ABC/CNN News: "Federal officials try to stave off bank runs"?

www.efoodsdirect.com

I'd also advise buying can food and other long lasting products also. Nice to have assets in a commodity but you can't eat it.

Fortune Favors the Bold

I would expect the stock market to rally tomorrow because of the bailout of fanny and freddie. If there is a bank run, it won't be reported till at least tuesday

July 14, 2008 -NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/20...

Does anyone know where Wachovia stands?

and no one has a clue
Chinese Government is Top Foreign Holder of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Bonds

-- Posted Sunday, 13 July 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

FreedomWorks

$376 billion in Chinese agency bond holdings subject to taxpayer bailout proposals.

Washington, DC - As politicians call for taxpayer bailouts and a government takeover of troubled mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, FreedomWorks would like to point out that a bailout is a transfer of possibly hundreds of billions of U.S. tax dollars to sophisticated investors and governments overseas.

The top five foreign holders of Freddie and Fannie long-term debt are China, Japan, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. In total foreign investors hold over $1.3 trillion in these agency bonds, according to the U.S. Treasury's most recent "Report on Foreign Portfolio Holdings of U.S. Securities."

FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe commented, "The prospectus for every GSE bond clearly states that it is not backed by the United States government. That's why investors holding agency bonds already receive a significant risk premium over Treasuries."

"A bailout at this stage would be the worst possible outcome for American taxpayers and mortgage holders, who have been paying a risk premium to these foreign investors. It would change the rules of the game retroactively and would directly subsidize the risks taken by sophisticated foreign investors."

"A bailout of GSE bondholders would be perhaps the greatest taxpayer rip-off in American history. It is bad economics and you can be sure it is terrible politics."

U.S. Treasury Report on Foreign Portfolio Holdings of U.S. Securities Page 28

July 11, 2008

Contact: Adam Brandon

http://www.youtube.com/wa...

check this out!!! 2nd largest failure in American history....

Guess it was good timing for me to convert some extra fiat savings to silver. I confirmed the wire from my bank about 30 minutes ago.

Be patient, pray, and meditate.

Time is still on our side.

The world is not going to end tomorrow.

But by all means, start taking precautions.

WAHOR!!

Anyone know if accounts held in trust, since in two names, are covered if over 100k total, but in a separate accounts?

"CNN IndyMac Special Saturday @ 10 pm EDT (7 pm PDT)

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Geeez. They just said something along the lines of "90 other institutions may be in a similar situation"...

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Are you watching this? Now if anything will cause a panic
This is entertaining

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Geez... they said there's 90 banks on the FDIC's "in trouble" list, but they won't name them for fear of causing a panic and cascading failures!"

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http://www.tickerforum.or...

and withdraw as much as you can tonight before the banks open in the morning.

If it's a false alarm, no harm done. If it's not, you'll have a bit of cash when others won't.

___________

Lisa C.

“Elections are short term efforts; revolutions are long term projects.”

--Ron Paul

Join the rEVOLution here: http://www.campaignforlib...

How long can the fed hold the seams which are bursting together? Are they as Ron Paul said trying to hold it together till after the election? I trust in Ron Paul. When he says the fed is holding it together till November I believe him. The video was up here not to long ago. Move your fake FRN (Federal Reserver Notes) into tangible assets cause when it hits it will hit hard! Though I hope and pray not till November.

http://www.marketwatch.co...

