Bank Stress Test Proof Positive

Some folks will look at a glass and say that it is half full and others will look at it as half empty. In the case of the banking industry you need to look at the glass and see that certain people will not be sipping from the glass anymore.

If I were one to have disposable income, and I do not, if I did, then I would be buying stocks in these troubled banks as fast and furious and as much as I could. Holding said stocks for five or more years and then taking a profit as investors will do. Over at MSNBC they have this little piece on the survivability of and stress test our largest and not so large banks in America went under the knife by the Federal Reserve…

Among the 10 banks that need to raise more capital, Bank of America Corp. needs by far the most — $33.9 billion. Wells Fargo & Co. needs $13.7 billion, GMAC LLC $11.5 billion, Citigroup Inc. $5.5 billion and Morgan Stanley $1.8 billion.

The five other firms found to need more of a capital cushion are all regional banks — Regions Financial Corp. of Birmingham, Ala.; SunTrust Banks Inc. of Atlanta; KeyCorp of Cleveland; Fifth Third Bancorp of Cincinnati; and PNC Financial Services Group Inc. of Pittsburgh.

The banks will have until June 8 to develop a plan and have it approved by their regulators. If they can’t raise the money on their own, the government said it’s prepared to dip further into its bailout fund.

The stress tests are a big part of the Obama administration’s plan to fortify the financial system. As home prices fell and foreclosures increased, banks took huge hits on mortgages and mortgage-related securities they were holding. - MSNBC

In my honest opinion the banking crisis is over and the only way all of this financial mess will be cleared up is by the banks themselves telling the American people that “We will be Okay!” When they tell the government and the rest of the financial industry that they no longer need assistance is when the crisis is officially over. It has to come from the CEO’s lips of each bank rather than a statement from the White House in a hurried press room briefing.

Citigroup will be fine, Bank of America will be fine. The true test isn’t in a hypothetical situation presented to the balance sheets of these banks by the Federal Reserve but by the actions of the people running the banks. The government has their backs respectively to ensure our economy is sound, now it is up to the big boys and girls running the big banks to scream at the top of their lungs that they will survive this crisis. Act accordingly to make sure that the institution they represent is around for another couple of decades if not more. Only then will the investment dollars start buying up cheap banking industry stocks that in less than a few years will make the oil industry profits look disgusting for investors today.

Now is the time to get back to the basics of what a bank should be doing, should have been doing, and should have not been doing. And for investors to make some long term stock picks in the banking industry that will not be allowed to fail.

Papamoka

Soup Kitchen for Wall Street Talent

Reports are coming in that the brain trust of Wall Street is exiting stage right for better turf. I’m of the opinion to let them all walk. Somebody sold the crap that ended up being just crap and somebody made it sound like gold. Ergo they sold it even though they fully well knew it was junk. There was a sales pitch and people bought it and now lost more than their retirement money.

Wall Street and the description of what is talent of banking is an oxymoron these days. The same people that crippled the world economy are not people you want to keep in your business. Make no doubt about it, the kids that made a ton of money on Wall Street are going to follow the flow of new money because that is what they do. It would be stupid if they did not! If not for their own survival but for the survival of the companies they once represented and sold all kinds of scams to America and world investors that are now at near collapse if not for our taxpayer infusion of cash.

There will not be one company on Wall Street that will suffer the loss of people that sold and built a company on nothing. Millions or Billions of $Dollar investment companies do not base their livelihood on the existence on depending on one or two high performers, not even ten or twenty, not even fifty or one hundred people. This is not reality and the New York Times should be ashamed of even printing this piece…

Crisis Altering Wall Street as Big Banks Lose Top Talent
By GRAHAM BOWLEY and LOUISE STORY
Published: April 11, 2009

The turning point for Stephan Jung came in February, around the time bonus checks were slashed. A veteran of UBS, one of many banks tarnished by the financial crisis, Mr. Jung realized that the old Wall Street would not be bouncing back any time soon. It was time to head for the new.

“After 10 years, I did not see a future for myself,” said Stephan Jung, who quit his job at UBS to work at Aladdin Capital.

“After 10 years, I did not see a future for myself,” said Mr. Jung, 42, who quit to parlay his sales expertise into a career at Aladdin Capital, a small but rising investment firm run by others who had also left some of the most venerable names in finance.

There is an air of exodus on Wall Street — and not just among those being fired. As Washington cracks down on compensation and tightens regulation of banks, a brain drain is occurring at some of the biggest ones. They are some of the same banks blamed for setting off the worst downturn since the Depression. - New York Times

I need to be clear in this post, I have no problem with someone making a living, I just have a problem with someone thinking that my tax dollars bailing out their company is the reason they needed to find a new job. Especially, when the bailout money comes with some responsibility on the behalf of the banking and financial industry. Exit stage right for those that can not deal with responsibility.

I’m scaring myself for sounding like a Republican! Damn! Then again, maybe I’m just a Dad that knows when his child has gone to far? That has no political definition and this topic just might fit into that avenue of thought. Then again, how is your 401K doing or your kids college fund investments?

Wall Street will be fine once the dead wood that thought they could sell ice to an Eskimo, no offense to Eskimos, are long gone. Stick to the business plan and take care of your investors over your own self interest and the speculators and skammers must go. Please tell me that I am wrong!

Unbelievable that the New York Times even posted a sympathetic piece to the scams and people crying foul on Wall Street. How many bonus checks did this guy cash before he felt wronged? I'm pretty sure he wasn't crying when the checks were beyond belief for simple folks like you and I to find believable.

How many bonus checks have you cashed? You don’t get bonus checks unless you grossly profited the company beyond belief. And these bonus checks are only a fractional margin of what the company actually made so that is something to really think about. Why is it thought that everyone on Wall Street deserves a bonus and yet the scammers on Wall Street perpertrated the disaster that is our financial industry today?

Point made!

Papamoka