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DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Fitch Ratings lifted its rating on Iceland to investment grade, citing the nation's progress in stabilizing its economy and pushing ahead with structural reforms. The upgrade puts Iceland's long-term foreign currency issuer default rating at triple-B-minus, placing it on the first rung of investment-grade territory. The outlook is stable. As one of the first countries to take a hit from the global financial crisis, the country is now showing a "promising" economic recovery, said Paul Rawkins, a senior director at the ratings firm. He added that Iceland has successfully completed a program with the International Monetary Fund...

David P. Goldman, writing as Spengler in the Asia Times, diagnoses the heart of the Wall Street crisis, and lays out the solution to the rot in our financial markets. This is an important article to read and digest.Goldman was himself an executive at Credit Suisse, and saw firsthand the generation of profit-making deals in the slicing, dicing, and resale of elements of risk associated with large bundles of individual home mortgages packaged as securities. In his customary clear-eyed, data-rich style, Goldman explains how it all works, and where it went wrong. The ratings agencies - Moody's, Standard and...

Over these past few years of watching Banks collapse, get bailed out, and then falter again, I have had a consistent take on the matter: The banking system is more important than any single institution; If you as a banker are so incompetent as to blow up yourself and your firm, you should not be saved; instead, prepackaged bankruptcy, a/k/a temporary nationalization, is the preferred route to protect the overall system. The choices are stark: Emulate either Japan or Sweden. In the US, we have a hybrid (Perhaps we should call it Swedenese or Jaden).The Swedish approach — Save the...

Last year, an investigation revealed that there were 24 SEC employees and 7 employees who had been contracted by the SEC who were caught watching porn on work computers (one of whom admitted doing it for 8 hours per day). Now Denver lawyer Kevin Evans's letter requesting that the SEC release their names (the SEC refuses) via the FOIA has more details on the employees: 1.The locations the employees worked at were: Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Denver; Fort Worth, Texas; Los Angeles; and Washington, D.C.

TRULY startling revelations were few in the voluminous report, published last Thursday by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission on the origins of the financial panic. This is hardly a shock, given the flood-the-zone coverage and analysis of the crisis since it erupted four years ago. Yet the report still makes... --snip-- For those of you who’ve wondered why there have been so few prosecutions of mortgage fraud during this epidemic, your answer is on Page 164. “The terrible thing that happened,” said William K. Black, a former fraud investigator in the savings-and-loan crisis who is a professor at the University...

The New Year is just around the corner so using the most recent 09/30/2010 banking industry data submitted to the FDIC, I have recently compiled the Quanta Analytics List of U.S. Banks in Trouble for 2011 and Beyond. But before I explain how you can obtain this free, no strings attached, no hassle, and no continuous follow-up list, I believe it is important to explain several key points in relation to the Quanta Analytics List. One, although the banking world may still be struggling, the Quanta Analytics List shows that it is not going to crumble. Even though there are...

Barney Frank: Serving on Appropriations Committee in Republican House Will Be A 'Pain In The A--' Tuesday, November 23, 2010 By Nicholas Ballasy (CNSNews.com) - House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D.-Mass.) predicts that serving on the Appropriations Committee in the incoming Republican-majority House of Representatives will be a “great pain in the ass." “Fascinating fact, apparently for the first time in anybody’s memory, members of Congress have declined seats on the Appropriations Committee," Frank said. "Republican members have said, ‘I don’t want to be on the Appropriations Committee.’ The Appropriations Committee, which has been a great plum, is now...

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?by novelist Orson Scott Card, a Democrat_________..      This [financial crisis] was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it.  One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules.  The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them...Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans.  (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me.  It's as if the Pentagon were...

Madness of HELOC Lending During the Bubble Years Aided by the seemingly limitless desire of banks to lend money, homeowners opened an incredible number of HELOCs during the bubble years of 2004-2006. Nowhere was the madness of HELOC borrowing more astounding than in California. During the two key years of 2004 and 2005, a total of 1.43 million HELOCs were originated in California just for the purchase of homes according to figures received from CoreLogic. Wait a minute, you say. That's more than the total number of homes sold in California during these years. Correct. A total of 1.25 million...

