COMMON SENSE

Doctrader

Said in May 2006….”

The stage is set, for most Americans the collapse will be felt in their retirement accounts and 401(k). The next level of pain will be their home valuations, and lastly the cost of food and energy. It will be up to you to take the necessary steps to preserve your wealth by using protective stops and put options if you own individual stocks.

MarketWatch.com

By John Letzing,

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Cleveland-based AmTrust Bank, with 66 branches and roughly $8 billion in deposits, was closed by regulators Friday, as the ongoing credit crunch continued to claim victims.

Three smaller banks in Georgia, an Illinois-based bank and a Virginia bank were also shuttered, bringing the 2009 total to 130.

The three Georgia-based bank failures bring that state’s total this year to 24.

Flash back in time since April 2009… when only 23 banks had failed!

Huffington Post

2 more banks fail, lifting this year’s tally to 23

Apr 10, 2009 … This year’s tally of 23 bank failures is nearing the total for all of … to 25 for this year and 50 since start of 2008 for the failed banks…

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Technorati Tags: AmTrust Bank, bank, Bank failure, Banking Services, business, financial services, Georgia, Illinois

It’s Not a “Wonderful Life”, as posted by

Monty Pelerin’s World , Economics, Finance and Politics Through The Prism of Classical Liberalism

The overhang to any economic recovery is the banking system. There is no way to know how bad the banking problems really are, given the accounting or lack thereof. Banks, with an encouraging wink and a nod from regulators, have refused to realistically value their assets. In some cases, these values may not even be determinable, other than to say they are currently grossly overvalued.

US Banks & The FDIC, Are Delaying Their Losses

Posted by Larry Doyle on December 3, 2009

Postponing losses in hopes that one can trade out of them is a game very rarely won. In similar fashion, not acknowledging losses in hopes that the situation improves and the loss is mitigated is also a recipe for disaster. All one needs to do is look eastward to Japan to realize that. Ultimately, a loss not only must be realized, but paid.

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Technorati Tags: Asset, bank, Banking Services, Banks and Institutions, business, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, financial services, government, Larry Doyle

by

STEVENSON JACOBS

NEW YORK — The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Tuesday she’s “very worried” that the nation’s biggest banks aren’t lending enough and warned the economy could take another turn for the worse without increased access to credit.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said the FDIC’s upcoming quarterly report would show that “not many large institutions are doing a very good job of lending.” Instead, she said, some are taking advantage of near-zero interest rates by borrowing dollars cheaply to buy higher-yielding assets like stocks or commodities – a move known as the “carry trade.”

Addressing the rash of bank failures, Bair said the FDIC had enough funds to shut down troubled banks and would tap its line of credit with the Treasury only as a last resort. There have been 120 bank failures this year, …

The Huffington Post

Technorati Tags: bank, Bank failure, business, FDIC, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, financial services, Line of credit, Sheila C. Bair

By Dave Flessner
Publication: Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tennessee)

With seven so far this year, Georgia leads the nation in the number of bank failures. Regulators have closed a dozen Georgia banks since last August, or more than one of every five U.S. banks shut down since last summer. Bank analysts said the same forces that helped fuel Georgia’s growth now are leading to an increase in bank failures.”Each of the banks that has failed has had a huge concentration in residential construction loans that grew for many years,” said Joe Brannen, president of the Georgia Bankers Association.

Bank analysts said the same forces that helped fuel Georgia’s growth now are leading to an increase in bank failures.

Rex Schuette, chief financial officer for United Community Banks, said many of the troubled banks in Georgia were started over the past decade and a half, when population growth fueled demand for more housing developments, especially in suburban areas around Atlanta or in the retirement havens of North Georgia’s mountains.

“Each of the banks that has failed has had a huge concentration in residential construction loans that grew for many years,” said Joe Brannen, president of the Georgia Bankers Association. Such banks capitalized on Georgia’s population growth — the sixth fastest in the nation — and abundance of investors interested in the financial services industry prior to the past couple of years, Mr. Brannen said.

Because Georgia didn’t allow banking across county lines until the late 1990s, its 159 counties also kept or sprouted many new smaller banks across the state. With a rich tradition of state-charted banks and investors eager to cash in on the state’s growth, Georgia is trailed only by California and Florida — both bigger states — in the number of new banks started in the 21st century, according to FDIC figures.

It seems as if banks in Georgia just can’t seem to stay solvent. This may be turning into a real problem for residents of that state, as many of them could soon have far fewer banking options.

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Technorati Tags: Atlanta, bank, business, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, financial services, Florida, Tennessee, United States