Survival News Network

More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a bank’s equity and threaten its survival.

The number of banks exceeding the threshold more than doubled in the year through June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, [...]

Source:  Bloomberg.com
The number of Americans filing unemployment claims unexpectedly rose last week to the highest level since 1982 and those staying on benefit rolls jumped to a record as companies kept cutting jobs to trim costs.
Initial jobless claims swelled by 12,000 to 669,000 in the week ended March 28, topping 600,000 for a ninth straight [...]

Source:  Bloomberg.com
The number of Americans filing unemployment claims unexpectedly rose last week to the highest level since 1982 and those staying on benefit rolls jumped to a record as companies kept cutting jobs to trim costs.
Initial jobless claims swelled by 12,000 to 669,000 in the week ended March 28, topping 600,000 for a ninth straight [...]

Source:  Bloomberg.com
The number of Americans filing unemployment claims unexpectedly rose last week to the highest level since 1982 and those staying on benefit rolls jumped to a record as companies kept cutting jobs to trim costs.
Initial jobless claims swelled by 12,000 to 669,000 in the week ended March 28, topping 600,000 for a ninth straight [...]

Source:  Bloomberg.com
The number of Americans filing unemployment claims unexpectedly rose last week to the highest level since 1982 and those staying on benefit rolls jumped to a record as companies kept cutting jobs to trim costs.
Initial jobless claims swelled by 12,000 to 669,000 in the week ended March 28, topping 600,000 for a ninth straight [...]

American International Group Inc had warned of turmoil around the globe if the government allowed the insurer to fail when it appealed to U.S. regulators for its latest rescue, Bloomberg said citing an AIG presentation dated February 26.
AIG needed immediate help from the Federal Reserve and Treasury to prevent a “catastrophic” collapse that would be [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Stocks fell worldwide, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average below 7,000 for the first time since 1997, and Treasuries rose after Warren Buffett said the economy is in “shambles” and American International Group Inc. reported a $61.7 billion loss.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. retreated 5.9 percent after reporting the worst annual drop in book value [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Iranian scientists began a test run of the Persian Gulf nation’s first nuclear power plant, in the southern port city of Bushehr, state television said.
Today’s trial at the plant, which was built with Russian assistance, involved the use of “virtual fuel” instead of atomic material, it said without giving details.
The operation started during [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Abandon hope, all ye who open this book. Michael J. Panzner, author of “Financial Armageddon,” is back with a new jeremiad on our cracked and out-of-joint times.
His outlook is grim. We stand on the cusp of what hedge- fund manager Barton Biggs would call “an episode of great wealth destruction,” Panzner writes in [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet approved a draft bill allowing the state to seize control of property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, paving the way for the first German bank nationalization since the 1930s.
The bill allows the government to carry out compulsory purchases of shares held in “systemically relevant” banks. To assuage lawmakers [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Group of Seven finance chiefs vowed to tackle a “severe” economic downturn that will persist for most of 2009 without spelling out new steps to do so.
The G-7’s finance ministers and central bankers said in a statement released after talks in Rome yesterday that they were working to restore confidence in markets and [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, plans to eliminate an additional 2,000 jobs at its securities unit and expects to be profitable in 2009, after posting a record loss last year.
UBS rose as much as 7.1 percent in Swiss trading after saying its wealth and asset management businesses recorded net increases in client investments [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC may have to be forced into bankruptcy by the U.S. government to assure repayment of $17.4 billion in federal bailout loans, a course of action the automakers claim would destroy them.
U.S. taxpayers currently take a backseat to prior creditors, including Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Advanced economies are already in a “depression” and the financial crisis may deepen unless the banking system is fixed, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.
“The worst cannot be ruled out,” Strauss-Kahn said in Kuala Lumpur, where he was attending a gathering of central bankers from Southeast Asia. “There’s a lot of [...]

I suspect we are actually face to face with a Maxi…The Great Depression.
Source: Bloomberg
Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said the U.S. may slump into a “mini depression” unless policy makers spend trillions of dollars to spur growth.
“This economy needs support from the government, a check from the government in [...]

