Should the Federal Reserve be more worried about the threat of inflation on the long-term horizon, or deflation in the short-term?
The recession began in December 2007. Did it end sometime this spring?
The stock market's rally serves as "broad validation" of the Obama administration's financial rescue efforts, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Monday.
The government bailout of banks, lenders, Bear Stearns and AIG brought in billions of dollars to the Federal Reserve in the first quarter of 2009.
We're about to mark the second anniversary of the financial meltdown. But don't expect to see any clinking of champagne glasses, because except for a handful of prescient (or lucky) speculators, it's been a ghastly two years. The nightmare started June 12, 2007, when news broke that two Bear Stearns hedge funds speculating in mortgage-backed securities were melting down. That was the precursor to the panics and collapses that have led to a worldwide recession and the fall of mighty institutions like Bear, AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Royal Bank of Scotland.
The Obama administration must break up the biggest financial firms if the nation is to return to economic health, three prominent bailout skeptics told a congressional panel Tuesday.
Leaders of the world's largest economies agreed on Thursday to a package worth more than $1 trillion to tackle the global economic crisis.
World leaders agreed Thursday to tighter regulation of the global financial system and pledged more than $1 trillion to bolster lending by the International Monetary Fund to nations in need.
This week's London Summit brings together the leaders of the world's 20 largest economic powers, known as the Group of 20, to discuss the global financial crisis and decide new measures to set the world on a more stable economic footing.
On the wall of his office overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Bill Gross has hung a poster of Jesse Livermore. In the early decades of the last century Livermore made and lost several fortunes on Wall Street before killing himself in 1940. Alongside the picture is an adaptation of a quote from the deceased: "An investor has to guard against many things and most of all against himself."
Should the Federal Reserve be more worried about the threat of inflation on the long-term horizon, or deflation in the short-term?
The recession began in December 2007. Did it end sometime this spring?
The stock market's rally serves as "broad validation" of the Obama administration's financial rescue efforts, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Monday.
The government bailout of banks, lenders, Bear Stearns and AIG brought in billions of dollars to the Federal Reserve in the first quarter of 2009.
We're about to mark the second anniversary of the financial meltdown. But don't expect to see any clinking of champagne glasses, because except for a handful of prescient (or lucky) speculators, it's been a ghastly two years. The nightmare started June 12, 2007, when news broke that two Bear Stearns hedge funds speculating in mortgage-backed securities were melting down. That was the precursor to the panics and collapses that have led to a worldwide recession and the fall of mighty institutions like Bear, AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Royal Bank of Scotland.
The Obama administration must break up the biggest financial firms if the nation is to return to economic health, three prominent bailout skeptics told a congressional panel Tuesday.
Leaders of the world's largest economies agreed on Thursday to a package worth more than $1 trillion to tackle the global economic crisis.
World leaders agreed Thursday to tighter regulation of the global financial system and pledged more than $1 trillion to bolster lending by the International Monetary Fund to nations in need.
This week's London Summit brings together the leaders of the world's 20 largest economic powers, known as the Group of 20, to discuss the global financial crisis and decide new measures to set the world on a more stable economic footing.
On the wall of his office overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Bill Gross has hung a poster of Jesse Livermore. In the early decades of the last century Livermore made and lost several fortunes on Wall Street before killing himself in 1940. Alongside the picture is an adaptation of a quote from the deceased: "An investor has to guard against many things and most of all against himself."
This week's London Summit brings together the leaders of the world's 20 largest economic powers, known as the Group of 20, to discuss the global financial crisis and decide new measures to set the world on a more stable economic footing.
Is this the worst economy since the Great Depression? And what are the chances of the economy falling into another depression?
The Treasury Department unveiled its long-awaited plan to remove many of the troubled assets from banks' books Monday, representing one of the biggest efforts by the U.S. government so far aimed at tackling the ongoing financial crisis.