<p>Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank caused a scene when he demanded a $1 senior discount on his ferry fare to Fire Island's popular gay haunt, The Pines, last Friday.</p> <p>Frank was turned down by ticket clerks at the dock in Sayville because he didn't have the required Suffolk County Senior Citizens ID. A witness reports, "Frank made such a drama over the senior rate that I contemplated offering him the dollar to cool down the situation." Frank made news last year when he was spotted looking uncomfortable around a bevy of topless, well-built men at the Pines Annual Ascension Beach Party.</p>

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AFP) – US President Barack Obama said Friday his policies had pulled America out of the most vicious economic dive since the 1930s, setting battle lines for mid-term elections in November. Obama put the Republicans on notice he will vigorously defend his record, despite the fact many Americans do not yet feel the recovery he is touting, while economic data hints that the rebound may be slowing. "Our first mission was to break the momentum of the deepest and most vicious recession since the Great Depression," Obama said in the gambling hub of Las Vegas, wrapping up...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is asking supporters for contributions to help prevent the "subpoenas and investigations" that would result from a GOP majority. In a fundraising letter for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Pelosi says if Republicans take back the House, they'll initiate "endless investigations against President Obama" and "bring back the days of Ken Starr and the politics of personal destruction." "Remember a Republican-controlled Congress that devoted more time to subpoenas and investigations than to solving our country's problems?" Pelosi asks. "There is far too much at stake for our country now to allow it to happen again." Rep....

Three days after he decried the lack of civility in American politics, President Obama is quoted in a new book about his presidency referring to the Tea Party movement using a derogatory term with sexual connotations. In Jonathan Alter’s “The Promise: President Obama, Year One,” President Obama is quoted in an interview saying that the unanimous vote of House Republicans vote against the stimulus bills “set the tenor for the whole year ... That helped to create the tea-baggers and empowered that whole wing of the Republican Party to where it now controls the agenda for the Republicans.” Tea Party...

FoxNews Reorts: Breaking News Third Senate Test Vote on Financial Overhaul Bill Fails 56-42

Senior staffers at the Securities and Exchange Commission spent hours surfing pornographic websites on government-issued computers while they were being paid to police the financial system, an agency watchdog says. The SEC's inspector general conducted 33 probes of employees looking at explicit images in the past five years, according to a memo obtained late on Thursday by The Associated Press. The memo says 31 of those probes occurred in the 2 years since the financial system teetered and nearly crashed. It was written by SEC Inspector General David Kotz in response to a request from U.S. Senator Charles Grassley. An...

By Kerry Picket on April 20, 2010 into Water CoolerEditSubscribe At a press conference on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, dodged questions from reporters about his party's close ties to Wall Street, while he attacked the GOP for the Republicans' Wall Street connections. When asked about the numerous finance lobbyists on Capitol Hill and their efforts with the Democrats, Mr. Reid responded, "There are more than 1500 lobbyists here to work on this bill. Push back is coming from those who don't want any changes in this legislation just as with healthcare. "

Campaign contributions from Goldman Sachs employees to President Obama are nearly seven times as much as President Bush received from Enron workers, according to numbers on OpenSecrets.org. President Bush's connections to Enron were well-hyped during the company's accounting debacle that rippled through the economy. Time magazine even had an article called, "Bush's Enron Problem." The Associated Press ran with the headline, "Bush-backing Enron makes big money off crisis." David Callaway wrote that Enron for Bush was worse than Whitewater for Clinton. But the mere $151,722.42 (inflation adjusted) in contributions from Enron-affiliated executives, employees, and PACs to Bush hardly add up...

Type this search phrase into Google: Goldman Sachs SEC Look at the two paid search results at the top. The first will likely be from Goldman Sachs (makes sense they would buy the key words with their name in it). The second is a link to www.BarackObama.com with the tag line "It's Time for Financial Reform that Protects Main Street. Act Now!" If there was any doubt that the government/SEC actions against Goldman Sachs were politically motivated, there is no doubt now. This is disgusting. The SEC has lost any shred of credibility it had and have become a political...

Barney Frank Gets Tongue-Lashing on Plane Posted by Sean Alfano Congressman Barney Frank endured the not-so-friendly skies Monday on a trip back east from California as a pair of doctors upset over the recent health care overhaul confronted the Massachusetts Democrat, the Boston Globe reported. The verbal row began, apparently, when the doctors, two sisters who are ophthalmologists and were headed to a conference in Boston, began criticizing the bill -- calling it an "Obamanation" -- upon noticing Rep. Frank nearby. "They wanted to talk to me, but I apologized and said I like to read and watch on planes,"...

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.

An influential voice on Capitol Hill has unexpectedly called into question the safety of investing in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, raising the specter that investors who have lent money to the two firms or bought their mortgage-backed securities could one day suffer losses. The comments by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, come despite the assumption of many investors that investments in the two mortgage finance giants are risk-free. Until now, federal officials -- who took over Fannie and Freddie two years ago to save them from collapse -- have signaled to the market...