I suspect we are actually face to face with a Maxi…The Great Depression.
Source: Bloomberg
Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said the U.S. may slump into a “mini depression” unless policy makers spend trillions of dollars to spur growth.
“This economy needs support from the government, a check from the government in [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
First Centennial Bank of Redlands, California, was seized by a state regulator, the third U.S. bank to fail this year, as the recession deepens and the slump in the housing industry sends home foreclosures to records.
First Centennial, with $803.3 million in assets and $676.9 million in deposits, was shut by the California Department [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Stocks in Europe, Brazil and Canada fell on speculation government efforts to shore up the financial industry will fail to stem the deepening global recession.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc slumped 67 percent after saying it expects to post a loss of as much as 28 billion pounds ($41 billion) for 2008 and [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Stocks in Europe, Brazil and Canada fell on speculation government efforts to shore up the financial industry will fail to stem the deepening global recession.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc slumped 67 percent after saying it expects to post a loss of as much as 28 billion pounds ($41 billion) for 2008 and [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Stocks in Europe, Brazil and Canada fell on speculation government efforts to shore up the financial industry will fail to stem the deepening global recession.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc slumped 67 percent after saying it expects to post a loss of as much as 28 billion pounds ($41 billion) for 2008 and [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Stocks in Europe, Brazil and Canada fell on speculation government efforts to shore up the financial industry will fail to stem the deepening global recession.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc slumped 67 percent after saying it expects to post a loss of as much as 28 billion pounds ($41 billion) for 2008 and [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Stocks in Europe, Brazil and Canada fell on speculation government efforts to shore up the financial industry will fail to stem the deepening global recession.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc slumped 67 percent after saying it expects to post a loss of as much as 28 billion pounds ($41 billion) for 2008 and [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Stocks in Europe, Brazil and Canada fell on speculation government efforts to shore up the financial industry will fail to stem the deepening global recession.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc slumped 67 percent after saying it expects to post a loss of as much as 28 billion pounds ($41 billion) for 2008 and [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank by assets, posted its first loss since 1991 and cut the dividend after receiving emergency funds from the government to support the acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.
The fourth-quarter loss of $1.79 billion, or 48 cents a share, compared with net income of $268 million, [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Crude oil fell after a U.S. government report showed that stockpiles climbed to a 16-month high as fuel demand tumbled.
Inventories of crude increased 1.14 million barrels to 326.6 million last week, the highest since Aug. 31, 2007, the Energy Department said. Supplies of gasoline and distillate fuel also rose. Fuel demand dropped 6 [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Drivers rattled by the worst U.S. labor market since World War II are hanging on to old autos longer instead of buying new models, threatening to crimp sales again in 2009 after demand plummeted to a 16-year low.
Used vehicles being traded in at dealerships averaged 6.3 years of age after the Wall Street [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Crude oil fell below $40 in New York on concern production cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will fail to counter a slump in demand.
Oil consumption will fall by 1 million barrels a day this year while the U.S., Europe and Japan face their first simultaneous recessions since the Second World [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Most commodities declined yesterday because of falling demand for raw materials, with corn, soybeans and wheat dropping the most allowed by the Chicago Board of Trade in a single day. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities slid as much as 4 percent.
Brent crude oil for February settlement fell as much as $1.07, [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Federal Reserve policy makers saw “substantial” risks to the slumping economy last month as they cut the benchmark interest rate to a record low and pledged to expand emergency loans if necessary.
Central bank officials believed “the economic outlook would remain weak for a time and the downside risks to economic activity would be [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
German billionaire Adolf Merckle committed suicide by throwing himself under a train, “broken” as his business empire crumbled under a growing burden of debt, his family said.
The 74 year-old businessman was hit yesterday evening near his hometown of Blaubeuren, 44 miles southeast of Stuttgart, a police officer said in an interview. His body [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
The decline in U.S. manufacturing deepened in December as demand for such products as cars, appliances and furniture reached the lowest level since at least 1948, signaling further cutbacks in factory jobs and production this year.
The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index fell to 32.4, below economists’ forecasts and the lowest level since [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
OAO Gazprom, Russia’s state gas exporter, called for a resumption of talks on a dispute with Ukraine that led to a cutoff of Russian supplies of the fuel today to the country, the second interruption in three years.
Price was not the main issue in negotiations broken off yesterday, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Sales of single-family houses in the U.S. dropped in November by the most in two decades and resale prices collapsed at a pace reminiscent of the Great Depression, dashing speculation the market was close to a bottom.
Purchases of both new and existing houses dropped 7.6 percent from the prior month, the biggest decline [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., the world’s biggest defense companies, are deploying forces and resources to a new battlefield: cyberspace.
The military contractors, eager to capture a share of a market that may reach $11 billion in four years, have formed new business units to tap increased spending to protect U.S. government computers [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Gold prices rose the most in a week as mounting tensions in the Middle East and South Asia boosted the appeal of the precious metal as a haven.
Palestinian militants yesterday launched their biggest rocket attack on southern Israel in at least six months after a truce expired Dec. 19. Pakistani troops are being [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
GMAC LLC won Federal Reserve approval to become a bank holding company, a switch that may enable the money-losing auto and home lender to tap U.S. financial bailout programs and help keep General Motors Corp. in business.
The Fed used emergency powers yesterday to grant Detroit- based GMAC’s request, citing turmoil in financial markets [...]

Source: USATODAY.com
Three of four major underwater cables have been severed in the Mediterranean Sea, seriously disrupting Internet and telephone service between Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Bloomberg reports. The fiber-optic cables handle more than 75% of the traffic between the Mideast, Europe and the United States, and 90% of transmission between Europe and the [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
Oil companies booked 25 supertankers to store crude, enough to supply France for almost a month, as OPEC discusses output cuts to shore up prices that have plunged 69 percent in five months.
The supertankers, equal to about 5 percent of the global fleet, can carry as much as 50 million barrels. The ships [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to a larger-than-expected cut in oil production to revive prices as a global recession reduces demand for crude.
OPEC agreed to cut output by 4.2 million barrels a day from September’s actual level of 29.045 million barrels a day, indicating a new quota target of 24.845 million [...]

Source: Bloomberg.com
The Federal Reserve may today reduce its main interest rate to the lowest level on record and prepare for one of the boldest experiments in its 94-year history: using its balance sheet as the key tool for monetary policy.
The Fed’s Open Market Committee will probably cut the benchmark rate in half, to 0.5 [...]