Free Republic

More regulatory action may be needed to safeguard the money-market mutual-fund industry, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in remarks prepared for a speech on Monday night, putting his weight behind other officials who want to toughen oversight of the $2.7 trillion industry. In an address largely focused on scrutinizing murky corners of the financial system, the shadow banking system, Bernanke emphasized the need to establish regulations that protect the system as a whole from the risks that threatened it during the financial crisis. The money-market mutual-fund industry remains prone to destabilizing panics even with new regulations already in place,...

Some people organized an attempted run on the Banks to occur on 12/7/2010 starting in Europe. Appears to have failed for now. Emergency Preparedness What to do in the first 24 hours of Catastrophe (economic if we don’t take drastic action) Many of these actions are unnecessary if you have prepared ahead of time. 1. Hour 1: Run, don’t walk, to the store and buy everything of value, consumables first, then lastly durable goods. If by the time you arrive the crowds are huge or starting to become violent consider the risk/benefit try to find a smaller store or smaller...

In the summer of 2008, two months before Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, Richard S. Fuld Jr., the firm's chairman, was continuing his desperate efforts to find a lifeline. They had begun in March, shortly after the demise of Bear Stearns, when Mr. Fuld called the legendary investor Warren E. Buffett seeking a capital infusion, to no avail. Lehman had raised money elsewhere, but that didn't help for long, and its condition again was worsening.Adapted from "Too Big to Fail: How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System — And Themselves." The book, being published Tuesday by...

In 72 nail-biting hours, an investment bank turned from healthy to nearly insolvent Bear Stearns Cos., the 85-year-old Wall Street firm known for its tough trading culture, was rescued from impending bankruptcy by a deal with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. on March 16, 2008 -- making Bear the first major casualty of the financial crisis. The firm spiraled from being healthy to practically insolvent in about 72 hours. The meltdown began in earnest the evening of Thursday, March 13, 2008, when Bear executives made a shocking discovery: They were nearly out of cash. Faced with a slew of withdrawals...

Gulf Bank KSC, Kuwait’s second-biggest bank, reported that clients defaulted on currency contracts and the central bank was forced to guarantee deposits. In the first signs of a bank run some Gulf Bank customers demanded money in a panic. Trading in Gulf Bank shares was suspended for a second day on the Kuwait bourse. Kuwait’s central bank will guarantee deposits at Gulf Bank, which remains solvent after client defaulted on currency derivatives contracts, the state-run Kuwait News Agency cited Kuwait Finance Minister Mustafa al-Shimali as saying yesterday. A guarantee of bank deposits in Kuwait will make it the second country...

Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 17 September 2005 1716 hrs Macau urges caution as US allegations spark run on North Korea-linked bank HONG KONG : Macau's political chief has moved to staunch a run on a bank accused by the United States of aiding illicit North Korean financial activity, fearing the scandal could wreck the city's banking sector. Chief Executive Edmund Ho urged caution amid a flurry of large withdrawals from Banco Delta Asia following allegations the lender had laundered money and helped North Korean customers distribute counterfeit US currency. "There is nothing to substantiate the rumours," Ho...