The government's economic recovery efforts have brought many new and unfamiliar financial terms into the conversation. Here's a list of some we think are vital to understanding the recession and the government's attempts to fix it:
It is axiomatic that to solve a problem, one must first understand it. To that end, I have devoted my spare time in recent months to studying our financial crisis - unearthing its root causes, delving into its manifold consequences and pondering its far-reaching implications.
A year after the government rescued Bear Stearns, the economy has stumbled badly.
The U.S. government, saying it needed to prevent broad damage to the financial system, announced Monday that it was again restructuring the bailout of American International Group after the battered insurer reported a staggering $62 billion quarterly loss.
The government has a new remedy for sickly financial giants -- but signs of healing remain scarce.
Troubled insurer American International Group is looking for more help from the federal government as it struggles to sell off assets and keep its core businesses afloat.
On Friday, Feb. 20, investors watched in horror as shares of Bank of America plunged below $3 and Citigroup's stock broke $2, giving the two pillars of U.S. banking a combined market value of $26 billion - far below that of Kraft Foods.
Hammered by the ailing housing market, mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae said Thursday it would tap its lifeline from the Treasury Department after reporting $58.7 billion in losses for 2008.
It's not as if U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner doesn't have enough to worry about. Now, American International Group is back. The struggling insurer said on Monday that it continues to "work with the U.S. government to evaluate potential new alternatives". Unfortunately, Geithner is already familiar with the most likely not-so-new scenario.
The government may again have to overhaul its bailout of troubled insurer American International Group.
The Treasury Department offered up details Tuesday for 23 regional banks that received a combined $365 million in the latest round of government bailout funding.
Citigroup may be on the verge of nationalization. But what exactly that means remains to be seen.
Citigroup Inc. is in discussions with regulators about a plan for the federal government to take a larger ownership stake in the bank, according to published reports.
The stock market crashed. Wall Street panicked. People stashed silver and gold under mattresses while businesses shut doors across America.
The White House is using only $50 billion from the $700 billion financial industry bailout package to fund the foreclosure prevention program, a senior administration official clarified Friday.
What does it mean to nationalize a bank, anyway?
Obama administration officials are hammering out the details of a $50 billion foreclosure prevention program that the president is set to unveil Wednesday in Arizona, sources said.
So much for change you can believe in.
On a day in early February when incoming White House officials under previous administrations would have just been learning how to use their office phones, the Obama economic team is already racing against the clock.
The Obama administration has promised to fix big financial firms with a helping of "tough love." But even stronger medicine -- such as breaking up troubled banks and starting new ones -- may be necessary.
The Obama administration finally unveiled its plans to fix the ailing banking industry Tuesday. Too bad Wall Street hated it.
Stocks slumped Tuesday, with the Dow industrials ending at a 3-month low, as the government's bank rescue plan failed to reassure investors burned by the 14-month old recession.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner defended his financial stabilization plan Tuesday, telling senators it is "fundamentally different" than the one pursued by his predecessor, Henry Paulson.
The federal government's bank bailout just got a lot more complicated.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner failed Tuesday to persuade Wall Street that he will succeed where his predecessor Henry Paulson failed.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was questioned by lawmakers from both parties Tuesday about whether the Fed should continue to have as much broad powers over the economy.
Bank may be the dirtiest of four-letter words these days. A close second is the acronym TARP. Several top banks have taken billions of dollars in government aid from the Troubled Asset Recovery Program during the past few months but there has been little evidence that they have used the funds to boost lending to consumers and businesses.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner sketched out the broad strokes of the latest government attempt to stabilize the financial sector Tuesday morning.
The Obama administration's long-anticipated overhaul of the banking bailout is finally near.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is expected Tuesday to start laying out the Obama administration's long-awaited plans to address the foreclosure crisis.
Fixing the banks is only the start.
Financial shares rallied Monday, but the broader market struggled as the announcement of the overhaul of the bank bailout was delayed and Congress continued to squabble about the stimulus package.
The "massive overhaul" of the banking bailout will be announced a day later than expected.
This much we know -- the Obama administration wants to set aside between $50 billion and $100 billion to address the foreclosure crisis.
The Obama administration is about to face its first significant financial test.