The House Oversight and Government Reform committee this week received a list that will capture eyes from Wall Street to Washington. Timothy Geithner’s call log during the tightest grips of the financial crisis show the then-New York Federal Reserve Board chairman made calls calls to U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Obama transition adviser Lee Sachs and Warren Buffet. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and former Lehman Bros. CEO Dick Fuld also spoke with Geithner. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke got calls, as...

Washington, DCJudicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.”  The list, in alphabetical order, includes: 1. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT):  This marks two years in a row for Senator Dodd, who made the 2008 “Ten Most Corrupt” list for his corrupt relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and for accepting preferential treatment and loan terms from Countrywide Financial, a scandal which still dogs him.  In 2009, the scandals kept coming for the Connecticut Democrat.  In 2009, Judicial Watch filed a Senate ethics complaint against...

BizJournals April: Vitner: Worst of the recession is over Forbes May, The Recession Is Over http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/04/recovery-indicators-unemployment-opinions-columnists-recession.html Bloomberg June, Treasuries Drop for 3rd Day on Signs Worst of Recession Is Over: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=as7n0AWDEzuQ&pid=20601087 Newsweek July, The Recession Is Over: http://www.newsweek.com/id/208633 FoxNews August, The Recession is Over! http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/25889935/recession-is-over.htm WSJ September, US Stocks Slightly Higher As Bernanke Says Recession Is Over Sep http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090915-711042.html

Harris County taxpayers may have to inject up to $7 million a year into the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority for the next two years due to a financial crisis sparked by the souring of bonds used to build Minute Maid Park, Reliant Stadium and the Toyota Center. Facing balloon payments on $117 million in variable-rate bonds, the authority now is obliged to pay off the debt in five years instead of 23 years. That would require $24 million a year — a figure that, together with more than $30 million in additional obligations, would push the authority to the brink...

Let's not mince words here: The entire finance and real-estate "industry" is filled with massive, pernicious fraud, and we now have only one question remaining - will The Government do its lawful and mandated job, that of prosecuting the bad actors, or has it joined with the fraudsters, become one with them, and thus, declare itself as a gang of mobsters rather than a legitimate government? The latter, of course will beg only the question of what should be an ordinary American's response. Let's start with what may be one of the most outrageous yet least-actionable examples: Alan Greenspan. Alan...

The B-Cast: How Obama's 'Coalitions of Power' Are Key to 'Stealthy Agenda'

The Community Reinvestment Act, first passed in 1977 under Jimmy Carter, was intended to increase minority homeownership. It grew out of charges that banks were "redlining" entire inner-city neighborhoods as bad credit risks. Banks now were forced to perform outreach to these areas. In the '70s and '80s, banks could show that they were trying to do that by advertising in minority newspapers and having representatives sit on the boards of local groups. In other words, they were rated on the effort made and not on the results achieved. Creditworthiness still mattered. In 1995, as Howard Husock pointed out eight...

JOHN KING (host): If you pick up Maureen Dowd's column in The New York Times this morning, she goes through Congressman (Joe) Wilson's statement, some of the other things, and she says in her -- she has come to the conclusion, quote: "Some people just can't believe a black man is president and will never accept it." Does the president believe that some of these attacks are based on his race? WHITE HOUSE PRESS SEC. ROBERT GIBBS: I don't think the president believes that people are upset because of the color of his skin. I think people are upset because...

On Friday, I stated Barney Frank Says Ron Paul's Audit The Fed Bill Will Pass In October. Quite a few others made the same mistake as noted by RonPaul.Com in Misinformation Alert: Barney Frank Never Said That HR 1207 Will Pass In October. Several blogs and forums reported during the past 24 hours that Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank, said that Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve, HR 1207, will pass in October. Incorrect Reports about Barney Frank’s Statement on HR 1207 * Washington Times: Barney Frank says Ron Paul bill will pass* Politico:...

Are journalists playing favorites with some of the key political figures involved with regulatory oversight of U.S. financial markets? MSNBC’s Chris Matthews launched several vitriolic attacks on the Republican Party on his Sept. 17, 2008, show, suggesting blame for Wall Street problems should be focused in a partisan way. However, he and other media have failed to thoroughly examine the Democratic side of the blame game. Prominent Democrats ran Fannie Mae, the same government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) that donated campaign cash to top Democrats. And one of Fannie Mae’s main defenders in the House – Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a recipient...

