Who will give us money?

I was reading through The Daily Capitalist blog tonight, and I read a post entitled “The Chinese Aren’t As Dumb As the Fed Thought” that reminded me of a news blurb I saw today.  It seems that there was much less interest in today’s Treasury auction of 5 year notes than was expected.

According to MarketWatch, The Treasury Department sold $34 billion in five-year notes to yield 1.849%, higher than traders had expected before the results were announced.

Bidders offered $2.02 for every dollar sold, compared to an average of $2.17 at the last four auctions.

Indirect bidders, a closely watched metric because it includes buying by foreign central banks, bought 30% of the monthly auction, the lowest since December.

I could have sworn that I saw that they were auctioning off $40 billion today, but I must have been wrong because I can’t find it anywhere.  The Treasury press release dated March 19th also says $34 billion.

Anyway, it appears that there’s just not as much interest in loaning the US money as there was a few months ago.  This can be taken in one of two ways:

1. The economy is recovering and people think they’ll get better returns in the stock market.
2. The US dollar is toast and everyone knows it, so fewer people want to invest in US government debt.

I don’t think #1 is the reason.  #2 is much more likely because the Federal Reserve is now directly printing money (buying treasuries with funny money) and what’s the use of buying US debt if it’s soon going to be worth less?  Or worthless?

As I’ve mentioned before, the Chinese aren’t stupid (that’s what The Daily Capitalist post above reminded me of) and they appear to be loaning us less money as well.

Speaking of The Daily Capitalist, the post I linked to above makes some good points regarding the Chinese hinting at a new reserve currency:

I see this as a crack in the dyke so to speak. When a power like China says these things, it’s serious. Things aren’t going to change overnight because of the complications of international trade and the role of currencies. But I see a trend. Last week’s announcement by the Treasury and the Fed that they were going to print a trillion dollars helped the discussion along. The whole world knows that eventually we’ll see inflation and the further devaluation of the dollar.

The consequences to us as a result of being replaced as the world’s reserve currency will be a further depreciated dollar. It will also make our taxes go up to pay the increased interest costs on our national debt as the Treasury finds it needs to make the rates on Treasuries more attractive to foreign investors.

What could replace the dollar? The Chinese and others suggest the IMF issue bonds backed by a basket of currencies—special drawing rights (SDRs). This would in essence, try to replace the dollar as a reserve currency and sort of create a supranational central bank. This is the worst thing that could happen to us. We’d have a group of Keynesian econometricians who are worse than our Keynesian econometricians controlling the world’s currencies and international trade. Trust me when I say we would get the short end of that stick.

What about gold? It worked pretty well for the last 6,000 years of human history. It is valued by everyone, it is seen as a monetary metal, it would create a stable medium of exchange, there is plenty to go around, and it takes away the power of the central banks to inflate. I believe, as do most free market economists, that it would serve us well. We’ve heard all the arguments against it and have some pretty good answers. This is not the time for me to expound on gold; I will do that at another time.

Another government engaged in the “quantitative easing” strategy is Britain.  Quantitative easing is the euphemism Keynesian economists like to use instead of “cranking up the printing presses” or “printing money” or “making funny money” or “lets send the whole country to hell in a hand basket – fast!”  I guess they think people won’t understand what they really mean, so they can get away with it.

According to MarketWatch, the British had a failed auction today.  A failed auction is where there aren’t enough buyers for the amount of debt you’re selling.  In the British case, they were trying to borrow a measly 1.75 billion pounds (about $2.6 billion) and they only received 1.63 billion pounds ($2.3 billion) of bids.

The failure significantly limits the scope for further stimulus borrowing, said Nick Stamenkovic, an economist at RIA Capital in Edinburgh. “It’s a warning shot about the fiscal position … It would suggest that the government’s scope for further fiscal easing is extremely limited,” Stamenkovic said. (Fiscal easing is just Stamenkovic’s euphemism for printing money out of thin air and expecting it to actually be worth something.)

Printing money comes eventually dooms every government that’s ever tried it.  History is full of examples like Rome, France, Germany, Argentina, and Zimbabwe.  I wish it were not that way, but we seem to be racing towards that same end as fast as possible.

But a review of expansive monetary practices and the effect on the governments who tried it will have to wait for a later date.  I also need to write about how the Keynesian policies have never worked (that I’ve found), and about how the debt of 1929 compares to day – and the results of a debt bubble.  And about 5000 other things….

gk

Capitalist Blog Revolution (IV) : Another nail in the coffin

As usual, good news are scarce in todays economic climate – most of us can only sit and wait for what government policies will bring.  The only good news I have run across lately is that ECB, lead by Claude Trichet, is not planning any quantitative easing. He also defends the fact that Europe has not spent more than half what the US has in “stimulus”. One could wish he would say : “we do not engage in destructive policies”, but at least it’s better than Obamanomics. The general media attitude towards the US stimulus package is starting to turn around, probably because someone finally took the time to calculate how much money the US deficit actually is. For those of you wondering what a trillion actually is, I will repost this link.

As for the bad news, its hard to know where to even begin. The US Federal Reserve will engage in quantative easing to the tune of another trillion. It seems that everytime I manage to tell myself that there is a 1/trillion change that things won’t go straight to hell, someone comes up with something new to worsen the prognosis. And you know what the worst part is? We could be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel already (and it wouldn’t be a train). Anyways, here is a round of posts I liked in particular from the last two weeks :

The Last Capitalist:Another dailyish Ayn Rand quote
Silverwolf: Respect for Iran?
Effor : A deficit dummy
DailyCapitalist : Professor Krugman and Professor Keynes
SaveCapitalism: The Chinese Bear Trap

And as always, the neverending stream of knowledge from The Mises Institute comes heavily recommended – they actually offer complete books for download – and lots of them! For those of you who haven’t checked out the blogroll yet – I strongly recommend EconomicPolicyJournal because a lot of interesting stuff seems to be leaking out of there constantly.

