If the history of banking tells me anything, it tells me that banks are only fooling themselves if they think that they can hide bad assets and then outlast the drag these bad assets put on their performance. Headlines read,” Europe's Banks Stressed...

Last month I presented Part 13 of my exit watch of the Federal Reserve. In the summer of 2009, the Fed stated that it was going to remove reserves from the banking system to reverse the massive injection of reserves that took place in late 2008 and early...

How important was Ben Bernanke’s testimony given to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission? Well, the New York Times reported it on page B3 of the Business section and the Wall Street Journal reported it on page A6 of its first section. Ho hum! ...

The most important thing for government regulators at this time is to handle the problems in the banking industry in an orderly fashion. Don’t panic; don’t show fear; just keep plugging ahead. This seems to be exactly what the FDIC and the Federal...

Given all the headlines about double-dip recessions, consumer and business de-leveraging, and unemployment it is good to get back to some basic trends that, in my mind, are not going to change. On the front page of the New York Times we read “Advances...

I read with dismay an editorial piece in the Financial Times this morning entitled “Germany’s rebound is no cause for cheer,” ( http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2becafc4-b398-11df-81aa-00144feabdc0.html ) by Wolfgang M?nchau. The conclusion of the piece: “Germany’s...

"Regardless of the risks of deflation, the FOMC will do all that it can to ensure continuation of the economic recovery." Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Board of Governor of the Federal Reserve System at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic...

The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) released statistics on the state of the thrift industry for the second quarter of 2010 on August 25. The industry is limping along, but the signs of a disappearing industry are all over the report. The cloud over...

Today I would like to reference an article by William Galston on the website of the New Republic ( http://www.tnr.com/blog/77215/getting-out-the-recession-stimulus-spending-debt-banks ). Galston’s point is this: the value of assets on the balance sheets...

Reading an article in the Wall Street Journal this morning I was hit twice by the number 52. (For those that are looking for signs it can be noted that you can reverse today’s date and get 52 as well!) The first sighting, Robert Taubman, chief executive...