…out of large “too big to fail” institutions and into small community banks (or your mattress) If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed! [Continue]

OK, so I admit it. I’m a ‘hater’. But. Those sultans, sheiks and princes with their inherited oil wealth, ostentatious (in the extreme) lifestyles, and absurd overconfidence in areas of business they clearly don’t understand are pretty hard to root for at times. So, forgive my schadenfreude as the farce that is the [Continue]

Swiss offshore banking has a solid reputation due to its long history as a centre for wealth management, asset protection, tax-advantaged investment and of course bank secrecy. Its bankers are regarded as some of the most trustworthy and experienced in the world. It also has some of the strictest bank secrecy laws. These state [Continue]

The Royal Bank of Scotland is set to dish out record bonuses of up to £5m While these numbers sound especially outrageous, taxpayers were heartened to learn that the bonuses of millions of pounds would only be available for the top 20 staff in the bank, the other employees of the struggling, functionally insolvent institution would [Continue]

Oct. 16 (Bloomie) — C(sh)itigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. told U.S. regulators that raising capital requirements next year would be lame, and argued that lending and the economic recovery would be harmed. Banks need three years to continue the farce of solvency until I can complete my looting operation and [Continue]

WASHINGTON — In a sharp reversal from their previous unwritten rule of bending over smaller community banks at every turn in favor of backing irresponsible risk taking and massive bonus schemes by the larger banks, the House Financial Committee bowed to pressure from a group of torch and pitchfork waiving citizens outside the Capitol Building [Continue]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite the fact that a 4 month old corpse has a more active ekg than the usd/cny chart, the Obama administration did not declare China a currency manipulator on Thursday. Treasury did go so far as to mention that it had “serious concerns” about their ability to keep a straight face if forced [Continue]

Oct. 15 (originally reported by Bloomberg) — The IRS is intensifying its hunt for secret offshore banking, opening offices in Beijing, Sydney and Panama City after more than 7,500 Americans revealed undeclared accounts in 70 countries on six continents. Internal Revenue Commissioner said yesterday Americans scared into coming forward before [Continue]

You may have noticed some small changes to the iconic fubarrio site recently. Most of the changes have to do with back-end and administrative issues — things that will help me manage the site better. To do that, I had to switch hosting software.  In the meantime, just so you don’t feel completely lost, I kept the [Continue]

Ever since the market turmoil of the last several years started to get peoples’ attention, bond watchers have been looking for a moment when things would go critical. While the stock market is well understood public indicator of the health of the general economy, it’s small potatoes. The bond market is no less than the [Continue]