Bernanke's Interview

Like many of you, I just watched Helicopter Ben’s interview in 60 Minutes.  Here’s a quote from the transcript on 60Minutes.com that struck me:

Asked if it’s tax money the Fed is spending, Bernanke said, “It’s not tax money. The banks have accounts with the Fed, much the same way that you have an account in a commercial bank. So, to lend to a bank, we simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account that they have with the Fed. It’s much more akin to printing money than it is to borrowing.”

Hey Ben, why not simply “mark up” the size of every one’s accounts?  What’s that you say?  You can’t do that because it would cause the value of the dollar to drop immediately?  And by creating (printing) money just for the banks, you slow down that process? But guess what – you’re simply delaying the inevitable.

The interview continues…

“You’ve been printing money?” Pelley asked.

“Well, effectively,” Bernanke said. “And we need to do that, because our economy is very weak and inflation is very low. When the economy begins to recover, that will be the time that we need to unwind those programs, raise interest rates, reduce the money supply, and make sure that we have a recovery that does not involve inflation.”

They’ve been printing money (as I’ve said all along) and they plan to stop printing when the economy recovers.  Anyone want to bet on that?  Have anyone – ever – seen a government bureaucracy do something right?

Yeah, that’s a rhetorical question.  I may have more to say about the interview later, but this part really struck me because it’s so stupid.

Just let the bad banks go broke.  The few good ones left will buy up the good assets cheap, and the bad investments (and those who made them) will be gone.  Problem solved.

gk

Is Bernanke playing dumb?

It’s hard to believe that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben “Helicopter” Bernanke is actually as dumb as his statements make him sound.  In his testimony to the Senate today, he said that if the government purchases common shares in banks, that it “may or may not” have an impact on shareholders.

Has he never heard of supply and demand?  Whenever the supply of something is increased, each individual part of the “something” is worth less.  This holds true for everything from apples to zebras – and I’ve never seen an exception to that rule.  But Ben doesn’t seem to understand that simple concept.

According to MarketWatch.com, Bernanke spoke in response to questions raised by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who expressed concern about how conversion of government capital infusions into common shares could have a negative impact on existing common shareholders of financial institutions. However, Bernanke argued that once converted, the government common stakes “may or may not” dilute common shareholders depending on expectations of the equity shareholders, Bernanke said.

Based on the proposal, preferred shares aren’t converted to common shares until losses that were forecast by the stress test actually occur, Bernanke said. “Only at that time would the ownership implications become relevant,” Bernanke said.

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa., argued in a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that a new approach that involves the government receiving preferred shares that convert into common shares is risky.

“Common stock is riskier than preferred shares,” said Grassley in the letter. “The American taxpayers are already shouldering a lot of risk these days. This move could expose taxpayers to even more risk.”

At least Corker and Grassley are now saying the right things.  Hopefully they’ll keep their recently grown backbones and continue to hold these appointed officials accountable.  They didn’t have the backbone to stand up and say this when Bush was president, and I don’t care if political differences cause them to do the right thing or if they figure it out on their own.  Doing the right thing is what matters in the end.

Bernanke simply can’t be that dumb, but he sure plays the role of a dumbass well.

gk

Bye-bye to buy and hold

As if the past few years haven’t been proof enough, the recent plunge in stock prices may finally shut up the chorus of buy and hold investing proponents.  I’ve been saying it for a long time, but maybe hitting people in the pocketbook is the only way to make them understand.

Buy and hold is dead.  It has been dead since the tech bubble popped in 2000, but people just didn’t realize it because Alan Greenspan created the real estate bubble to replace it.

When the S&P 500 index peaked at 1527 in March of 2000, it took until May of 2007 to see those levels again.  7 years of “experts” preaching “buy and hold”, “stay in stocks for the long term”, “you need to be fully invested in stocks if you’re a long term investor”, etc, etc, etc.

The amazing part is that people listened to the “experts” – and followed their advice for 7 years of negative returns on their money.  I’ll put it another way.  If you put $1000 into the stock market in 2000, you didn’t break even until 2007.  0% return.

If you put $1000 into the stock market before or after 2000, you might have had some return on your money depending on when you invested, but you didn’t have much.

With the market close today, you’ve lost money if you bought into the stock market at anytime since April of 1997.  I’m no math wizard, but I know this is February, 2009, and April 1997 was 12 years ago.  That’s a long time to wait just to break even.

Since the late 80’s, I’ve followed a simple strategy that the “experts” kept saying was a losing strategy – I buy when the 75 day EMA crosses above to 200 day EMA, and I sell when the 75 day EMA goes under to 200 day EMA.

It’s an extremely simple strategy for long term investments like 401k’s and other IRA’s.  You don’t move in and out of the market very often, but you’re in the market when stocks are rising, and you’re out when they’re falling.

As a result of following this strategy, I got out of stocks in January of 2008 when the S&P 500 was still over 1300.  I didn’t get faked out by the false bottoms during 2008, and I’m still in cash and bonds.  My money is just setting there, waiting until the 75 day EMA turns back up and crosses over the 200 day EMA.

This strategy will beat the snot out of buy and hold, and it’s extremely easy to follow.  You can check out a chart of it here on Yahoo Finance.

