And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.
As you can see below, the 2011 and the 2010 lines have finally crossed. I don’t expect 2011 to b e good, but I expect it to be better than 2010.
So, here is the graph pr0n with last years numbers for comparison (FDIC only):
And since it’s early in the year, here is a detail of the first few weeks:
And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.
As you can see, after a slow start, things seem to be ramping up, and, allowing for the fact that the first Friday of last year was January 1, when they would not be closing banks, the new year looks a lot like the old year.
So, here is the graph pr0n with last years numbers for comparison (FDIC only):
And since it’s early in the year, here is a detail of the first few weeks:
The FCIC ain’t the Pecora Commission, it lacked the authority, budget, and time to do so, so it is at best a half measure, but it is better than I had anticipated.
I am rather surprised that the they did not fall back on the “Hoocoodanode” explanation in the majority report, and actually assigned blame.
They actually assigned blame, with much of that going to Alan “Bubbles” Greenspan and “Helicopter” Ben Bernanke.
The commission also cites compromised federal regulators, particularly the OCC and the OTS, who went out of their way to hamstring state regulators who were far more aware, and more proactive, as well as the SEC’s unwillingness to regulate.
I am unsurprised that they determined that Timothy Geithner’s tenure as President of the New York Fed, “missed signs of trouble at Citigroup and Lehman,” though I am pleased that they stated so explicitly, and it is nice that they called out Larry Summers for his dogged attempts to completely deregulate derivatives.
The ratings agencies get a mention as “cogs in the wheel of financial destruction,” but it seems to soft pedal the degree that these folks were both corrupt, incompetent, and essential to both the financial system and the meltdown.
Some of the insiders have leaked that they think that all the reports ignore the fact that the system failed, and instead focus on fitting the events into the philosophical worldview, and I tend to agree: This is much less of a description of the forest than it is of the trees.
One big surprise is the fact that the FCIC has referred some of its information to the DoJ because it believes that laws have been violated:
The claim of allegedly widespread securities law violations is among the more explosive findings in a sweeping report released Thursday by the Congressionally-appointed Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Those details help explain why the panel opted to refer several financial industry figures to state or federal law enforcement agencies for potential prosecution, as The Huffington Post reported Monday.
I don’t expect any action from Barack Obama or Eric “Place” Holder on this, after all, when it comes to law breaking by powerful elites, they want to “look forward”, rule of law be damned.
As to surprising revelations, the fact that they caught Goldman Sachs in a $2.9 billion lie regarding the Vampire Squid’s claim that they got no money for their own investments from the AIG bailout is surprising.
Not the Goldman lying part, that’s pretty normal, but the fact that they caught Goldman and then released it, is a surprise for me.
On the depressing side, it appears that the FCIC’s pledge to release all the raw documents is not as sweeping as they are claiming:
The FCIC’s commissioners, for their part, believe that they’ve done their best to be transparent. But Phil Angelides, the FCIC’s chairman, told Mother Jones in a Thursday conference call that the commission simply couldn’t release everything. “In the course of doing this kind of inquiry, you look at many documents that are completely irrelevant,” Angelides says. In addition, he says, “there are trade secret laws, other laws, federal law that controls the ability of the commission to release documents… It wouldn’t be responsible to do a document dump of documents that weren’t relevant to the crisis.”
Angelides promised that the “predisposition of the commissioners” would be to have a “fairly short period” before the National Archives and Records Administration releases the FCIC documents that won’t be released immediately. In the conference call, Angelides and fellow commissioner Brooksley Born refused to quantify what percentage of the commission’s documents will be released at what times, but Born claimed that the commissioners “erred on the side of openness.”
Even so, the National Chamber of Commerce is the absurd claim that any release of documents is a job-killing action akin to Wikileaks document dumps:
“The commission’s final report and its pledge to post raw materials — apparently including information obtained from companies as well as other government agencies — is an astounding abuse of process that would effectively create a government-sanctioned Wikileaks,” said Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform.
Considering the fact that these documents will reveal things like the big Wall Street firms knowing selling “a sack of s%$#” to investors, I tend to think that a full and complete release is a good thing, because the tighter the regulations, the more confidence that investors have, and so the more willing that they are to invest.
As to the slightly less absurd, there are the two minority reports from the Republicans.