Leading conservative economist Bruce Bartlett writes that the Obama-hating town-hall mobs have it wrong—the person they should be angry with left the White House seven months ago. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Where is the evidence that everything would be better if Republicans were in charge? Does anyone believe the economy would be growing faster or that unemployment would be lower today if John McCain had won the election? I know of no economist who holds that view. The economy is like an ocean liner that turns only very slowly. The gross domestic product and the level of employment would be pretty much the...

Perhaps it's the Russ Feingold influence. Feingold, when he served in the Wisconsin Legislature before traipsing off to Washington, was the bulldog behind legislation that outlawed gifts and other perks to legislators, things like free dinners and drinks, pen sets and the like, or even a cup of coffee. The idea was that legislators ought not be beholden to anyone except the people who elected them. Conversely, lawmakers are not to lavish favors on lobbyists and other influence peddlers. So by law they are to pay for their own meals and reimburse their hosts when they get something of value...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Two key Democrat senators were cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee on Friday from year-long investigations about whether mortgages they obtained from Countrywide Financial Corp. violated the senate's rules on gifts. The bipartisan committee, which supported the decision unanimously, did scold the senior lawmakers, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., for not being more careful in their dealings. "While the committee finds no substantial credible evidence as required by committee rules that your Countrywide mortgage violated Senate ethics rules, the committee does believe that you should have exercised...

n the middle of a difficult re-election campaign, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., on Friday was cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee from a year-long investigation about whether mortgages he obtained from Countrywide Financial Corp. violated the senate's rules on gifts. The committee, however, did scold the senior lawmaker for not being more careful in his dealings. "While the committee finds no substantial credible evidence as required by committee rules that your Countrywide mortgage violated Senate ethics rules, the committee does believe that you should have exercised more vigilance in your dealings with Countrywide in order to avoid...

Before “subprime” became a crisis, ACORN was active in the mortgage market, fighting in support of the policies that helped lay the groundwork for the banking collapse of 2008. ACORN lobbied legislators and banks to ensure that any person, regardless of credit history, income, or assets, would qualify for a mortgage. They mastered the art of pressuring banks – often through radical and controversial methods – to provide subprime loans to all comers. President Obama acted as a lawyer for ACORN in a lawsuit against Citibank forcing it to provide subprime loans. It was many of these “toxic” loans that...

In 2007, West Gate Bank paid no premiums to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. In 2008, the Lincoln bank paid $160,000. This year, with a special emergency assessment, which was finalized on Friday, President Carl Sjulin is estimating West Gate’s premium to be around $530,000. “It’s a burden,” Sjulin said. It’s also bitter medicine for banks that did little or nothing destructive to contribute to the unhealthy state of the nation’s banking industry. “It’s a very difficult pill to swallow for Nebraska bankers,” Sjulin said. “We didn’t have anything to do with it, but we’re paying for it.” That’s a...

Two U.S. federal regulators who sounded early warnings on the financial crisis and a Liberian peace activist who helped end that nation's civil war were honored for their efforts Monday at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairwoman Sheila Bair, former chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Brooksley Born, and peace activist Leymah Gbowee (LAY'-mah BOH'-wee) were presented with Profile in Courage Awards, annual honors named for a 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book written by John F. Kennedy. "(It's) a special honor to present the award to three women who have inspired all those who...

The kerfuffle about current New York Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Stephen Friedman's purchase of some Goldman stock while the Fed was involved in reviewing major decisions about Goldman's future—well-covered by the Wall Street Journal here and here—raises a fundamental question about Wall Street's corruption. Just as the millions in AIG bonuses obscured the much more significant issue of the $70 billion-plus in conduit payments authorized by the N.Y. Fed to AIG's counterparties, the small issue of Friedman's stock purchase raises very serious issues about the competence and composition of the Federal Reserve of New York, which is the most powerful...

New York Fed Board Chairman Stephen Friedman resigned yesterday amid controversy he owned stock and served as a board director of Goldman Sachs -- an entity he was served with overseeing as a Fed regulator. From Friedman's resignation letter: "…although I have been in compliance with the rules, my public service motivated continuation on the Reserve Bank Board is being mischaracterized as improper." It was improper says our guest, William Black, associate professor of Economics and Law University of Missouri, Kansas City. Bottom line: It's a clear conflict of interest for private banks to own an arm of the Fed,...

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York shaped Washington's response to the financial crisis late last year, which buoyed Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other Wall Street firms. Goldman received speedy approval to become a bank holding company in September and a $10 billion capital injection soon after. During that time, the New York Fed's chairman, Stephen Friedman, sat on Goldman's board and had a large holding in Goldman stock, which because of Goldman's new status as a bank holding company was a violation of Federal Reserve policy. The New York Fed asked for a waiver, which, after about 2½...

