Bernanke under pressure to prop it up

When Ben Bernanke addresses the annual symposium of central bankers in Jackson Hole tomorrow he does so against arguably....

RECESSION/DEPRESSION: Government website to warn of sadness/crying over ECONOMY

The feds will warn of depression, suicidal thinking and other serious mental illnesses. It will raise warning flags for: Persistent sadness/crying; Excessive anxiety; Lack of sleep/constant fatigue; Excessive irritability/anger...



Source: www.drudgereport.com

U.S. falls deeper into recession

Governments across the world have tried to boost expenditure to ease a recession ushered in by a credit crisis in the United States, with Japan and Germany becoming the two latest countries to unveil new spending programs…

Read more U.S. recession grows deeper


Source: globeandmail.com

US Banks Owe $40 Billion In Pay, Pensions To Executives

Troubled financial giants getting cash infusions from the U.S. Federal Reserve owe their executives more than $40 billion for past year's pay and pensions as of the end of 2007, the Wall Street Journal said in an analysis.

The sums owed are mostly for special executive pensions and deferred compensation, including bonuses, for prior years, said the paper....

Read more US banks owe billions in pay


Source: economic times

The U.S. Will Continue To Sink Into A Rut

Vanishing jobs, shrinking paychecks, dwindling nest eggs and falling home values...

The country has sunk deeper into an economic rut, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday, reflecting mounting damage from the financial and credit crises..

Read more Fed sees economy sinking deeper into rut

The Facts: Why The Fed And Treasury Bailed out AIG

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve


THE JOB OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE:

The Federal Reserve System (also the Federal Reserve; informally The Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. Created in 1913 by the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, it is a quasi-public (government entity with private components) banking system composed of (1) the presidentially appointed Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C.; (2) the Federal Open Market Committee; (3) 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks located in major cities throughout the nation acting as fiscal agents for the U.S. Treasury, each with its own nine-member board of directors; (4) numerous private U.S. member banks, which subscribe to required amounts of non-transferable stock in their regional Federal Reserve Banks; and (5) various advisory councils. As of February 1, 2006, Ben Bernanke serves as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.




THE $85 BILLION TAXPAYER BAILOUT OF AIG.

What the New York Times had to say:

"...What frightened Fed and Treasury officials was not simply the prospect of another giant corporate bankruptcy, but A.I.G.’s role as an enormous provider of esoteric financial insurance contracts to investors who bought complex debt securities. They effectively required A.I.G. to cover losses suffered by the buyers in the event the securities defaulted. It meant A.I.G. was potentially on the hook for billions of dollars’ worth of risky securities that were once considered safe.

If A.I.G. had collapsed — and been unable to pay all of its insurance claims — institutional investors around the world would have been instantly forced to reappraise the value of those securities, and that in turn would have reduced their own capital and the value of their own debt...."

Read more: Fed’s $85 Billion Loan Rescues Insurer


Edmund L. Andrews reported from Washington. Michael J. de la Merced and Mary Williams Walsh reported from New York. David M. Herszenhorn contributed reporting from Washington and Eric Dash from New York..

Source: New York Times, wikipedia.