This week, the Obama administration launched an angry campaign (and rightly so) targeting the greed of the financial services industry.
So far the Obama Administration's talk about fixing the economy through buying toxic assets, creating a bad bank, and deploying more TARP funds has left many financiers cold. That's why some leading Wall Street heavyweights including Thomas Flexner, the global head of real-estate investment banking at Citigroup, Wes Edens, the CEO of Fortress Group, and Barry Sternlicht, CEO of Starwood Capital Group, have been quietly circulating their own proposal. FORTUNE recently obtained a copy.
The Obama administration is planning a separate financial stability plan that could cost hundreds of billions of dollars on top of the massive stimulus package the Senate is struggling with, two senior administration officials said.
The Treasury Department overpaid for the assets it purchased as part of the $700 billion financial sector bailout, according to testimony of a bailout oversight official before Congress on Thursday.
The $700 billion financial sector bailout needs an oversight makeover, according to a report that an oversight official will present to Congress on Thursday.
The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., invited CEOs from the first eight companies that received bailout funds to testify in an accountability hearing on the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Citigroup offered its first glimpse Tuesday into how it is spending the $45 billion in government bailout money that the ailing bank has received in recent months.
Business may be slow for the nation's big banks -- but their public relations departments sure are busy!
The Treasury Department on Tuesday detailed 42 local banks that recently received a combined $1.15 billion in government bailout funds.
Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning. Does that mean another six weeks of horrific stock-market losses? The worst January for stocks in history is over. But so far, February is looking no different, with the Dow and S&P 500 each falling about 1% early Monday morning before recovering as the trading session wore on.
The government forced Citigroup to cancel its order for a brand new $50 million corporate jet. Now, two Congressmen are hoping that the Obama administration will convince the beleaguered bank to scrap its naming rights deal with the New York Mets.
On Sept. 15 last year, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis triumphantly unveiled his $50 billion deal to buy Merrill Lynch, an American icon. Lewis, 61, had coveted Merrill for years, and he planned nothing less than a cultural revolution. The steady, watch-the- nickels branch banker from Charlotte would impose commonsense discipline on the wounded bull, banishing the profligate practices he'd long reviled, especially inflated pay and the high-risk trading that had landed Merrill in so much trouble.
The Obama administration is intent on fixing the banks. But doing so won't be simple or cheap.
It is hard to ignore the reality that the banking crisis is experiencing another significant flare-up. Headlines are becoming scary again, with questions now raised about the future of institutions (see Bank of America) that had been somewhat shielded from the brunt of the initial storm that broke out last September.
The Obama administration is trying to fix the bank bailout process. But they have their work cut out for them.
Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit downplayed the notion that his bank, or any other major financial institution for that matter, would be taken over the by the U.S. government.
Citigroup reversed course Tuesday, a day after a Treasury Department official called the struggling company and "told them it was unacceptable" to accept delivery of a new $42 million corporate jet, a senior administration official said.
The cost of the bank bailout is likely to be much higher than $700 billion.
Senate lawmakers voted Monday to confirm Tim Geithner as the next Treasury secretary amid ongoing uncertainty about the nation's economic future.
Credit markets remain under pressure as the weak economy and ongoing turmoil in the banking sector continue to take a toll on lending confidence.
Treasury Secretary-designate Tim Geithner called for bold action to blunt the economic downturn and promised to tighten the terms for companies getting federal financial help.
Government debt prices fell Tuesday as Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation's 44th president, with the struggling economy - and government efforts to revive it - serving as a backdrop.
We know this much about how Barack Obama plans to govern: He will deploy the fattest checkbook ever at the disposal of an incoming American president.
The scope and intensity of problems facing President Obama are similar only to those that Franklin D. Roosevelt faced in 1933.
Can anything satisfy banks' appetite for capital?
Have the Brits found the way to unclog a backed-up banking system?
Let us now consider a famous business convulsion. A year ago the largest banking company in the world, Citigroup, was weeks into one of its best quarters in history. It was invincibly marching toward $6.2 billion in profits for the period, a matter so heartening for Citi's oft-maligned CEO, Charles O. Prince III, that as early as May he was astonishingly inviting reporters (like this writer) to come around and chat.