The first, issued by 3 of the 4 Republicans on the committee, seems to primarily blame, “failures, near-failures, and restructurings of 10 firms triggered a global financial panic,” which is kind of silly, because panic is what happens when you realize that your 401K is all smoke and mirrors, because the banksters have been lying to you.
It’s really pretty similar to what the majority report says, only they say that it cannot be regulation, because the crisis was worldwide, ignoring the fact that the US and UK have been leading a regulatory race to the bottom for the past 30 years.
The remaining dissent, by Peter J. Wallison, who is co director of the American Enterprise Institute’s financial markets deregulation project, basically says that it was attempts by the government to make sure that banks did not discriminate against minorities, or, to put it more bluntly, he said, “this is what happens when you lend money to n*****s.”
It’s not a good week for employment.
Initial unemployment claims rose by 51,000 to 454,000, people are talking about snow doing this, but I’m inclined believe that the weather had less to do with this than the underlying weakness in the economy.
The less volatile 4 week moving average rose by 15,750 to 428,750, and continuing claims rose by 94K to 3.99 million, and emergency claims fell by 98K to 4.62 million, though a lot of that last number dropping are people simply running out of benefits completely.
The Federal Reserve is still concerned about such thing, as the latest Federal Open Market Committee statement, which maintains its concerns as well as their quantitative easing (printing money) policy.
And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.
4 banks this week, as Atrios would say, “Eated.” The FDIC is hungry.
So, here is the graph pr0n with last years numbers for comparison (FDIC only):
And since it’s early in the year, here is a detail of the first few weeks:
Cindy Gertz, the US Treasury official responsible for trying to prevent foreclosures, just praised the mortgage servicers for their efforts at preventing forecolsures:
An Obama administration housing official on Wednesday defended mortgage servicing companies, just one day after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the industry needs an overhaul.
Cindy Gertz, director of operations at the Treasury Department’s Homeownership Preservation Office, said mortgage servicers–firms which collect loan payments–have hired tens of thousands of extra staff to work with a crush of struggling borrowers who are trying to renegotiate the terms of their mortgages.
“I think tremendous progress has been made,” Gertz told a group of bankers at a conference organized by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Gertz, a former executive at mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac, did acknowledge that the process is not complete.
This is kind of like saying that IV drug users who share needles have been helpful in the fights against AIDS.
The only explanation for the fact that a Google News search of the name does not reveal the phrase, “Spending more time with her family,” is that this is what her boss, Tim “Eddie Haskell” Geithner, and his boss, Barack Obama, actually believe that loan servicers acting in bad faith are a necessary to protect our banking system.
I’ve had a busy month, just look at my posting volume, so I missed the first two bank failure Fridays.
There were two bank failures on the 7th, and one on the 14th, and there have been no credit union failures this far
And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.
So, here is the my new, improved graph pr0n with trendline (FDIC only).
I’ve dropped the trend line, and replaced it with two line graphs, for 2010 & 2011, so we can see how they compare.
And since it’s early in the year, here is a detail of the first few weeks:
Note that we are seeing a calendar artifact here. The first Friday of 2011 was January 1, when the banks were all closed, and the FDIC would not be closing anyone, while the first Friday of 2011 was the 7th, and so very much a business day for the FDIC.
We should see a better comparison of activity by early February, when trends become more visible.
In either case, the consumer pays for it, but a carbon tax can go to things like government programs (Or, if you are of that ilk, per person rebates that favor the less well off), while carbon trading enriches polluters, the Vampire Squids of the world, and people who game the system for personal profit:
The European Commission suspended trading in greenhouse gas emissions permits on Wednesday for at least a week after the theft of permits worth millions of euros via online attacks.
The Emissions Trading System was a target of “recurring security breaches” over the last two months, the commission, the executive agency of the European Union, announced on its Web site Wednesday.
The commission said it needed to shut the system down until at least Jan. 26 because “incidents over the last weeks have underlined the urgent need” for enhanced security measures.
The attacks raised new questions about the viability of Europe’s main tool to combat a rise in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The stolen permits are part of Europe’s effort to cap the amount of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, that companies may emit each year. Europe’s system is the world’s largest market for greenhouse gas emissions credits.
The only advantage to carbon trading is that it gives politicians the ability to give another revenue stream to their classmates from Ivy League/Oxbridge/Sorbonne/Etc. who work in investment banks.