Maybe the “experts” will finally shut up – or better yet – maybe people will learn to make their own decisions about investments.  When you do, don’t be surprised if you start realizing that the “experts” also don’t understand capitalism and free markets.  Read other posts in this blog if you’re curious about those subjects.

gk

The meltdown wasn't what you think

Good story on Marketwatch.com talking about the cause of the financial meltdown and credit crunch.

Everyone knows the crash of 2008 was caused by financial deregulation except Thomas E. Woods, who blames financial regulation, in the shape of the Federal Reserve.

Wood’s new book, “Meltdown: A Free Market Look At Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse” (Regnery), has just made it to the New York Times best-seller list without the benefit of any major reviews.

Woods is with the Ludwig von Mises Institute.  There’s a link to them in my blogroll on the right side of the page.  Highly recommended.

gk

Secretary Geithner Introduces Financial Stability Plan

Geithner introduced the new FSP today.  He says it stands for “Financial Stability Plan”.  I think it’s more like “Fucking Stupid Politicians”, because that’s much more accurate.

All of the quotes below are straight from the U.S. Treasury press release, available from their website here.

After the obligatory suck up to the boss, and look how bad the previous guys sucked statements, Geithner says The causes of the crisis are many and complex. They accumulated over time, and will take time to resolve.

Duh….

But he goes on to say something that actually makes sense, something that I’ve been ranting about since these problems surfaced almost 2 years ago.  Governments and central banks around the world pursued policies that, with the benefit of hindsight, caused a huge global boom in credit, pushing up housing prices and financial markets to levels that defied gravity.

I put that in bold, because everyone needs to see it and not gloss over the role of government in causing these problems.  Government caused the mess – why do we think they can fix it?

Geithner’s next line is:  Investors and banks took risks they did not understand. Individuals, businesses, and governments borrowed beyond their means.

Another “duh” moment.  Warren Buffett (among others) has been saying this since at least 2003 – why does Geithner think it’s worth repeating?  Why do people think this guy has the answers?  Do not forget, as President of the Federal Reserve bank of New York, Geithner played a major role in setting the exact same easy credit policies that he criticized in the preceding paragraph! And now he’s pursuing the same policy even more aggressively than ever before!

He’s evidently an idiot.  Who doesn’t know how to pay his taxes.  And he thinks we are so dumb that we already forgot the sentence he just uttered about easy credit.  (We’re at war with Eurasia.  We’ve always been at war with Eurasia.)

This next quote could’ve come directly from Atlas Shrugged – it sounds like something Mr. Thompson or Wesley Mouch might say.  If you don’t know who these people are, read Atlas Shrugged.  But here’s what Wikipedia says about Mouch “he becomes the most powerful Looter, and the country’s economic dictator, thereby illustrating Rand’s belief that a government-run economy places too much power in the hands of incompetent bureaucrats who would never have positions of similar influence in a private sector business.”

Now read the following statement from Geithner:  We believe that access to public support is a privilege, not a right. When our government provides support to banks, it is not for the benefit of banks, it is for the businesses and families who depend on banks… and for the benefit of the country. Government support must come with strong conditions to protect the tax payer and with transparency that allows the American people to see the impact of those investments.

There’s so much here I don’t know where to start.  So I wont. I’ll leave it as an exercise of the reader to parse that statement to see how many stupid things one man can say in just 3 sentences.  But I’ll give you a start.  Notice he says “access to public support is a privilege” and not simply “public support is a privilege”.

Since this was a prepared statement – even delayed a few days to allow the other bailout bill to pass the Senate – I have to assume that every word in the statement was gone over with a fine-toothed comb.  “Access” was intentionally left in there.

In other words, only those who we deem fit may apply.  The rest of you private sector capitalists can politely go screw yourselves.  That way Geithner avoids having to spell out what criteria will be used when dispensing our money to his buddies.  And that’s just a few words into that paragraph.  Go ahead and compare his statement with anything the Looters say in Atlas Shrugged.

Let me know if you think Geithner is the right man for the job after understanding what he just said in these few sentences.  And since he’s evidently woefully incompetent, what does that say about Obama’s decision to appoint him?

I fear this administration is going downhill in a hurry.  Unfortunately, they’re taking all of us with them.

gk

Bernanke says "So far – so good"

WTF is Bernanke smoking?  Is “Helicopter” Ben Bernanke looking at the papers – or using them for rolling papers?

According to a story on MarketWatch, Bernanke is quoted as saying “We have been encouraged by the responses to these programs” and “I think the actions that were taken prevented a much-worse situation — a meltdown that would have led to a catastrophic and long-term low level of activity“.

Which markets has he been watching?  We’re having a meltdown right now, and I think we’re in about the 3rd inning of a 9 inning game.  The Fed’s interference in private markets – especially propping up bad banks – is making the “catastrophic” situation worse long term.  I think his actions in part created the current problems, so why in hell are we thinking he knows how to fix them?

The current mess is easily traced back to government interference in private markets, starting with a Clinton administration policy of pushing banks to give loans to those who would otherwise not qualify.  It was greatly exacerbated by Alan Greenspan’s cheap money policy instituted after the tech bubble and 9/11.  And it’s gone to hell in a hurry because of the trillions in bailouts under Bush/Obama.

Here’s a listing of how the $9.1 trillion in bailout money (as of last week) has been wasted.

A friend of mine posted this on a Facebook page earlier today, and I’m going to shamelessly steal it to emphasis how much of our money Bernanke (under Bush/Obama) has blown.  I haven’t verified any of these numbers, so let me know if any are wrong and I’ll correct the post:

People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.

