Gold prices post biggest 1-day gain ever
NEW YORK (AP) -- Gold prices exploded Wednesday -- posting the biggest one-day gain ever in dollar terms -- as fears of more credit market turmoil unnerved investors and triggered a flood of safe-haven buying.
OH MOMMA! Can you say short squeeze?
Treasury bails out Fed; now who bails out Treasury?
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve has announced a series of lending and liquidity initiatives during the past several quarters intended to address heightened liquidity pressures in the financial market, including enhancing its liquidity facilities this week. To manage the balance sheet impact of these efforts, the Federal Reserve has taken a number of actions, including redeeming and selling securities from the System Open Market Account portfolio.
The Treasury Department announced today the initiation of a temporary Supplementary Financing Program at the request of the Federal Reserve. The program will consist of a series of Treasury bills, apart from Treasury's current borrowing program, which will provide cash for use in the Federal Reserve initiatives.
Announcements of and participation in auctions conducted under the Supplementary Financing Program will be governed by existing Treasury auction rules. Treasury will provide as much advance notification as possible regarding the timing, size, and maturity of any bills auctioned for Supplementary Financing Program purposes.
The Fed is broke?
Federal bank insurance fund dwindling
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., whose insurance fund has slipped below the minimum target level set by Congress, could be forced to tap tax dollars through a Treasury Department loan if Washington Mutual Inc., the nation's largest thrift, or another struggling rival fails, economists and industry analysts said Tuesday.
"We've got a ... retail bank run forming in this country," said Christopher Whalen, senior vice president and managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Monday that the country's commercial banking system "is safe and sound" and that "the American people can be very, very confident about their accounts in our banking system." FDIC officials also have said 98 percent of U.S. banks still meet regulators' standards for adequate capital.
But fear is growing on Main Street as well as Wall Street about the likelihood of multiple bank failures and the strain that would put on the FDIC.
The fund, which is marking its 75th anniversary this year with a "Face Your Finances" campaign, is at $45.2 billion -- the lowest level since 2003. At the same time, the number of troubled banks is at a five-year high.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair has not ruled out the possibility of going to the Treasury for a short-term loan at some point. But she has said she does not expect the FDIC to take the more drastic action of using a separate $30 billion credit line with Treasury -- something that has never been done.
The FDIC's fund is currently below the minimum set by Congress in a 2006 law. The failure of IndyMac Bank in July cost $8.9 billion.
Henry Paulson has lied since DAY ONE of this financial crisis. He's lying now too...
The events unfolding literally by the hour before our very eyes should come as a surprise to no one reading this. However the rapidity of the unfolding events, and the crumbling of the house of cards is a bit shocking. One might even consider this scary,...and it is. The financial system is imploding, and there are not a enough Fed and Treasury lies to save the sinking ship this time. I'm still trying to figure out how an $85 BILLION "loan" is going to suppress a multi-TRILLION Dollar Catastrophe. LOL, judging by the world's reaction today, it is unlikely to have much of an effect in solving or delaying anything past the end of the month...if we're lucky.
Gold Bugs rejoice. But temper your enthusiasm. We have a lot of work ahead of us. It would be foolish to believe that the road ahead is paved and bump free. Prepare for battle, we're going for the high ground.
No comments:
Post a Comment