“Banking in the United States” on The Daily Caller

The Federal Reserve, which has the power to print money, also sets its own operating budget. That’s the wrong kind of independence. Unfortunately, recent proposals to audit the Fed do not address this issue. (more)

Reporting from Washington — (more)

Sunday marks the two-year anniversary of President Bush signing the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act,” better known as TARP (the Troubled Assets Relief Program). (more)

WASHINGTON — Even as voters rage and candidates put up ads against government bailouts, the reviled mother of them all — the $700 billion lifeline to banks, insurance and auto companies — will expire after Sunday at a fraction of that cost, and could conceivably earn taxpayers a profit. (more)

President Obama is crowing about his small-business bill, signed into law on Monday. “It was critical that we cut taxes and made more loans available to entrepreneurs,” he said. Trouble is, small businesses and community banks don’t want Obama’s $30 billion program. That’s right. They don’t want it. (more)

The Obama administration is set to lower its estimate of the cost of the troubled asset relief programme when it celebrates the end of the bail-out effort next week, senior administration officials say. (more)

From the moment Boston-based OneUnited Bank began seeking a federal bailout in the summer of 2008, it received special treatment that went beyond what the Treasury Department or the bank and its political supporters have previously disclosed. (more)

Small banks screwed by TARP — Nancy Pelosi is going to claw out Robert Gibbs’ eyes — Scott Brown is such a tease — How can the FCC make sure that America is pure if it cannot control curse words? — Slap fight breaks out between NAACP, Tea Party — Deficit report: We are slightly less broke than last year, still broke though  (more)

The Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) places more burdens on small banks than on big ones, exacerbating the difference between financial institutions that are too big to fail and the rest, Congressional Oversight Panel Chairwoman Elizabeth Warren told CNBC Wednesday. (more)

The Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, said on Tuesday that taxpayers were recovering their investment from the financial bailouts as the program is wound down. But he acknowledged there would probably be a loss from the rescue of the insurer, American International Group. (more)

U.S and world stock markets are slumping badly as intensified systemic risks from the Greek and European debt-default contagion continue to spread. Disciplinarian markets of stocks, bonds, gold, and currencies are signaling the inadequacy of European Union rescue plans and the global fear that economic recovery will be blunted. (more)

The Treasury Department will be putting its Wells Fargo warrants up for auction Thursday. (more)

General Motors’ willingness to publicly display their penchant for image over sound business practices should surprise no one. This is, after all, a company who was cozy enough with the White House to avoid bankruptcy by performing their part in the play perfectly: as the embattled company saved and redeemed by government bailout. (more)

Fiduciary duty: A Senate Judiciary Committee panel reportedly will hold hearings suggesting that investment firms and broker-dealers should have a fiduciary duty in their interactions with clients — meaning that companies would have to look out for clients’ “best interests.” Under present law, such companies only have to determine whether particular investments are “suitable” for the buyer. The extent and details of such duties are unclear to many in Congress. Most of the fireworks at the 11-hour Senate grilling of Goldman last week revolved around senators’ disbelief that Goldman could sell an investment while taking a counter-position in the firm’s own investments. The irony is thick, then, as the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that some members of Congress used their own money to make risky bets that U.S. stocks or bonds would fall during the financial crisis. (more)

In his recent speech on Wall Street, President Obama tried to delegitimize any criticism of his proposed financial regulations and taxes. He said, “What’s not legitimate is to suggest that somehow the legislation being proposed is going to encourage future taxpayer bailouts, as some have claimed. That makes for a good sound bite, but it’s not factually accurate. It is not true. In fact…a vote for reform is a vote to put a stop to taxpayer-funded bailouts. That’s the truth. End of story.” (more)

 (more)

With everybody focused on Obamacare and its new entitlement spending and taxing, the administration has tried to sneak in yet another bailout for housing. Yet again, Team Obama is rewarding reckless behavior, punishing the 90 percent of responsible homeowners who are making good on their mortgages, and setting up a greater moral hazard that will surely lead to an expansion of bailout nation. (more)

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) released its Quarterly Banking Profile (QBP) for year-end 2009. Things have never been worse for the banking system: bad loans (loans that are 90 days or more past due) account for 5.37% of all loans and leases, an all-time record; net charge-offs (NCOs) – losses taken on bad loans – totaled $53.0 billion, or 2.89% (annualized), in the fourth quarter which is also the highest rate ever recorded in the QBP’s 26 year history. Banks did not increase loss reserves fast enough to compensate for the growth in charge-offs and nonperforming loans. As a result, ratio of reserves to bad loans fell to 58.1%, the lowest level since mid-1991 and almost certainly too low to absorb all of the expected losses. The FDIC labeled 702 insured depository institutions as “troubled” up 68% from 416 at-risk banks in June 30, 2009. The rate of deterioration may have slowed, but things have not stopped getting worse. (more)

Executives at bailed-out Wall Street banks could soon take a hit to their bank accounts, as the Senate votes on a measure that could tax their bonuses at 50 percent — including on money the bankers earned last year. (more)

WASHINGTON — There is no U.S. government guarantee to protect the largest financial firms, a Treasury Department official said Thursday, as a congressional watchdog criticized the $45 billion in government aid provided to Citigroup Inc. (more)