Crunching the inflation adjusted numbers, we find the bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:

Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
NASA all time costs: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 Trillion

As of December 2nd (including the Citi numbers) the total bailout spending is…

TOTAL: $4.6165 Trillion dollars

But yet Bernanke says “So far, so good!”

He’s a bigger idiot than his former boss – and that’s tough to beat!

Another quote from the MarketWatch story.  “And we are using whatever means we have to overcome what has been an enormous blow from this financial crisis.”

Evidently “whatever means we have” includes destroying the free market system, converting us entirely into a welfare laden socialist state, and inflating the dollar until it’s worthless.  Intended are not, Bernanke’s actions will have consequences.  And they won’t be good.

gk

We should've elected Ron Paul

Ron Paul knows economics.  He knows how the free market system is supposed to work.  I say “supposed to” because we haven’t had a free market system in the US for almost 100 years.

And yet people say the dumbest things, like “this proves the free market system doesn’t work without regulation” and “we need more regulation of the banks” like they have a clue what they’re talking about.

Yes, this rant has a point.  I’ll get there.

As a country, we have now spent over $3 trillion on bailing out idiots – both individual and corporate – with absolutely nothing to show for it.  Now Obama is saying that any delay in passing his almost $900,000,000,000 bailout plan is “inexcusable and irresponsible“.

Please look at the balloon tags on the right of this web page.  By far the largest (which shows that it’s been used more than any other tag) is “Bush is an idiot”.  I’ve made dozens of posts where I detail why Bush sucked as President.  I wanted to mention that before I get flamed by Obamaniacs saying that I’m a pissed off Republican.

I’m not.  I’m a pissed off US Citizen who can’t believe that this is the path that people of our country want to go down.  I wonder whatever happened to individual responsibility.  I wonder whatever happened to the free market economy.  I wonder if we can ever eliminate the thousands of areas of government interference in our daily lives.  I wonder if we can ever again have a federal government that governs within the rules set forth in the Constitution – no more, no less.

I wonder all this because I happened upon the text of a speech tonight.  It’s a speech that Ron Paul made on the floor of the US House of Representatives on February 3rd, just 3 short days ago.  None of it is new – Dr. Paul has been talking about it for years – but I think it speaks to the problems we are facing today (Feb 6th, 2009) better than any blatant pandering by Obama or the Republicans.

His speech is available online here, but I’m going to quote it in it’s entirety because it’s part of the public record, and I support what he says 100%.   I fear that it’ll be a cold day in hell before anything Ron Paul proposes is adopted into law, but who knows – maybe one day the people of this country will wake up and demand a real solution – not simply rhectoric and irresponsible spending.

Here’s the speech.  Enjoy!

gk

Statement of Congressman Ron Paul

United States House of Representatives

Statement on Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act February 3, 2009

Madame Speaker, I rise to introduce legislation to restore financial stability to America’s economy by abolishing the Federal Reserve. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, middle and working-class Americans have been victimized by a boom-and-bust monetary policy. In addition, most Americans have suffered a steadily eroding purchasing power because of the Federal Reserve’s inflationary policies. This represents a real, if hidden, tax imposed on the American people.

From the Great Depression, to the stagflation of the seventies, to the current economic crisis caused by the housing bubble, every economic downturn suffered by this country over the past century can be traced to Federal Reserve policy. The Fed has followed a consistent policy of flooding the economy with easy money, leading to a misallocation of resources and an artificial “boom” followed by a recession or depression when the Fed-created bubble bursts.

With a stable currency, American exporters will no longer be held hostage to an erratic monetary policy. Stabilizing the currency will also give Americans new incentives to save as they will no longer have to fear inflation eroding their savings. Those members concerned about increasing America’s exports or the low rate of savings should be enthusiastic supporters of this legislation.

Though the Federal Reserve policy harms the average American, it benefits those in a position to take advantage of the cycles in monetary policy. The main beneficiaries are those who receive access to artificially inflated money and/or credit before the inflationary effects of the policy impact the entire economy. Federal Reserve policies also benefit big spending politicians who use the inflated currency created by the Fed to hide the true costs of the welfare-warfare state. It is time for Congress to put the interests of the American people ahead of special interests and their own appetite for big government.

Abolishing the Federal Reserve will allow Congress to reassert its constitutional authority over monetary policy. The United States Constitution grants to Congress the authority to coin money and regulate the value of the currency. The Constitution does not give Congress the authority to delegate control over monetary policy to a central bank. Furthermore, the Constitution certainly does not empower the federal government to erode the American standard of living via an inflationary monetary policy.

In fact, Congress’ constitutional mandate regarding monetary policy should only permit currency backed by stable commodities such as silver and gold to be used as legal tender. Therefore, abolishing the Federal Reserve and returning to a constitutional system will enable America to return to the type of monetary system envisioned by our nation’s founders: one where the value of money is consistent because it is tied to a commodity such as gold. Such a monetary system is the basis of a true freemarket economy.

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand up for working Americans by putting an end to the manipulation of the money supply which erodes Americans’ standard of living, enlarges big government, and enriches well-connected elites, by cosponsoring my legislation to abolish the Federal Reserve.

Updated bailout list

Since I last posted this list, there have been a few updates.  $1.9 trillion in new updates to be exact.  The grand total approved to be spent for the bailout programs is now up to $9.1 trillion, and we’ve actually spent $3.6 trillion – none of which we have, so it’s 100% borrowed or simply printed out of thin air.

