“Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation” on The Daily Caller

FORTUNE — JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon is worried about how new financial regulations could stall America’s economic recovery, but regulators aren’t buying it. (more)

The number of banks at risk of failing made up nearly 12 percent of all federally insured banks in the first three months of 2011, the highest level in 18 years. (more)

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) – Two banks in Georgia and one in Washington state failed were closed by regulators and taken over by other banks, bringing the year’s failed-bank total to 43, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday. (more)

1.) Joe Biden refuses to criticize totalitarian Egyptian president, admits liking The Onion — Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak has not truly “won” an election in the 30 years that he has been president of Egypt. Instead, he’s used secret police and state-controlled media to intimidate and incarcerate his critics and political opponents, including the runner-up in the first presidential election where someone other than Mubarak was allowed on the ballot. On January 25, Egyptians rose up against Mubarak, and the Egyptian president responded by shutting down the country’s Internet and sending armed thugs into the streets to do violence against his own people. By definition, Mubarak is a dictator. Unless, of course, your dictionary was penned by Vice Pres. Joe Biden, in which case geopolitical interests supersede honesty and/or human rights. “Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things,” Biden told PBS’ Jim Lehrer last night. “I would not refer to him as a dictator.” In other Biden news, the vice president likes the Onion’s made-up coverage of him. “I think it’s hilarious, the stuff they do on me,” Biden told Yahoo! News Thursday. “I saw the one of me washing a Trans-Am automobile in the driveway shirtless with tattoos all over myself and out there,” he added. “By the way, I have a Corvette– a ’67 Corvette– not a Trans-Am.” (more)

A top official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Thursday that the nation’s largest business lobby would support eliminating most of the tax loopholes obtained by large corporations to move toward comprehensive tax reform that resulted in lower rates. (more)

WASHINGTON—U.S. banking industry profits jumped again in the third quarter, as banks saw stronger revenue and set aside fewer reserves against bad loans. (more)

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday that regulators’ central task in overhauling the financial system is ending the notion that there are some firms too big to fail. (more)

Since Congress is out for their traditional August break, I thought this column could explore some of the ramifications of the larger pieces of legislation Congress has passed over the last few months. The first one that comes to mind is the financial reform bill that was signed into law mid July, 2010. This bill was two years in the making and caused many GOP lawmakers to balk at the sheer size of the bill, the undefined responsibilities outlined in the bill and the lack of even an “honorable mention” in the bill of the famed Government Sponsored Enterprises we know as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The fact is that we the taxpayer own 80% of Fannie and Freddie, and they are expected to get a total of almost $1trillion dollars of our money. This never ending bailout is needed to keep these two mortgage companies afloat when it is all said and done according to Bloomberg money gurus.  Notwithstanding this glaring omission in the financial reform bill, the bill did talk much about the FDIC and their ability to operate new programs. One such new program that garnered approval from the FDIC on August 10, 2010 was the “Model Safe Accounts Pilot program.”  This FDIC Model Safe Accounts Pilot program is designed to introduce the banking world to the underprivileged which are described as “underserved”, “unbanked” and “underbanked”. These underbanked folks are basically low-income households and minorities. According to the FDIC website, this program will last 1 year and must be subject to quarterly reports. Some of the highlights are: (more)

The House financial regulation reform bill that recently passed the Senate would increase the budget deficits by $19.7 billion over the 2011-2020 period if enacted unchanged, according to a cost estimate released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office. (more)

U.S. lenders posted $18 billion in profits during the first quarter, reflecting signs of recovery in the banking industry even as the number of “problem” banks increased, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said. (more)

Senate Republicans said Tuesday that a three-paragraph amendment offered by a Democratic senator, which claims to prevent taxpayer-funded bailouts, is purely cosmetic and will have no real impact. (more)

A tax even a Republican can like: A hot topic in certain circles is the possibility of the federal government enacting a “value-added tax,” or VAT, as one solution to America’s fiscal mess. Basically, a VAT is a more easily enforced (and collected) retail sales tax. Democrats tend to love it and Republicans tend to hate it, because it adds revenue to fund more federal programs. Paul Volcker, head of President Obama’s economic advisory board, said a VAT was “not as toxic an idea” as it used to be. In April, Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, offered a “sense of the Senate” resolution expressing opposition to a VAT, which passed in the Senate by an 85 to 13 vote. So it interesting that five Republican House members are co-sponsoring a bill by Rep. Pascrell, New Jersey Democrat, that would impose a VAT on imports from countries that use the tax. In the Senate, Republican Senator Voinovich, Ohio Republican — who was the sole Republican vote in opposition to that sense of the Senate resolution — now has suggested that replacing income taxes with a VAT could be one way to streamline the tax code. (more)

One day after Republicans said they had secured a deal on a financial regulation bill that would allow them to move forward on debating the bill, they denounced the legislation and said it would not accomplish any of their goals for preventing bailouts or making the markets more secure. (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)

In a sign that a bipartisan deal is much farther away from being reached than had been thought, Senate Republicans said Monday they will likely offer an alternative comprehensive bill on financial regulatory reform if they defeat Democrats’ attempts Monday to move forward on debate with the bill as it is currently written. (more)

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Democrats and Republicans both want to eliminate the idea that any financial firms are “too big to fail,” since that kind of thinking led to the bailouts of Wall Street firms in 2008. The difference between opposing camps in Washington comes in their definitions of “failure” and how they think the government should handle it. (more)

After two days of angry partisan arguments in Washington over the issue of financial regulation reform, a Republican senator from Tennessee summed up the state of play. (more)

A House staffer sends along this American Banker interview with FDIC chair Sheila Bair, in which she denies Sen. Mitch McConnell’s claim that the new financial regulatory bill would perpetuate bailouts: (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)