized, and AIG has been taken over by the Fed, but can we put all that aside for just a few minutes and talk about me for a change, please? I have liquidity problems of my own, and that being the case, I [...]