Free Republic

Small banks were not supposed to cause this much trouble. In 2008, it was the big banks that went down and nearly took the economy with them. The problem appeared to be too much market concentration, which was said to be the chief problem with the American economy. Now, following the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank and then the failures of First Republic and Signature, no one knows what’s next. It turns out that the world is more complicated. Like the rest of the economy, large banks are dominating their industry. That’s because often, they are the only ones that...

Nothing improper here, folks. Just move along. You're a homophobe if you think there was anything unseemly going on. The Fannie Mae executive who hired U.S. Rep. Barney Frank’s former lover was a campaign donor and once worked for the congressman — but denies the Newton Democrat’s recommendation played a role in the controversial 1991 hiring.

Frank: Based On My Past "Not Appropriate" For Me To Comment On Weiner

The White House released this list of people expected to be at the meeting: Adm. Thad Allen, National Incident Commander Carol Browner, Office of Energy and Climate Larry Summers, National Economic Council Bob Bauer, White House Counsel Don Verrilli, White House Counsel’s Office Melody Barnes, Domestic Policy Council Tom Perrelli, Department of Justice Carl-Henric Svanberg, Chairman, BP Tony Hayward, CEO, BP Bob Dudley, Managing Director, BP Lamar McKay, CEO, BP America Rupert Bondy, General Counsel, BP Jamie Gorelick, WilmerHale, who was deputy attorney general under President Clinton and a 9/11 commissioner

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Robert Rubin, a senior adviser to Citigroup Inc. at the time of its deep losses from subprime mortgages, said Wednesday that he learned belatedly that Citi had $43 billion in high-risk securities on its books. "I do not recall knowing before September 2007" that the bank had held onto the investments composed of repackaged mortgage bonds, Rubin said. In November 2007, Citigroup publicly estimated it would lose $8 billion to $11 billion in the fourth quarter that year from those securities.

"He dug into the idiocy and negligence that produced the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression," Steve Kroft opened a segment of the March 14 CBS "60 Minutes," featuring author Michael Lewis' latest work - "The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine." If Lewis "dug into the idiocy and negligence," he did so selectively - or that's what viewers could conclude from the long "60 Minutes" report, which concerned itself with how "some of Wall Street's smartest minds managed to destroy $1.75 trillion of wealth in the sub-prime mortgage markets." Somehow, in a 24-minute report about the sub-prime mortgage...

The worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made disaster in which we all played a part.In the second part of a week-long series looking behind the slump,Guardian City editor Julia Finch picks out the individuals who have led us into the current crisis Alan Greenspan, chairman of US Federal Reserve 1987- 2006Only a couple of years ago the long-serving chairman of the Fed, a committed free marketeer who had steered the US economy through crises ranging from the 1987 stockmarket collapse through to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, was lauded with...