Good News!

[Rohirrim]

The banks are doing great! Citigroup's net up 72% from last year! Wells Fargo's up 21%. Bonuses all around. It's going to be a great Christmas for the bankers. Time to foreclose on some more mortgages!

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_new...trong-earnings

[alkemical]

Originally Posted by alkemical

http://books.google.com/books?id=CxN...ecrecy&f=false


Banking Secrecy article - worth the read.

..

[Rohirrim]

And BofA raked in $6.2 billion last quarter. Things are looking up!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...n_1017153.html

[Spider]

every bedwetter down here should be dancing a jig ..........

[Smiling Assassin27]

Originally Posted by Rohirrim

The banks are doing great! Citigroup's net up 72% from last year! Wells Fargo's up 21%. Bonuses all around. It's going to be a great Christmas for the bankers. Time to foreclose on some more mortgages!

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_new...trong-earnings

Hey, and here's some more--SO IS THE GOVERNMENT!

Maybe it's a sign of the tumultuous times, but the federal government recently wrapped up its biggest spending year, and its second biggest annual budget deficit, and almost nobody noticed. Is it rude to mention this?

The table also shows how close the federal budget was to balance as recently as fiscal 2007, with a deficit as low as $161 billion, or 1.2% of GDP. Those are the numbers to point to the next time someone says that the Bush tax rates are the main cause of our current fiscal woes.

Under those same tax rates in 2007, the government raised $2.57 trillion in revenue but it spent only $2.73 trillion. Four years later, the government raised $265 billion less thanks to the tepid recovery, but it spent nearly $900 billion more thanks to the never-ending Washington stimulus.

Odd that you don't give a rip about the government having such a banner year that it decided that money was no object, yet begrudge a private firm the ability to do the same and that you focus on one industry (banks) when other industries have comparatively exhorbitant profit margins than banks.

[Rohirrim]

Originally Posted by Smiling Assassin27

Hey, and here's some more--SO IS THE GOVERNMENT!







Odd that you don't give a rip about the government having such a banner year that it decided that money was no object, yet begrudge a private firm the ability to do the same and that you focus on one industry (banks) when other industries have comparatively exhorbitant profit margins than banks.

Anybody ever tell you what a downer you are? We're trying to celebrate a great quarter for the banks, here. This means the economy is turning around. Don't you get it?

[alkemical]

Originally Posted by Rohirrim

Anybody ever tell you what a downer you are? We're trying to celebrate a great quarter for the banks, here. This means the economy is turning around. Don't you get it?

Hey, my $5 card surcharge funded your foreclosure dumbass!

[Smiling Assassin27]

Not so fast, btw.

http://money.msn.com/ways-to-invest/...e-8de480a14d1d

This morning we saw a seemingly impressive earnings report from Bank of America (BAC). Revenue was up. Profits beat expectations. Good news, right?




Not so much. A closer look at the numbers shows some fuzzy math that only a contortionist could feel comfortable with. The real bottom line is that Bank of America earnings are still ugly and that the entire financial sector remains a very risky bet.

Confused? You should be, because an accounting move that conjures billions out of thin air seems fishy to many investors. Interested parties can read an excellent, detailed report on the accounting practices from Reuters here. Unfortunately, we have other fuzzy math to discuss in regards to B of A and have to keep moving.




Next up is is the pretax gain of $3.6 billion from Bank of America's sale of shares in China Construction Bank. Obviously a huge one-time gain like this cannot be re-created. And as I wrote when the deal went down, the sale damages the future of BAC lending in China, a crucial emerging market, considering how poor the credit market is in the U.S. and Europe right now.




Then there's the loss of $2.2 billion related to private equity and strategic investments. Investors had a rough third quarter, too, but $2.2 billion seems a bit ugly for a supposed Wall Street icon.

.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) saw third-quarter earnings slip 3.5%, thanks to higher expenses. On the revenue front, things are going nowhere fast -- 2009 and 2010 full-year revenue totals were almost identical. As for 2011, JPM is looking at a slight decline in revenue.


Wells Fargo's (WFC) third-quarter earnings missed expectations as the financial stock's loan business didn't grow fast enough. The revenue trend for WFC is also ugly, with six straight quarterly reports that show year-over-year declines. Not inspiring.

‎A massive one-time accounting gain allowed Citigroup (C) to eke out its seventh consecutive quarterly profit. But subtract a paper gain of $1.9 billion related to the risk of its debt and "mark-to-market" accounting shenanigans, and the $2.2 billion in profits shrinks to a very unimpressive level. Revenue is all over the place, ranging from a low of $8 billion a quarter to a high of $74 billion a quarter in the last six earnings reports. The company just can't seem to get ahead.



As you can see, Bank of America earnings are just part of a troubling industrywide trend.

Sincerely,

Debbie Downer

[Spider]

Poor bankers hey sa27 ....Maybe we can have a bake sale to help em out ........

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by Spider

every bedwetter down here should be dancing a jig ..........

Yep.

What more could they possibly ask for?

(Aside from another opportunity to help show their support for capitalism by paying $4.50 a gallon for gas?)