Articles

In order to understand the AIG debacle or any other possible seizure or bailout of an insurance company, it is important to understand the inner-workings of the insurance industry.

According to an unscientific poll done by NetBanker, 13% of users said they would be interested in doing their banking from within Facebook. Would you?

Somehow, the NY City real estate market has barely dipped during the housing bust. It's down 7% versus a national drop of 16%. Even as Wall Street faces turmoil, prices have remained resilient. Housing prices in NYC are not the least affordable in the country. Will NY eventually correct during a second leg of the housing bust, or will home prices remain stubbornly high? I think they will correct at some point.

The rate on money market funds, not money market accounts, have spiked over the last couple of days due to the credit crisis.

Here's an interesting one sent to me from Everbank. They have a new CD product that consists of currencies from countries that have strong balance of payments and positive trade deficits.

A CNBC/Portfolio survey of 800 respondents found that 35% are not confident or only somewhat confident their money is safe in an Federally insured bank. The FDIC fires back.

Redneck Bank, and it's sister sites AmericaNetBank.com, and Evantagebank.com are all owned by the Huckabay banking family. Redneck has quickly become the most popular of the three. Here's the history behind the name.

Last week, the American Bankers Association sent a letter to Sheila Bair, the Chairwoman of the FDIC complaining about the high rates offered by Ally Bank (formerly GMAC). Today, Ally Bank sent its rebuttal.

Everbank just wrote me with some information about their new Diversified Metals CD. It's an interesting product, especially with gold and silver hitting new highs.

The Fed was looking for a lifeline from energy and it has received it over the last couple of weeks as oil has plummeted from over $140 a barrel to under $120.

As the credit crisis deepens, banks are becoming more and more willing to sell foreclosed homes at lower prices and take the steep loss.

A respected economist on the street, Milton Ezrati told the CNBC Fast Money group that he thought the consumer economy in the US would be dead for the next five years. There response: all will be well in 6 months.

Another economist, this time Kenneth Rogoff from Harvard, piles on to say that the economy is headed downward. Economists are a lagging indicator. When everyone sells sell, it's time to think about buying.

The FDIC released their Quarterly Banking Profile today and it looks pretty grim. Net banking income declined 87% and the number of problem banks grew from 90 to 117.

The dollar has risen to its highest level in almost seven months against the Euro and the British Pound fell to a two year low against the greenback. The strength in the dollar has been driven by the plummeting price in oil (the dollar has moved in the opposite direction of oil), and the weakening of European countries.