This list is from CNN.com, but I think it’s easier to use in this format because you don’t have to expand subsections in order to find how much money your bank has taken from the government.

gk

Date	Bailout Name	Allocated	Spent
12/7/2008	Term Auction Facility	$1.6 trillion	$1.6 trillion
2/8/2008	Economic Stimulus Act of 2008	$168 billion	$168 billion
3/8/2008	Bear Stearns bailout	$29 billion	$29 billion
3/8/2008	Discount window	n/a	$131.9 billion1
5/8/2008	Student loan guarantees	$9 billion	unknown
9/8/2008	Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout	$200 billion	$13.8 billion
9/8/2008	Foreign exchange dollar swaps	Unlimited2	n/a2
10/8/2008	FHA housing rescue	$320 billion	unknown
10/8/2008	Auto industry energy efficiency loans	$25 billion	$0
10/8/2008	Troubled Asset Relief Program	$700 billion	$276.3 billion
11/8/2008	AIG capital investment	$40 billion	$40 billion
	Breakdown of TARP spending
	Financial Institution	City	Amount
10/28/2008	Wells Fargo & Co.	San Francisco	$25,000,000,000
10/28/2008	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	New York	$25,000,000,000
10/28/2008	Citigroup Inc.	New York	$25,000,000,000
10/28/2008	Bank of America Corp.	Charlotte	$15,000,000,000
10/28/2008	Morgan Stanley	New York	$10,000,000,000
10/28/2008	Goldman Sachs Group Inc.	New York	$10,000,000,000
11/17/2008	U.S. Bancorp	Minneapolis	$6,599,000,000
11/17/2008	Capital One Financial Corp.	McLean	$3,555,199,000
11/17/2008	Regions Financial Corp.	Birmingham	$3,500,000,000
11/17/2008	SunTrust Banks Inc.	Atlanta	$3,500,000,000
11/17/2008	BB&T Corp.	Winston-Salem	$3,133,640,000
10/28/2008	Bank of New York Mellon Corp.	New York	$3,000,000,000
11/17/2008	KeyCorp	Cleveland	$2,500,000,000
11/17/2008	Comerica Inc.	Dallas	$2,250,000,000
10/28/2008	State Street Corp.	Boston	$2,000,000,000
11/17/2008	Marshall & Ilsley Corp.	Milwaukee	$1,715,000,000
11/17/2008	Northern Trust Corp.	Chicago	$1,576,000,000
11/17/2008	Zions Bancorporation	Salt Lake City	$1,400,000,000
11/17/2008	Huntington Bancshares	Columbus	$1,398,071,000
11/17/2008	First Horizon National Corp.	Memphis	$866,540,000
11/17/2008	TCF Financial Corp.	Wayzata	$361,172,000
11/17/2008	Valley National Bancorp	Wayne	$300,000,000
11/17/2008	UCBH Holdings Inc.	San Francisco	$298,737,000
11/17/2008	Umpqua Holdings Corp.	Portland	$214,181,000
11/17/2008	Washington Federal Inc.	Seattle	$200,000,000
11/17/2008	Provident Bancshares Corp.	Baltimore	$151,500,000
11/17/2008	Bank of Commerce Holdings	Redding	$17,000,000
11/17/2008	1st FS Corp.	Hendersonville	$16,369,000
11/17/2008	Broadway Financial Corp.	Los Angeles	$9,000,000
11/21/2008	First Niagara Financial Group	Lockport	$184,011,000
11/21/2008	HF Financial Corp.	Sioux Falls	$25,000,000
11/21/2008	Centerstate Banks of Florida Inc.	Davenport	$27,875,000
11/21/2008	City National Corporation	Beverly Hills	$400,000,000
11/21/2008	First Community Bankshares Inc.	Bluefield	$41,500,000
11/21/2008	Western Alliance Bancorporation	Las Vegas	$140,000,000
11/21/2008	Webster Financial Corporation	Waterbury	$400,000,000
11/21/2008	Pacific Capital Bancorp	Santa Barbara	$180,634,000
11/21/2008	Heritage Commerce Corp.	San Jose	$40,000,000
11/21/2008	Ameris Bancorp	Moultrie	$52,000,000
11/21/2008	Porter Bancorp Inc.	Louisville	$35,000,000
11/21/2008	Banner Corporation	Walla Walla	$124,000,000
11/21/2008	Cascade Financial Corporation	Everett	$38,970,000
11/21/2008	Columbia Banking System, Inc.	Tacoma	$76,898,000
11/21/2008	Heritage Financial Corporation	Olympia	$24,000,000
11/21/2008	First PacTrust Bancorp, Inc.	Chula Vista	$19,300,000
11/21/2008	Severn Bancorp, Inc.	Annapolis	$23,393,000
11/21/2008	Boston Private Financial Holdings, Inc.	Boston	$154,000,000
11/21/2008	Associated Banc-Corp	Green Bay	$525,000,000
11/21/2008	Trustmark Corporation	Jackson	$215,000,000
11/21/2008	First Community Corporation	Lexington	$11,350,000
11/21/2008	Taylor Capital Group	Rosemont	$104,823,000
11/21/2008	Nara Bancorp, Inc.	Los Angeles	$67,000,000
12/5/2008	MB Financial Inc.	Chicago	$196,000,000
12/5/2008	First Midwest Bancorp, Inc.	Itasca	$193,000,000
12/5/2008	United Community Banks, Inc.	Blairsville	$180,000,000
12/5/2008	Wesbanco Bank Inc.	Wheeling	$75,000,000