Fed acts Sunday to prevent global bank run Monday
By Rex Nutting & Greg Robb, MarketWatch
Last update: 10:38 p.m. EDT March 16, 2008
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Acting quickly to prevent a run on major global financial firms, the Federal Reserve cut its discount rate by a quarter percentage point to 3.25% and offered to lend money to a longer list of firms than ever before.
The extraordinary weekend moves came as J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM
JPMorgan Chase & Co

JPM) sealed a deal to buy Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC
BSC for just $2 a share backed by up to $30 billion borrowed from the Fed. The Fed board gave its approval to that unique funding arrangement, which guarantees JP Morgan against losses from buying Bear. See full story.
The Fed board also approved the creation of a special lending facility through the New York Fed that would be available to members of its primary dealers list, which includes both commercial banks and investment banks. Investment banks, such as Bear Stearns, have not been allowed to borrow directly from the Fed.
JP Morgan has access to the discount window through its Chase Bank subsidiary, but Bear Stearns does not have direct access.
Events have unfolded at warp speed over the past week. On Tuesday, the Fed announced a new lending program for primary dealers in the bond markets, but that program won't go into effect for two more weeks. On Friday, the Fed allowed Bear Stearns to borrow money via JP Morgan in a desperate bid to save the firm, which has been pummeled by losses on exotic securities backed by subprime mortgages.
The Federal Open Market Committee meets on Tuesday. Analysts expect the FOMC to cut the target for the federal funds rate by as much as a full percentage point to 2%. Another cut in the discount rate is also likely.
The new lending program would operate for at least six months, and would offer loans for as long as 90 days, rather than 30 days under the regular discount window. Loans from the new program would be backed by a "broad range of investment-grade debt securities," the Fed said. The interest rate would be the same as the discount rate.
"The Federal Reserve, in close consultation with the Treasury, is working to promote liquid, well-functioning financial markets, which are essential for economic growth," said Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, in a statement. "These steps will provide financial institutions with greater assurance of access to funds."
Robert Brusca, chief economist at FAO Economics, said the new lending facility created a general way to help other dealers.
"The Fed has more information now that it has seen what Bear Stearns had on its books," Brusca said in an interview.
President Bush will meet with Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Chris Cox on Monday at 2 p.m. Eastenr.
Earlier on Sunday, Paulson went on television to project an image of confidence in the U.S. financial market. He said Washington would do what it takes to foster stability on Wall Street. See full story.
Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, criticized the Fed's "real turn to secrecy" in the new auction facilities.
The Fed does not reveal the names of firms that borrow funds in the auctions. The purpose was to get around the "stigma" of banks that didn't want to borrow at the discount window because of the questions it would raise about its balance sheet.
But, in an interview, Baker said "now is not the time to shut the doors and keep everything in the dark."
Baker said he sensed a whiff of panic at the Fed and in the Treasury Department.
"The main thing is that they [Fed and Treasury] are really really scared. Telling us that everything is great is an insult to intelligence. They should own up to it and talk seriously to people," Baker said.
Peter Morici, a professor of economics at University of Maryland, criticized the Fed for not imposing meaningful conditions on the financial institutions that it is providing cash.
As a result, banks continue to impose onerous conditions on their innocent customers, he said.
"Today's moves by the Federal Reserve are the desperate acts of failing men," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk...

