The financial media is filled with year-end dire warnings of catastrophic consequences of the U.S. economy falling over the “fiscal cliff”. Could this really happen? It could, but probably not. We and most market watchers are hopeful for a last…
A year ago today, on September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers, one of the largest and oldest investment banks in the U.S. filed for bankruptcy, and set off a financial collapse that was felt across the globe. It seems like a…
Wells Fargo kicked off earnings season last week with a preannouncement shocker - a $3 billion profit, double what analysts had forecast. Details on credit quality and trends were lacking and bad loan reserve levels were smaller than expected. Earnings results…
Since the beginning of the year, we talked about how the shape of a recovery in the markets might look. We mentioned that stocks would recover before the economy does, and credit markets may recover before stocks. During this six-month credit…
Yesterday the Treasury Department finally released details of their Public-Private Investment Program designed to create a market for the "toxic" assets that have been weighing down our banking system. The stock market liked what it saw, and Bill Gross of…