12/5/2008	Encore Bancshares Inc.	Houston	$34,000,000
12/5/2008	Manhattan Bancorp	El Segundo	$1,700,000
12/5/2008	Iberiabank Corporation	Lafayette	$90,000,000
12/5/2008	Eagle Bancorp, Inc.	Bethesda	$38,235,000
12/5/2008	Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc.	Olney	$83,094,000
12/5/2008	Coastal Banking Company, Inc.	Fernandina Beach	$9,950,000
12/5/2008	East West Bancorp	Pasadena	$306,546,000
12/5/2008	South Financial Group, Inc.	Greenville	$347,000,000
12/5/2008	Great Southern Bancorp	Springfield	$58,000,000
12/5/2008	Cathay General Bancorp	Los Angeles	$258,000,000
12/5/2008	Southern Community Financial Corp.	Winston-Salem	$42,750,000
12/5/2008	CVB Financial Corp	Ontario	$130,000,000
12/5/2008	First Defiance Financial Corp.	Defiance	$37,000,000
12/5/2008	First Financial Holdings Inc.	Charleston	$65,000,000
12/5/2008	Superior Bancorp Inc.	Birmingham	$69,000,000
12/5/2008	Southwest Bancorp, Inc.	Stillwater	$70,000,000
12/5/2008	Popular, Inc.	San Juan	$935,000,000
12/5/2008	Blue Valley Ban Corp	Overland Park	$21,750,000
12/5/2008	Central Federal Corporation	Fairlawn	$7,225,000
12/5/2008	Bank of Marin Bancorp	Novato	$28,000,000
12/5/2008	Bank of North Carolina	Thomasville	$31,260,000
12/5/2008	Central Bancorp, Inc.	Somerville	$10,000,000
12/5/2008	Southern Missouri Bancorp, Inc.	Poplar Bluff	$9,550,000
12/5/2008	State Bancorp, Inc.	Jericho	$36,842,000
12/5/2008	TIB Financial Corp	Naples	$37,000,000
12/5/2008	Unity Bancorp, Inc.	Clinton	$20,649,000
12/5/2008	Old Line Bancshares, Inc.	Bowie	$7,000,000
12/5/2008	FPB Bancorp, Inc.	Port St. Lucie	$5,800,000
12/5/2008	Sterling Financial Corporation	Spokane	$303,000,000
12/5/2008	Oak Valley Bancorp	Oakdale	$13,500,000
12/5/2008	Old National Bancorp	Evansville	$100,000,000
12/12/2008	Capital Bank Corp.	Raliegh	$41,279,000
12/12/2008	Pacific International Bancorp	Seattle	$6,500,000
12/12/2008	SVB Financial Group	Santa Clara	$235,000,000
12/12/2008	LNB Bancorp Inc.	Lorain	$25,223,000
12/12/2008	Wilmington Trust Corp.	Wilmington	$330,000,000
12/12/2008	Susquehanna Bancshares Inc.	Lititz	$300,000,000
12/12/2008	Signature Bank	New York	$120,000,000
12/12/2008	HopFed Bancorp	Hopkinsville	$18,400,000
12/12/2008	Citizens Republic Bancorp Inc.	Flint	$300,000,000
12/12/2008	Indiana Community Bancorp	Columbus	$21,500,000
12/12/2008	Bank Of the Ozarks Inc.	Little Rock	$75,000,000
12/12/2008	Center Financial Corp.	Los Angeles	$55,000,000
12/12/2008	NewBridge Bancorp	Greensboro	$52,372,000
12/12/2008	Sterling Bancshares Inc.	Houston	$125,198,000
12/12/2008	The Bancorp Inc.	Wilmington	$45,220,000
12/12/2008	TowneBank	Portsmouth	$76,458,000
12/12/2008	Wilshire Bancorp Inc.	Los Angeles	$62,158,000
12/12/2008	Valley Financial Corp.	Roanoke	$16,019,000
12/12/2008	Independent Bank Corp.	Ionia	$72,000,000
12/12/2008	Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc.	Nashville	$95,000,000
12/12/2008	First Litchfield Financial Corp.	Litchfield	$10,000,000
12/12/2008	National Penn Bancshares Inc.	Boyertown	$150,000,000
12/12/2008	Northeast Bancorp	Lewiston	$4,227,000
12/12/2008	Citizens South Banking Corp.	Gastonia	$20,500,000
12/12/2008	Virginia Commerce Bancorp	Arlington	$71,000,000
12/12/2008	Fidelity Bancorp Inc.	Pittsburgh	$7,000,000
12/12/2008	LSB Corp.	Andover	$15,000,000
12/19/2008	Intermountain Community Bancorp	Sandpoint	$27,000,000
12/19/2008	Community West Bancshares	Goleta	$15,600,000
12/19/2008	Synovus Financial Corp.	Columbus	$967,870,000
12/19/2008	Tennessee Commerce Bancorp, Inc.	Franklin	$30,000,000
12/19/2008	Community Bankers Trust Corporation	Glen Allen	$17,680,000
12/19/2008	BancTrust Financial Group, Inc.	Mobile	$50,000,000
12/19/2008	Enterprise Financial Services Corp.	St. Louis	$35,000,000
12/19/2008	Mid Penn Bancorp, Inc.	Millersburg	$10,000,000
12/19/2008	Summit State Bank	Santa Rosa	$8,500,000
12/19/2008	VIST Financial Corp.	Wyomissing	$25,000,000
12/19/2008	Wainwright Bank & Trust Company	Boston	$22,000,000
12/19/2008	Whitney Holding Corporation	New Orleans	$300,000,000
12/19/2008	The Connecticut Bank and Trust Company	Hartford	$5,448,000
12/19/2008	CoBiz Financial Inc.	Denver	$64,450,000
12/19/2008	Santa Lucia Bancorp	Atascadero	$4,000,000