It’s a giveaway to the investment banker, and an invitation to fraud, the case of hydroelectric plants in China without transmission lines to accumulate credits being just one such example.
He just penned an OP/ED in the Wall Street Journal, saying that the big problem in our economy is too much regulation:
From child labor laws to the Clean Air Act to our most recent strictures against hidden fees and penalties by credit card companies, we have, from time to time, embraced common sense rules of the road that strengthen our country without unduly interfering with the pursuit of progress and the growth of our economy.
Sometimes, those rules have gotten out of balance, placing unreasonable burdens on business—burdens that have stifled innovation and have had a chilling effect on growth and jobs. At other times, we have failed to meet our basic responsibility to protect the public interest, leading to disastrous consequences. Such was the case in the run-up to the financial crisis from which we are still recovering. There, a lack of proper oversight and transparency nearly led to the collapse of the financial markets and a full-scale Depression.
Well, at least he is not talking about repealing the Clean Air Act or child labor laws, Yet,, but when juxtaposed with his executive order calling for our regulations to become even more friendly to companies that rob us and pollute our environment. (full text after break)
I guess we had better be the change that we are looking for, because Barack H. Obama is way too interested in sucking up to the people who wrecked this country, like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.
I am not looking forward to his State of the Union Address, because you can be sure that he will have some sort of initiative that further betray the people who voted for him.
The White HouseOffice of the Press SecretaryFor Immediate Release January 18, 2011Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review – Executive OrderBy the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to improve regulation and regulatory review, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. General Principles of Regulation. (a) Our regulatory system must protect public health, welfare, safety, and our environment while promoting economic growth, innovation, competitiveness, and job creation. It must be based on the best available science. It must allow for public participation and an open exchange of ideas. It must promote predictability and reduce uncertainty. It must identify and use the best, most innovative, and least burdensome tools for achieving regulatory ends. It must take into account benefits and costs, both quantitative and qualitative. It must ensure that regulations are accessible, consistent, written in plain language, and easy to understand. It must measure, and seek to improve, the actual results of regulatory requirements.
(b) This order is supplemental to and reaffirms the principles, structures, and definitions governing contemporary regulatory review that were established in Executive Order 12866 of September 30, 1993. As stated in that Executive Order and to the extent permitted by law, each agency must, among other things: (1) propose or adopt a regulation only upon a reasoned determination that its benefits justify its costs (recognizing that some benefits and costs are difficult to quantify); (2) tailor its regulations to impose the least burden on society, consistent with obtaining regulatory objectives, taking into account, among other things, and to the extent practicable, the costs of cumulative regulations; (3) select, in choosing among alternative regulatory approaches, those approaches that maximize net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public health and safety, and other advantages; distributive impacts; and equity); (4) to the extent feasible, specify performance objectives, rather than specifying the behavior or manner of compliance that regulated entities must adopt; and (5) identify and assess available alternatives to direct regulation, including providing economic incentives to encourage the desired behavior, such as user fees or marketable permits, or providing information upon which choices can be made by the public.
(c) In applying these principles, each agency is directed to use the best available techniques to quantify anticipated
present and future benefits and costs as accurately as possible. Where appropriate and permitted by law, each agency may consider (and discuss qualitatively) values that are difficult or impossible to quantify, including equity, human dignity, fairness, and distributive impacts.
Sec. 2. Public Participation. (a) Regulations shall be adopted through a process that involves public participation. To that end, regulations shall be based, to the extent feasible and consistent with law, on the open exchange of information and perspectives among State, local, and tribal officials, experts in relevant disciplines, affected stakeholders in the private sector, and the public as a whole.
(b) To promote that open exchange, each agency, consistent with Executive Order 12866 and other applicable legal requirements, shall endeavor to provide the public with an opportunity to participate in the regulatory process. To the extent feasible and permitted by law, each agency shall afford the public a meaningful opportunity to comment through the Internet on any proposed regulation, with a comment period that should generally be at least 60 days. To the extent feasible and permitted by law, each agency shall also provide, for both proposed and final rules, timely online access to the rulemaking docket on regulations.gov, including relevant scientific and technical findings, in an open format that can be easily searched and downloaded. For proposed rules, such access shall include, to the extent feasible and permitted by law, an opportunity for public comment on all pertinent parts of the rulemaking docket, including relevant scientific and technical findings.