Prices for U.S. Treasurys fell Friday as the government's latest efforts to stabilize the shaky financial services sector outweighed grim economic data and weak corporate results.
Bank of America has received another $20 billion from the federal government's bailout fund, along with guarantees on $118 billion of assets at the bank, to absorb its recent purchase of the ailing Merrill Lynch.
The success of President-elect Barack Obama's fiscal stimulus plans may hinge on fixing the banking system - again.
Financial markets must be made more transparent - with closer attention paid to risk management - in order to prevent another global economic collapse, according to a report released Thursday by a body of top economists led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
Rarely has the potential for lower prices been so scary.
So much for a smooth confirmation hearing for Timothy Geithner.
Federal regulators urged Congress Tuesday to release the $350 billion in remaining bank bailout money, even as they lobbied for a different approach to spending the remaining funds.
President-elect Barack Obama made his case Monday to Congress for the release of $350 billion in remaining federal bailout funds.
Treasury prices rallied off morning lows Monday as investors digested $75 billion worth of government debt headed to market and investors shifted away from equities.
Two months after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pulled the plug on his plan to buy troubled mortgage assets, the financial industry is pushing the government to reconsider.
There are many ways to spend $800 billion to revive the economy. In recent days, President-elect Barack Obama has ticked off many of them: invest in infrastructure projects, help states pay for Medicaid, cut taxes on the middle class, expand use of renewable energy.
Don't expect Tim Geithner to set any records when it comes to doling out the rest of the Treasury's bailout fund.
The Treasury Department on Wednesday reported that $164.4 billion was added to the federal budget deficit in November -- bringing the total deficit for the first two months of the fiscal year to $401.6 billion.
The U.S. economy is likely to deteriorate further this year and unemployment will rise into 2010, according to the latest forecasts from the staff of the Federal Reserve.
Sitting down? It's time to tally up the federal government's bailout tab.
With a new year of recession-fighting upon us, it's a fitting time to do a performance evaluation of America's policymakers. How well did they handle a true crisis? The credit-market crisis that erupted in early September has been aptly described as a once-in-a-lifetime event that quickly reverberated through the global financial system, bringing it uncomfortably close to a complete meltdown. Along the way, it wreaked havoc with economic growth, throwing most of the industrialized economies into a deep recession.
In the face of criticism that its bailout efforts are not working, federal officials said Wednesday that they have prevented widespread failure of financial institutions, but they conceded that the credit crisis won't ease until the economy recovers.
After a shockingly tumultuous year, Citigroup said Wednesday that its top executives will forgo their usual annual bonus.
Within insurance giant American International Group, but known to only a few people, is something irreverently called the "kill list."
We don't know whether to laugh or cry. Our annual list of the year's most laughable moves proves that, even in moments of crisis, stupidity lives on. See the full gallery.
Lower prices are probably at the bottom of the list of most Americans' current economic worries. But for a growing number of economists, it's their biggest fear.
This recession has been so unusual that it has brought back economic phenomena that haven't been seen in generations, at least not in the U.S. Chief among them is deflation. It's a scary prospect that has been on people's minds since evidence of a deepening recession started proliferating quickly earlier in the fall.
The Bush administration said Tuesday it is "considering all options" when it comes to aiding the U.S. auto industry. But a growing chorus of Republican lawmakers urged the president not to use Wall Street bailout money for an automaker bailout.
Fannie Mae, the battered mortgage giant, has agreed to act as an interim landlord for thousands of tenants living in foreclosed homes around the country.
The world changed forever on Sept. 15, 2008, the Monday Meltdown, a day that will live in the annals of finance alongside Black Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1929. We are still odds-on to avoid a depression like the one that followed Oct. 29, but the Monday Meltdown made one more likely, and has claimed trillions of dollars of wealth worldwide and triggered a global recession. Understanding the financial shock that occurred that day is vital to finding a way out of our current mess.
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