12/19/2008	Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida	Stuart	$50,000,000
12/19/2008	Horizon Bancorp	Michigan City	$25,000,000
12/19/2008	Fidelity Southern Corporation	Atlanta	$48,200,000
12/19/2008	Community Financial Corporation	Staunton	$12,643,000
12/19/2008	Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc.	Pittsfield	$40,000,000
12/19/2008	First California Financial Group, Inc	Westlake Village	$25,000,000
12/19/2008	AmeriServ Financial, Inc	Johnstown	$21,000,000
12/19/2008	Security Federal Corporation	Aiken	$18,000,000
12/19/2008	Wintrust Financial Corporation	Lake Forest	$250,000,000
12/19/2008	Flushing Financial Corporation	Lake Success	$70,000,000
12/19/2008	Monarch Financial Holdings, Inc.	Chesapeake	$14,700,000
12/19/2008	StellarOne Corporation	Charlottesville	$30,000,000
12/19/2008	Union Bankshares Corporation	Bowling Green	$59,000,000
12/19/2008	Tidelands Bancshares, Inc	Mt. Pleasant	$14,448,000
12/19/2008	Bancorp Rhode Island, Inc.	Providence	$30,000,000
12/19/2008	Hawthorn Bancshares, Inc.	Lee’s Summit	$30,255,000
12/19/2008	The Elmira Savings Bank, FSB	Elmira	$9,090,000
12/19/2008	Alliance Financial Corporation	Syracuse	$26,918,000
12/19/2008	Heartland Financial USA, Inc.	Dubuque	$81,698,000
12/19/2008	Citizens First Corporation	Bowling Green	$8,779,000
12/19/2008	FFW Corporation	Wabash	$7,289,000
12/19/2008	Plains Capital Corporation	Dallas	$87,631,000
12/19/2008	Tri-County Financial Corporation	Waldorf	$15,540,000
12/19/2008	OneUnited Bank	Boston	$12,063,000
12/19/2008	Patriot Bancshares, Inc.	Houston	$26,038,000
12/19/2008	Pacific City Finacial Corporation	Los Angeles	$16,200,000
12/19/2008	Marquette National Corporation	Chicago	$35,500,000
12/19/2008	Exchange Bank	Santa Rosa	$43,000,000
12/19/2008	Monadnock Bancorp, Inc.	Peterborough	$1,834,000
12/19/2008	Bridgeview Bancorp, Inc.	Bridgeview	$38,000,000
12/19/2008	Fidelity Financial Corporation	Wichita	$36,282,000
12/19/2008	Patapsco Bancorp, Inc.	Dundalk	$6,000,000
12/19/2008	NCAL Bancorp	Los Angeles	$10,000,000
12/19/2008	FCB Bancorp, Inc.	Louisville	$9,294,000
12/31/2008	SunTrust Banks, Inc.	Atlanta	$1,350,000,000
12/31/2008	The PNC Financial Services Group Inc.	Pittsburgh	$7,579,200,000
12/31/2008	Fifth Third Bancorp	Cincinnati	$3,408,000,000
12/31/2008	Hampton Roads Bankshares, Inc.	Norfolk	$80,347,000
12/31/2008	CIT Group Inc.	New York	$2,330,000,000
12/31/2008	West Bancorporation, Inc.	West Des Moines	$36,000,000
12/31/2008	First Banks, Inc.	Clayton	$295,400,000
1/9/2009	Bank of America Corp.1	Charlotte	$10,000,000,000
1/9/2009	FirstMerit Corporation	Akron	$125,000,000
1/9/2009	Farmers Capital Bank Corporation	Frankfort	$30,000,000
1/9/2009	Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation	Gladstone	$28,685,000
1/9/2009	Commerce National Bank	Newport Beach	$5,000,000
1/9/2009	The First Bancorp, Inc.	Damariscotta	$25,000,000
1/9/2009	Sun Bancorp, Inc.	Vineland	$89,310,000
1/9/2009	Crescent Financial Corporation	Cary	$24,900,000
1/9/2009	American Express Company	New York	$3,388,890,000
1/9/2009	Central Pacific Financial Corp.	Honolulu	$135,000,000
1/9/2009	Centrue Financial Corporation	St. Louis	$32,668,000
1/9/2009	Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc.	Tappahannock	$24,000,000
1/9/2009	Colony Bankcorp, Inc.	Fitzgerald	$28,000,000
1/9/2009	Independent Bank Corp.	Rockland	$78,158,000
1/9/2009	Cadence Financial Corporation	Starkville	$44,000,000
1/9/2009	LCNB Corp.	Lebanon	$13,400,000
1/9/2009	Center Bancorp, Inc.	Union	$10,000,000
1/9/2009	F.N.B. Corporation	Hermitage	$100,000,000
1/9/2009	C&F Financial Corporation	West Point	$20,000,000
1/9/2009	North Central Bancshares, Inc.	Fort Dodge	$10,200,000
1/9/2009	Carolina Bank Holdings, Inc.	Greensboro	$16,000,000
1/9/2009	First Bancorp	Troy	$65,000,000
1/9/2009	First Financial Service Corporation	Elizabethtown	$20,000,000
1/9/2009	Codorus Valley Bancorp, Inc.	York	$16,500,000
1/9/2009	MidSouth Bancorp, Inc.	Lafayette	$20,000,000
1/9/2009	First Security Group, Inc.	Chattanooga	$33,000,000
1/9/2009	Shore Bancshares, Inc.	Easton	$25,000,000
1/9/2009	The Queensborough Company	Louisville	$12,000,000
1/9/2009	American State Bancshares, Inc.	Great Bend	$6,000,000