(c) Before issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking, each agency, where feasible and appropriate, shall seek the views of those who are likely to be affected, including those who are likely to benefit from and those who are potentially subject to such rulemaking.
Sec. 3. Integration and Innovation. Some sectors and industries face a significant number of regulatory requirements, some of which may be redundant, inconsistent, or overlapping. Greater coordination across agencies could reduce these requirements, thus reducing costs and simplifying and harmonizing rules. In developing regulatory actions and identifying appropriate approaches, each agency shall attempt to promote such coordination, simplification, and harmonization. Each agency shall also seek to identify, as appropriate, means to achieve regulatory goals that are designed to promote innovation.
Sec. 4. Flexible Approaches. Where relevant, feasible, and consistent with regulatory objectives, and to the extent permitted by law, each agency shall identify and consider regulatory approaches that reduce burdens and maintain flexibility and freedom of choice for the public. These approaches include warnings, appropriate default rules, and disclosure requirements as well as provision of information to the public in a form that is clear and intelligible.
Sec. 5. Science. Consistent with the President’s Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies,
“Scientific Integrity” (March 9, 2009), and its implementing guidance, each agency shall ensure the objectivity of any scientific and technological information and processes used to support the agency’s regulatory actions.
Sec. 6. Retrospective Analyses of Existing Rules. (a) To facilitate the periodic review of existing significant regulations, agencies shall consider how best to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome, and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal them in accordance with what has been learned. Such retrospective analyses, including supporting data, should be released online whenever possible.
(b) Within 120 days of the date of this order, each agency shall develop and submit to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs a preliminary plan, consistent with law and its resources and regulatory priorities, under which the agency will periodically review its existing significant regulations to determine whether any such regulations should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed so as to make the agency’s regulatory program more effective or less burdensome in achieving the regulatory objectives.
Sec. 7. General Provisions. (a) For purposes of this order, “agency” shall have the meaning set forth in section 3(b) of Executive Order 12866.
(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) authority granted by law to a department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(c) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(d) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 18, 2011.
Specifically, they report the story of an Agunah (Literally “Chained Woman) and the resulting protests directed at the ex-husband of a woman who refuses to grant here a religious divorce, a “Get”, which under Jewish law means that they are still married:
This should have been a good New Year’s for Aharon Friedman, a 34-year-old tax counsel for the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee. He spent time with his 3-year-old daughter, and could have been thinking about the influence he will have starting Wednesday, when his boss, Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, becomes chairman of the powerful tax-writing committee.
Instead, Mr. Friedman, an Orthodox Jew, finds himself scrutinized in the Jewish press, condemned by important rabbis, and attacked in a YouTube video showing about 200 people protesting outside his Silver Spring, Md., apartment on Dec. 19. They were angered by Mr. Friedman’s refusal to give his wife, Tamar Epstein, 27, a Jewish decree of divorce, known as a get.
What a surprise, a Republican is being a selfish asshole.
While I do understand that he has issues with the custody arrangement, using the get as a way to extract concessions is beneath contempt.
That being said, I am aware of a number of these cases, and while I strongly object to these enforcement of these medieval (actually pre-medieval) religious statutes, I am aware that this happens dozens, if not hundreds of times a year.
What got to me was this paragraph:
Mr. Friedman and Ms. Epstein have been civilly divorced since April and share custody of their daughter, but they are still married according to Jewish law. And without a get neither he nor Ms. Epstein can remarry within the faith. She is considered an agunah, or chained woman.
(emphasis mine)
If the Jews run the New York Times, they are incompetent, because it misses two points:
This makes the conditions of the Agunah unjust and unfair to the woman in the conflict. It is not, nor has it ever been, an equal imposition on both spouses, and a small amount of research should have made this unfortunate state of affairs quite clear.
Clearly, I need to contact the local president of my ZOG chapter and pass my complaint up the chain.
As I expected, no bank closings New Year’s eve, so the count remains at 157 with 17 credit union closing.
By way of comparison, there were 140 bank failures in 2009, and 25 in 2008.
Better than it looked mid-year, but still pretty horrible.
The DoJ is asking the SEC and CFTC to tighten their rules on ownership of clearing houses for derivatives.