OAKLAND - A grand jury today voted to indict Yusuf Ali Bey IV, the scion of the defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery, for ordering the killings of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men in 2007, authorities familiar with the situation said. Prosecutors are likely to bring the case with special circumstances - allowing them to seek the death penalty against Bey IV, 23. He allegedly told two of his followers that in exchange for killing Bailey, he would teach them how to file fraudulent loan applications that could reap hundreds of thousands of dollars. Another man, Antoine Arelus Mackey,...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new national poll suggests that President Obama is personally more popular than his policies. The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, released Monday, also indicates that 63 percent of Americans approve of how Obama is handling his duties as president. One in three questioned in the poll disapprove. The survey, released two days before Obama marks 100 days in the White House, indicates that three in four Americans feel Obama has the personal qualities a president should have. But when asked whether Obama agrees with the respondent on the issues, that number drops to 57 percent. "Americans have...

The pressures were already immense when David B. Kellermann was promoted to the top financial position at the mortgage giant Freddie Mac last September. Then they got even worse. Mr. Kellermann’s boss and other top executives were ousted when the Treasury secretary seized Freddie Mac and its sibling company, Fannie Mae; others left on their own and were not replaced. Soon President Obama told the companies they were responsible for carrying out some of his programs to revive the economy, in addition to keeping the housing market afloat by buying and selling hundreds of thousands of mortgages a month. Mr....

Barney Frank's Rental ReversalApril 21, 2009 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, we've got a couple Barney Frank spites here. He's always good for a couple sound bites. We thought about getting a Barney Frank translator in here but that would sorta destroy it. I mean, I can do it myself but sometimes it's better to leave Barney Frank un-translated. He was on Tavis Smiley's show, PBS, last night, and Smiley said, "What did you do today relative to low-income housing?" FRANK: One of the causes of the terrible crisis we had over the last few years, which has given us today's...

David Keller was found dead in his home Tuesday morning in an apparent suicide. Keller, 41, has served as the acting chief financial officer (CFO) for Freddie Mac since September. Kellerman reportedly hanged himself in the basement of his Reston, Va. home. The Fairfax County Police Department said there are no signs of foul play. Keller took over as CFO when Anthony “Buddy” Piszel resigned in the wake of the government takeover. The news comes on the heals of Freddie Mac CEO David Moffett's resignation last month. The government-controlled Freddie Mac owns or guarantees about...

Law enforcement sources said they found David Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of mortgage company Freddie Mac, hanging in the basement of his Reston, Va., home, dead from an apparent suicide early this morning. Virginia police say they found David Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of mortgage company Freddie Mac, hanging in the basement of his Reston home, dead from an apparent suicide early this morning. (ABC News)The death was "an active investigation" and there were "no signs of foul play," Fairfax County police officer Sabrina Ruck said. Local police said they were called to Kellermann's home at 4:48am. Kellermann,...

The acting head of Freddie Mac, David Kellermann, has apparently committed suicide, Fairfax County Police tell WTOP. Fairfax County Police spokeswoman Mary Anne Jennings says Kellermann, 41, was found at his Hunter Mill Estates home Wednesday morning. Jennings says police responded to the home after family members called police around 5 a.m. "We were called from inside the house to come investigate an apparent suicide," Jennings says. Because of legal ramifications, Jennings says she can't describe the nature of the suicide. "We're not to give you details of the condition of the body, except to say it was an apparent...

$400 bn more losses at US banks: JP Morgan 21 Apr 2009, 0010 hrs IST, REUTERS NEW YORK: JP Morgan Securities said it estimates US banks to incur $400 billion more in losses from the credit crisis and expects there will be need for more capital for certain institutions. "We expect that total losses could reach $1.3 trillion. Banks so far have taken writedowns and losses of $920 billion, so they are roughly 70 percent through with total losses," the brokerage wrote in a note to clients. The bulk of the bank losses will come from loan books and less...

Monday afternoon, Goldman Sachs reported much larger than expected first quarter profits, and this comes on the heels of Wells Fargo’s strong earnings reported last week. No one should be surprised. The Federal Reserve has provided the banks with lots of cheap funds through its various emergency lending facilities and quantitative easing. The Federal Reserve has permitted the banks and financial houses to park vast sums of unmarketable paper on its books—securities made nearly worthless by the misjudgment and avarice of bankers. In return, the Fed has provided these scions of finance with fresh funds, cheaply, that they may lend...