1/9/2009	Security California Bancorp	Riverside	$6,815,000
1/9/2009	Security Business Bancorp	San Diego	$5,803,000
1/9/2009	Sound Banking Company	Morehead City	$3,070,000
1/9/2009	Mission Community Bancorp	San Luis Obispo	$5,116,000
1/9/2009	Redwood Financial Inc.	Redwood Falls	$2,995,000
1/9/2009	Surrey Bancorp	Mount Airy	$2,000,000
1/9/2009	Independence Bank	East Greenwich	$1,065,000
1/9/2009	Valley Community Bank	Pleasanton	$5,500,000
1/9/2009	Rising Sun Bancorp	Rising Sun	$5,983,000
1/9/2009	Community Trust Financial Corporation	Ruston	$24,000,000
1/9/2009	GrandSouth Bancorporation	Greenville	$9,000,000
1/9/2009	Texas National Bancorporation	Jacksonville	$3,981,000
1/9/2009	Congaree Bancshares, Inc.	Cayce	$3,285,000
1/9/2009	New York Private Bank & Trust Corporation	New York	$267,274,000
1/16/2009	Bank of America Capital investment		$20 billion
1/16/2009	Bank of America loan-loss backstop		$118 billion
1/16/2009	Credit Union deposit insurance guarantees		$80 billion
1/16/2009	U.S. Central Federal Credit Union capital injection		$1 billion
	Auto Industry Bailout
Date	Recipient	Amount Allocated	Amount Spent
12/8/2008	General Motors	$13.4 billion	$4 billion
12/8/2008	Chrysler	$4 billion	$4 billion
12/8/2008	GMAC	$6 billion	$6 billion
11/8/2008	Citigroup capital investment	$20 billion	$20 billion
11/8/2008	Citigroup loan loss backstop	$5 billion	$0
11/8/2008	TALF loss provisions	$20 billion	$0
10/8/2008	Money market guarantees	$659 billion	unknown
10/8/2008	Commercial Paper Funding Facility	$1.4 trillion	$331.7 billion
11/8/2008	Unemployment benefit extensions	$8 billion	$8 billion
	AIG Bailout
11/8/2008	Treasury capital investment	$40 billion	$40 billion
11/8/2008	Bridge loan	$60 billion	$39.5 billion
11/8/2008	Collateralized debt obligation purchases	$30 billion	$28.2 billion
11/8/2008	Mortgage-backed securities purchases	$22.5 billion	$20 billion
11/8/2008	Commercial paper purchases4	$20.9 billion4	unknown4
11/8/2008	Citigroup loan-loss backstop	$300 billion	$0
11/8/2008	Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility	$200 billion	$0
11/8/2008	GSE mortgage-backed securities purchases	$500 billion	$0
11/8/2008	GSE debt purchases	$100 billion	$0
11/8/2008	FDIC Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program	Unlimited	unknown
	FDIC bank takeovers – 2008
Date	Name of bank	City	FDIC fund cost
1/25/2008	Douglass National Bank	Kansas City	$5.6 million
3/7/2008	Hume Bank	Hume	$0
5/9/2008	ANB Financial	Bentonvile	$214 million
5/30/2008	First Integrity Bank	Staples	$2.3 million
7/11/2008	IndyMac Bank	Pasadena	$8.9 billion1.0
7/25/2008	First National Bank of Nevada	Reno	$862 million1.1
7/25/2008	First Heritage Bank	Newport Beach	$862 million1.1
8/1/2008	First Priority Bank	Bradenton	$72 million
8/22/2008	The Columbian Bank and Trust Company	Topeka	$60 million
8/29/2008	Integrity Bank	Alpharetta	$350 million
9/5/2008	Silver State Bank	Henderson	$550 million
9/19/2008	Ameribank	Northfork	$42 million
9/25/2008	Washington Mutual Bank	Henderson	$0
10/10/2008	Main Street Bank	Northville	$39 million
10/10/2008	Meridian Bank	Eldred	$14.5 million
10/24/2008	Alpha Bank & Trust	Alpharetta	$158.1 million
10/31/2008	Freedom Bank	Bradenton	$104 million
11/7/2008	Franklin Bank	Houston	$1.6 billion
11/7/2008	Security Pacific Bank	Los Angeles	$210 million
11/21/2008	The Community Bank	Loganville	$240 million
11/21/2008	Downey Savings and Loan Association	Newport Beach	$1.4 billion
11/21/2008	PFF Bank and Trust	Pomona	$700 million
12/5/2008	First Georgia Community Bank	Jackson	$72.2 million
12/12/2008	Haven Trust Bank	Guluth	$200 million
12/12/2008	Sanderson State Bank	Sanderson	$12.5 million
	FDIC Bank takeovers – 2009
1/16/2009	National Bank of Commerce	Berkeley	$97.1 million
1/16/2009	Bank of Clark County	Vancouver	$145 million
1/23/2009	1st Centennial Bank	Redlands	$227 million
1/30/2009	MagnetBank	Salt Lake City	$119.4 million
1/30/2009	Suburban Federal Savings Bank	Crofton	$126 million
1/30/2009	Ocala National Bank	Ocala	$99.6 million

Quite a list huh?  I’ll post updates here every month or so to document this ridiculous spending to prop up bad companies.  Comments are welcomed.