CapitalistMarks

Listen to the banks. Danger ahead.

Posted on 17. Aug, 2009 by scott in economic daydreaming, markets

I haven’t felt completely comfortable with the pace of the recent ‘recovery.’  Particularly with regards to some of the developing markets.  The Chinese markets had been up 100% since the first of the year (in $$ terms), India up 70%, Brazil over 90% and (go figure) Russia up 73%.  None of this has been justified by anything related to real-life.

Today’s market drops (pretty much across the board) has been a wakeup call.

The recession is NOT over.  Not by a long shot.

Obama and his posse still have to get a handle on unemployment and use stimulus $$ where they are needed most (foreclosures, jobs, infrastructure, energy . . .).  This has all been ignored recently in the flood of news about the ‘health care initiative’ that is driving both Washington and Main Street.  Is everyone stupid??

Let’s remember where this all started.  The financial sector, dummy.

And despite recent run-ups and streaking stock prices, this sector is NOT feeling good.  They are suffering from the Swine Phluu.  A bunch of swine are running the banks and financial institutions and their cronies in D.C. are greasing the pan with OUR $$$$.  The same old story:  high risks (guaranteed by taxpayers) and high rewards (at least for the executives at the financial institutions.

But the bad news just doesn’t stop.  Over the weekend the FDIC closed 5 banks.  Including Colonial BancGroup which is expected to cost the FDIC (from their deposit insurance fund) mearly $3 billion.

And the band just keeps playing as the ‘Titantic’ failure of our financial system just keeps going down.  So far this year 77 banks have failed.  Last year there were 25 failures.  In 2007 there were only 3 failures.  Are you starting to see a trend here?

Here is the real kicker Colonial BancGroup is the biggest bank failure this year and it was a heavy real estate lender.  Think about that.

The real estate crisis is the gift (to incompetent executives and lowlife, longtern Congressmen) that just keeps giving.

To you and I?  Not so much!

Homes just keep getting foreclosed.  Jobs are being lost.  Congress is on vacation and the President is visiting Yellowstone Park with his family. I have family and friends that are wondering how to pay the utility bills.  Know anyone like this yourself?

It is only August for crying out loud (and I do quite often lately).  How many banks are going to fail in the next four and a half months? Are we going to hit a hundred this year?  Scratching at the bank failure bench mark set in the Great Depression?  Looks like it.

Thanks Obama and Congress.  Thanks for jumping the gun.  Thanks for taking August off while the country goes to heck in a hand-basket.  Thanks for spending Trillions to line the pockets of your buddies in industry and their greedy lobbyist cohorts.  Thanks for running up the debt (the national debt in July alone was bigger than most years in the history!!).  Thanks for setting us up for big tax increases, for giving yourselves raises when there are 15 million unemployed.  Thanks for fostering a system that practically guarantees you will get relected.  Thanks for nuttin’ chumps.

Term limits are needed more every day.  Stick that in you ‘craw’ and chew it all you  Senators and Congressmen who have been asleep at the wheel for 20, 30 and 40 years or more.

CHANGE!!  NOT JUST TALK!!

thanks for the photo to flickrk’s thetruthabout

Tags: bank bailout, bank faliures, bank stress, bank writeoffs, congress, crooked financial executives, government stimulus, home foreclosures, President Obama