The financial regulators are looking to limit individual members of the clearing houses to 20%, while Justice’s anti-trust regulators want there to be a 40% limit applied to all, “banks and other major swaps players,” in order to prevent 3 or 4 of the big players to create a monopoly situation, in addition to more strictly regulating the boards of these clearing houses.
I’m not sure if it is good news that the DoJ is asking for more, or bad news that the SEC and CFTC asked for so little to start with.
And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.
No big surprise here, no closings Christmas eve, and I don’t expect any New Year’s eve either, so 157 banks and 17 credit unions for the year
So, here is the graph pr0n with trendline (FDIC only):
All of the returning Democratic Senators, and all of the retiring ones except for Christopher Dodd, have signed a letter asking for filibuster reform:
All Democratic senators returning next year have signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., urging him to consider action to change long-sacrosanct filibuster rules.
The letter, delivered this week, expresses general frustration with what Democrats consider unprecedented obstruction and asks Reid to take steps to end those abuses. While it does not urge a specific solution, Democrats said it demonstrates increased backing in the majority for a proposal, championed by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and others, weaken the minority’s ability to tie the Senate calendar into parliamentary knots.
This change can only come about if a fairly obscure change is made to the Senate rules first: The Senate currently describes itself as a continuing body, meaning that any changes in the rules at the start of a new Congress require a ⅔ majority.
If the President of the Senate, Vice President Biden, were to rule that the Senate Wasn’t a continuing body, then that could be approved by a simple majority vote, as could the filibuster rule changes.
I would not something else interesting about the various proposals, it looks like Reid will accept a proposal to have committee chairs elected by secret ballot, as opposed to the current regime, where there is only a vote if another Senator publicly objects.
Hopefully, the old guard in the Senate won’t block these changes.
So, after some arm twisting, the FCC has passed something it’s calling network neutrality regulations.
Surprise, surprise, it’s another cave to corporate interests, allowing for tiered access in wired service, and what amounts to no protection at all for wireless.
The two most prominent consumer protection organizations, Public Knowledge and Free Press have both condemned the deal.
I would also note that the FCC decided not to define broadband back to a telecommunications service (Title II), and instead have elected to have it remain a data service (Title I) which the courts have already slapped down the FCC about, so not only are these rules toothless, they are almost certainly going to be overturned in court.
Once again, the Obama administration has decided to treat the miscreants, in this case the incumbents who have taken billions in subsidies to make the US last in the developed world on connectivity and cost, as partners to be parleyed with, and given them pretty much what they want.
The chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court has set up a hearing on January 19 demanding that the mortgage servicers show cause as to why foreclosures should not be suspended state wide.
It appears that slack mortgage procedures and documentation have reached the notice of judicial authorities in the Garden State.
This is, as the Vice President is wont to say, a big f%$#ing deal.
Not only is there the prospect of an indeterminate foreclosure moratorium in a populous state with expensive real estate, but the judge has explicitly placed the burden of proof on the banksters.
As Harold Feld says, “Stay Tuned”.
The Congress has finally passed a bill allowing for low power community radio, the Local Community Radio Act, which will allow for expended low power, sub 100 watt, radio stations.
Until the late 1970s, legally licensed low power non commercial radio was a fairly common thing, but then NPR successfully lobbied the FCC to terminate those licenses to eliminate the competition and to open up airwaves for their expansion.
Hopefully, this will allow for a far greater diversity in radio.
And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.
Full FDIC list And here are the credit union closings:
So, 6 banks this Friday, and one credit union on the 14th.
That’s a pretty busy week, though part of this might be that the regulators are closing banks this week because they do not want do do closings over the Christmas or New Years holidays.
So, here is the graph pr0n with trendline (FDIC only):
I would note that are now at the point where the utility of the least squares trendline is diminishing, but I’m keeping it here for historical purposes.
The Federal Reserve is proposing to slash swipe fees for debit cards, taking them from somewhere around 1½2% to something less than 12¢.
Of course this is just a proposal, so I am waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The full FRB releases (PDF) are here.
*Pun not intended.
The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee held its benchmark rate at effectively 0%, and said that it will continue its policy of monetary easing. (printing money)
It’s really no big surprise, but the other two pieces of news, that the small business optimism survey hit a 2 year high, and that retail sales rose for the 5th straight month are a bit of a surprise, though definitely ont he plus side of the ledger.