Fannie & Freddie had to start disclosing trade data last March

Found in the DRAFT folder:

Fannie and Freddie and other govt. types are going to have to start disclosing trade data for their bonds, beginning in March.

WOW!

Transparency is probably a good thing.

Edit 06/10: I wonder if this actually happened or not.

Minimum payments got you down? Thank regulators

I've heard a lot of noise lately about everyone's minimum credit card payments going up, especially those over at JP Morgan/Chase/WaMu (or whatever they're calling themselves this quarter).

I found a couple of nuggets from Treasury and OCC advising that banks were going to be expected to raise their minimum credit card payments over time to a level that could reasonably be expected to amortize the balance. This has been the requirement for commercial credit since forever, so it makes sense that it's coming to consumers.

Look here and here. These go back a few years, but we're seeing their effect now.

From a societal standpoint, it's a good thing if people don't carry their credit card debt forever. From an immediate default standpoint, and for what it is doing to the economy right now, it's not good. Bloomberg, in fact, just announced today that defaults are way, way up here.

I have friends and family who are dealing with this, and it's no fun. Especially with Chase, who's raised some minimums to 5% of the card balance. Wow. That's hard to keep up with if you're not used to it. Another thing, they're raising rates to reflect people's creditworthiness. So some folks are paying upwards of 20% this month when they were below 10% up to this point.

My recommendation: Get thee to a credit union ASAP. If you're credit report is clean enough, you should be able to refinance that credit card debt and pay it off before Chase starts coming after various body parts.

Still waiting on all that Fed disclosure, Bloomberg

I haven't heard anything else about the August 25th NY Court ruling that requires the Fed to release their data, other than this. So they have until 9/30 to appeal. Thank goodness!!!!

I emailed Mark Pittman (the Bloomberg reporter on this story) about this yesterday, and I'll post anything I get back from him.

Update! Mr. Pittman says we should expect resolution in months, not weeks. I guess this is sort of a big deal. Thanks to him and Bloomberg for keeping us up-to-date.

Welcome

Not sure what I want to put here, but we need a LeftWorld blog, don't we.

The ongoing banking struggle, AP style

You gotta love the way the media makes a story sing! Vague sources, just enough factual content to make it believable. Here's an example from AP, about the developments in the banking industry.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Meltdown-101-Why-banks-apf-78787609.html?x=0&.v=1

Sources such as "industry experts" can't be beat! There are some AP-types out there doing their job, but it's amazing how many just repeat what they've heard elsewhere, as in this case.

Thomas Sowell on the Subprime debacle

As promised, I'm posting a NewsMax link to an interview with Thomas Sowell from May.  He has a new book out about the housing crisis and the law of unintended consequences.

(I'm not big on NewsMax, per se, but this was a better link than the 2008 post on Sowell's column page here. You should look at that one, too).

Sowell explains the Subprime fiasco and the root of Congress' involvement better than I could. As someone who witnessed these things as they happened, I think he has a good handle on it.

Fed now required to release TARP and other borrower names (Bloomberg)

Well, mayor of NYC Mike Bloomberg has proven what control of the media will give you.  He's finally succeeded in getting the Freedom of Information Act to apply to the Federal Reserve, as mentioned in the article here.

There are always two sides of things, but the anonymity of borrowers at the discount window (which all of these programs are, essentially) has never been questioned before.  The real trouble with this ruling is that banks will be reluctant, going forward, to go to the Fed for temporary liquidity because it may appear to make them look weak to the market.

Of course it's ridiculous to assume that discount borrowing implies weakness, but that's likely how it will be taken.

In the short term, we'll see prices of these banks TANK after the announcement.  Maybe that's what Bloomberg is really after -- a good capital crisis which will be much more widespread than last year's hit to the top ten.

The Latest:  The Fed is appealing this ruling.  We'll wait and see if they have to release names tomorrow (probably not).