Your wallet may indicate otherwise, but according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, for the first time since 2009 and only the second time in the past decade, the cost of feeding a family of ten a “traditional” Thanksgiving dinner…
Too Big to Fail a Global Problem
While the cry to end “Too Big to Fail” (TBTF) gets increasingly louder here at home in the USA, it’s easy to overlook the fact that it’s a global problem. Instead of trying to end TBTF, however, the International Financial…
The Federal Reserve, Unemployment & Politics (Fed-Up)
CNNMoney coined the phrase “QE-Indefinitely”. Sad but true. The Federal Reserve will continue buying bonds at a rate of $85 billion per month as it has been doing since September 2012. There is still no end in sight. In fact,…
Community Banks, Local Credit Unions Team Up
Zero-Star Second Federal S&L, Chicago, IL failed on July 20, 2012. The failure was no surprise. The thrift had a rather unique business model; it specialized in making home loans to undocumented immigrants (with taxpayer-identification) in Hispanic markets in and…
U.S. Deposit Insurance Not a Free-for-All
Who said it? “We had a bad banking situation. Some of our bankers had shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people’s funds. They had used the money entrusted to them in speculations and unwise loans.…
2Q’13 Bank Earnings, Loans, Loan Quality Up, Margins Down
Earnings: Second quarter numbers for the banking industry (released on Thursday, August 29) reveal a healthier industry emerging. With an aggregate net income of $42.2 billion, this marks the sixteenth consecutive quarter that bank earnings have increased year-over-year. Only 8.2%…
The Difference Between Capital One & Capital One 360
That’s what the caller wanted to know. He called BauerFinancial for the rating on Capital One 360. Apparently he had called Capital One directly and was told that they had nothing to do with ING or Capital One 360. Huh?…
It Isn’t Size or Strength but Risk that Matters Most
Regulators and lawmakers, desperately trying to end (or at least end the perception of) “too big to fail” (TBTF), are at odds of how best to do so. The conversation seems to be moving forward, or is it really just…
Bauer’s Adjusted CR vs. the Texas Ratio
Twenty-seven and a half years ago (January 1986) JRN started its third year with a new tool, Bauer’s Adjusted Capital Ratio. By subtracting delinquent loans and repossessed assets from both the numerator and the denominator of the leverage ratio equation,…
Opting-In Can be Costly
Since the summer of 2010, financial institutions are no longer allowed to charge overdraft fees for ATM withdrawals or debit card transactions without permission. Customers must sign an opt-in agreement for the “courtesy” of being allowed to overdraw their account…