Archive for September, 2009
How to Maximize your FDIC Insurance
If you have a significant amount of assets, you are going to want to make sure that your wealth is protected if the financial institutions that you work with go under. Here’s how to maximize the coverage your FDIC insurance offers you. Currently, the FDIC is offering customers of banks that participate in the FDIC [...]
Editorial: Will Our Money Ever Feel Safe Again?
For those of us who understand the underlying weaknesses and vulnerability of fractional reserve banking, and by extension the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, among other elements of the banking system, it wasn’t a surprise when the banking system collapsed. But for those unaware of this, it has shaken them to the core, as what [...]
The State of the P2P Lending Industry
After appearing in 2006, person-to-person lending has grown by leaps and bounds. There are now several companies competing in different areas of the industry, each continually refining their business model in hopes of maximizing the rates of returns their investors receive and the number of borrowers that participate in their services. The two behemoths in [...]
People Capital – Peer-to-Peer Lending for Student Loans
During the financial crisis, college students found that it was almost impossible to get private student loans. People Capital hopes to solve that problem by creating empowering people to finance each other’s educations. The idea of person-to-person lending through the internet isn’t a new idea. Prosper.com was the first company to run with the idea [...]
ICBA Says Community Banks Remain Strong, Outperform Industry
With so much focus on the state of the nation’s big banks, the strength of thousands of community banks across the country has become easily forgotten. The Independent Community Bankers of America reiterated last week that over 8,000 community banks are operating in good standing and outperform bank industry averages in many notable metrics, such [...]
Editorial: The Nonsense of “Reining in Bankers’ Pay” and Why Central Planning Never Works
As I mentioned in my last article about the attempt at instituting a bunch global rules on the banking industry not being workable, as the issue is a systemic one, and not one of being underregulated. As long as fractional reserve banking is the way banks do business, and central banks around the world prop [...]
China to Implement New Capital Requirements for Banks Over Several Years
China’s chief banking regulators said it will take years for their country to implement stricter capital requirements, seeking to assure investors that new rules will not cause an immediate decline in new lending. In a recent statement, China’s Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said that the measures it has implemented to force banks to deduct holdings [...]
Global Regulators Agree on New Capital Requirements for Banks
In the recent G20 talks in Basel, Switzerland, global regulators agreed on new capital requirements that will require banks to set aside additional capital to weather hard times. Under the new proposal offered by top central bankers, banks will be limited on how much debt they can run up and banks will have much stricter [...]
Should You Use Lending Club to get a Short-Term Personal Loan?
Peer-to-peer lending services such as Lending Club are growing by leaps and bounds. Consumers are using them because they can get better interest rate for personal loans than they would by borrowing from a local bank and investors are using lending club to get a great rate of return on their money. Using a peer-to-peer [...]
Does the FDIC Have 99 Years to Pay Insured Deposits?
In these uncertain times, many are questioning the safety of their money in the banking system and question whether or not the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation can provide adequate protection to consumers of failed banks. The FDIC is hoping to dissuade consumers from these fears and assure consumers of their safety. They’ve posted a list [...]
Will New Global Banking Rules Really Change Anything?
Although the exact details of the basic framework for developing new banking rules, which would allegedly help avoid the banking failures like we’re experiencing now from happening in the future, haven’t been laid out yet, the framework itself leads a lot to be desired, and doesn’t to much to deal with the real banking weakness [...]
Wells Fargo’s Secrecy Hurting its Stock Prices
Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) dodges difficult questions from investors and the press on a regular basis, and that silence is beginning to take a toll on the bank’s stock. Wells has survived the financial crisis better than just about every other megabank, having acquired its deteriorating rival, Wachovia, at a deeply discounted price. [...]
Nemazee Used Falsified Documents to Repay Citi Loan
Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) was defrauded to the tune of $74 million by New York businessman and Democratic fundraiser, Hassan Nemazee, by getting a loan using fake loan documents. In a letter to the U.S. Federal Court yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attornies Daniel W. Levy and John M. Hillebrecht stated that Nemazee repaid the large line [...]
Banking Books: “End the Fed” by Ron Paul
The Federal Reserve has become central player in the United States’ economy, but some imagine a world without it. In “End the Fed”, Dr. Ron Paul examines what the world might look like without the Federal Reserve. Although many people consider the Federal Reserve to be an indispensable institution that the nation’s economy couldn’t function [...]
Why did the Federal Reserve Devalue the U.S. Dollar to 5 Cents?
The Federal Reserve took control over the United States money supply in 1913. Since then, the buying power of a dollar has decreased by 95% according to data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The Federal Reserve’s laissez faire attitude toward inflation has made the US dollar all but worthless. In the early 1900’s prices [...]
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