Posts tagged as:

Federal Reserve

C-FIRE Deputy Director R.J. Lehmann talks with equity analyst Randy Binner about MetLife’s failing grade in the Federal Reserve Board’s recent stress tests, and why the Fed apparently doesn’t understand insurance.

Among the 19 largest bank holding companies, MetLife holds three important distinctions: It’s the only insurance company, the only non-TARP recipient and the only one to fail the Fed’s stress tests.

AIG has sold off a few more assets and posted big profits in 2011. But the U.S. Treasury continues to play politics in choosing the “right” moment to finally end the bailout.

The company and the government need to stop playing accounting games to cover for past mistakes, and just sell off the company’s remaining assets to whomever might make better use of them.

The efforts by retailers to encourage the Fed to lower debit card user fees being charged by banks for a second time in less then a year has brought a swift response from the banking industry. An article by Edward Wyatt in the New York Times discusses the retailers efforts and the push back from [...]

MetLife’s announcement that it has been ordered by the Federal Reserve not to increase its shareholder dividend until it completes the 2012 round of stress tests could be a harbinger of things to come, should other insurers be designated “systemically important financial institutions.”

Bernanke Puts New ‘Twist’ on Old, Failed Policy

by Steve Stanek on September 28, 2011

Steve Stanek of FIRE News discusses “Operation Twist,” the Federal Reserve’s program to move hundreds of billions of dollars of the Fed’s investment portfolio into longer-term debt. Critics argue the program is a new twist on an old policy that failed in the 1960s.

Do Fed’s $1.2 Trillion in Loans Indicate a Worse Crisis Than We Knew?

by Steve Stanek on September 14, 2011

Steve Stanek of FIRE Policy News discusses a recent revelation of $1.2 trillion in secret bailouts to US and foreign-owned banks and Wall Street firms.

Try as I Might, I Couldn’t Keep Government Out of My Mortgage!

by Rick Manning on September 7, 2011

Rick Manning of Americans for Limited Government discusses his experiences with mortgage refinancing.

A recent article from the Hill suggests that the GAO will be able to audit the Federal Reserve under its new powers gained as part of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act. While this would be a strong step forward in bringing transparency to the Fed, history has shown that the Fed will not allow these [...]