Many more US bank failures likely after IndyMac
Sunday July 13 2008

By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. banks may fail in far greater
numbers following the collapse of the big mortgage lender IndyMac
Bancorp Inc, straining a financial system seeking stability after
years of lending excesses.
More than 300 banks could fail in the next three years, said RBC
Capital Markets analyst Gerard Cassidy, who had in February estimated
no more than 150.
Banks face pressure as credit losses once concentrated in subprime
mortgages spread to other home loans and debt once-thought safe. This
has also led to investor worries about the stability of mortgage
finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; IndyMac is not related
to either.
While analysts declined to say which banks will fail next, several
smaller lenders and one large one, Washington Mutual Inc, appear
already to have elevated levels of soured loans, relative to their sizes.
"You have to look at companies with the greatest exposure to the
highest-risk assets, which include construction loans and exotic
mortgages," Cassidy said. "The final nail in the coffin for any
depository institution would be a funding crisis where it is unable to
gather deposits at reasonable cost, or wholesale funding markets are
cut off."
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp seized IndyMac on Friday after a
bank run in which panicked customers withdrew more than $1.3 billion
of deposits in 11 business days.
This followed comments on June 26 by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer
questioning the Pasadena, California-based thrift's survival. Some
withdrawals also followed IndyMac's July 7 decision to fire half its
work force and halt most mortgage lending.
IndyMac once specialized in Alt-A mortgages, which didn't require
borrowers to document income or assets. It was founded in 1985 by
Angelo Mozilo and David Loeb, who also founded Countrywide Financial
Corp, once the largest mortgage lender. Bank of America Corp bought
Countrywide on July 1.
As of March 31, the FDIC had put 90 banking institutions with $26.3
billion of assets on its "problem list." This excluded IndyMac, which
alone had about $32 billion of assets, and close to $19 billion of
deposits.
Well over 2,000 banking companies failed in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Cassidy said the government may need to set up a liquidator similar to
Resolution Trust Corp, created for the earlier savings and loan crisis.
The largest U.S. bank failure is the May 1984 collapse of Chicago's
Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust Co. IndyMac was roughly the
same size as American Savings & Loan Association of Stockton,
California, a September 1988 failure.
DANGER ZONE
Cassidy called the probability of failure "very high" in which a
bank's nonperforming assets exceed the sum of tangible equity plus
reserves for loan losses.
Richard Bove, a Ladenburg Thalmann & Co analyst, in a July 13 report
titled "Who Is Next?" said a "danger zone" is where nonperforming
assets, including loans at least 90 days past due, exceeded 40 percent
of common equity plus reserves.
Citing FDIC data as of March 31, Bove said that IndyMac had been at
the greatest risk among more than 100 of the largest U.S. lenders,
with a 146.2 percent ratio.
Among the other banks high on the list include Newport Beach,
California's Downey Financial Corp, with a 95.4 percent ratio; Fort
Lauderdale, Florida's BFC Financial Corp, which invests in
BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc; Coral Gables, Florida's BankUnited Financial
Corp; Chicago's Corus Bankshares Inc; Los Angeles' FirstFed Financial
Corp; Troy, Michigan's Flagstar Bancorp Inc, and Washington Mutual, at
40.6 percent.
The list also includes Puerto Rico's Doral Financial Corp, First
BanCorp and Santander BanCorp.
"We're surprised to be near the top of that list," said Bert Lopez,
BankUnited's chief financial officer, in an interview. "Our
underwriting standards have been very conservative, we have insured a
substantial portion of our loan portfolio, and our losses remain low
on an overall basis."
He declined further comment, citing a pending $400 million stock
offering. BankUnited shares closed Friday at 77 cents. Other banks did
not immediately return requests for comment.
Bove wrote: "The system is not anywhere near the danger that existed
in the late 1980s and early 1990s despite all of the whining by public
officials. Perhaps, the second quarter numbers will prove them right."
BUYING THE REMNANTS
The FDIC will reopen IndyMac on Monday as IndyMac Federal Bank, and
then try to sell the company as a whole or in pieces. Regulators
expect the takeover to cost the FDIC $4 billion to $8 billion. The
agency insurance fund has about $52.8 billion.
Among IndyMac's assets are its deposits, 33 southern California
branches, its Financial Freedom reverse mortgage unit, and a
fast-deteriorating loan book.
Cassidy said thrift deposits tend to be less valuable than deposits at
commercial banks because they yield more, and customers might be quick
to leave once those rates disappear.
"For the right price, those branches and deposits are valuable,
probably to someone with a footprint in southern California," he said.
"Would a Wells Fargo or a U.S. Bancorp, which are strong and healthy
and would want to expand their franchise, look at it? I think so."
Neither bank immediately returned requests for comment.
Most IndyMac depositors will get their money back; the FDIC typically
insures deposits up to $100,000, and up to $250,000 on some retirement
accounts. The seizure came without warning.
"There are many regional banks that are under a great deal of pain,"
said Daniel Alpert, an investment banker at Westwood Capital in New
York. "Some of them will probably have guys with yellow tape showing
up soon."