Alert: Bernanke May Testify Wednesday

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Sheila Bair are tentatively scheduled to appear next Wednesday before a U.S. House panel on the $700 billion rescue plan, WSJ is reporting.

An Explanation for Sheila Bair's Erratic Behaviour

It was obvious from the start that FDIC head, Sheila Bair, was pushing for Citigroup to acquire Wachovia at a sweetheart price, then Wells Fargo stepped in to bid on Wachovia and screw up Bair's early Christmas gift to Citi.

It is now clear that Citi is a financial wreck and Bair was most likely attempting a stealth bailout of Citi via gifting it Wachovia. Oh my, what regulators can do.

John Hempton of Bronte Capital had some early speculation on what was going on n this blow-by-blow analysis

ALERT: Plunge Protection Team Press Briefing Tuesday Morning

The following is a Treasury Press Release on tomorrow's press biefing:

Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair will be joined by the other members of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets to make statements in the Treasury Department Cash Room at 8:30 a.m. (EDT) on October 14, 2008 on a series of comprehensive actions to strengthen public confidence in our financial institutions and restore functioning of our credit markets. Following the on-camera statement Treasury officials will conduct an off-camera, background briefing in the same room.

Who
Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair
SEC Chairman Christopher Cox
CFTC Chairman Walter Lukken
OCC Comptroller John Dugan
OTS Director John M. Reich

FDIC Cash Flow Problems May Force It To Borrow From Treasury

The expected wave of bank failures may force the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to borrow money from the Treasury Department, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said yesterday.

Bair said the borrowing could be needed to cover negative short-term cash-flow caused by paying depositors immediately after the failure of banks. The FDIC, clearly, doesn't have the cash on hand to handle the expected onslaught. The borrowed money would be repaid once the assets of that failed bank are sold.

The last time the FDIC borrowed funds from Treasury came at the toward the end of the savings-and-loan crisis in the early 1990s when thousands of banks failed.

Sheila Bair Is A Bit Concerned, So Am I

The San Francisco Times reports:

The federal agency insuring bank deposits learned that it can't afford to ignore the blogs following its seizure this month of IndyMac Bank, the largest bank failure since the 1980s.

"The blogs were a bit out of control," Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., told the San Francisco Business Times after a speech in San Francisco this week.

That's putting it mildly. Following the FDIC's takeover of IndyMac on July 11, widely followed blogs were speculating on bank runs on some of California's largest banks based on nothing more than people waiting for their branch to open or large deposits moving between financial institutions.

The FDIC plans to pay closer attention to the blogosphere in the future.

"We're very mindful of the media coverage and blogs in controlling misinformation. All I can say is were going to continue to stay on top of it," Bair said. "The misinformation that came out over the weekend fed a lot of depositors' fears."

"Pay closer attenton," that doesn't sound promising. Sounds like they would like to regulate bloggers if they could.

My bit of concern is that government thinks it is God, is all knowing and gets everything right. Thus, as far as the government is concerned, they would lke to watch everything and control everything.

Of course, in truth, they are only human, obnoxious controlling humans, but just humans. They will bring us such debacles as the FDIC's embarrassing management of Superior Bank and the crème de la crème of bad forecasting, the New York Federal Reserve economists Jonathan McCarthy and Richard W. Peach 2004 analysis that we were then not in a housing bubble.

All government regulators do is regulate out options. It's their way or the highway. Thus when mistakes happen they are super jumo in size, because alternatives are regulated out of existence.

Government Isn't God: FDIC Sticks Banks With Bad Loans and Sticks Borrowers With Subprime Junk

NEW! The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank

By Robert Wenzel

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In April 2012, Robert Wenzel delivered a speech at the New York Federal Reserve that rocked the financial world. The Fed Flunks contains the speech he delivered, plus two other essays. In addition, Wenzel explains in The Fed Flunks just how it came about that he, a major critic of the Fed, was invited to deliver a speech at the Fed, how the event was almost sabotaged, who was at the speech and the reaction of the Fed economists there.

 Product Details

ISBN                                  9781312047235

Copyright                          Gallatin House LLC (Standard Copyright License)

Edition                              First Edition

Publisher                           Gallatin House

Published                           May 15, 2014

Language                           English

Pages                                 73

Binding                              Perfect-bound Paperback

Interior Ink                         Black & white

Weight                              0.35 lbs.

Dimensions (inches)           6 wide x 9 tall