FedUpUSA

Archive for October 4th, 2009

Michigan Faces Government Shutdown (Again) – September 29, 2009

The thing is, it is unnecessary for us to have reached this point at all. Political posturing and stupidity are the reasons that we do not have a budget right now! The Republicans passed a balanced budget in June of this year. See for yourself here: http://www.senate.michigan.gov/sfa/StateBudget/AppropriationStatus.pdf At first it was ignored, and then the administration started cherry picking the most harsh parts of the budget and using scare-tactics to play up the idea that we’d be devastated if we passed this budget. Boloney! The fact is, Michigan is operating on a budget level that was based on millions more people and millions more jobs. We have been hemorrhaging residents and jobs for the past decade and it had done nothing but accelerate in the past 4 years. Now what we have is a government that is far bigger than is even remotely necessary for the number of residents of the state. This government MUST shrink. It also doesn’t help that Jennifer Granholm and her administration tell lies like, ‘We’ve cut everywhere we can,’ when clearly, she has done no such thing – she, and I DO lay the blame directly at her feet, has passed more pork, and more ridiculous increases in spending than any other governor this state has ever had.



Are there difficult cuts in this Proposal? Absolutely – but no more than we as residents have had to face in our personal and business lives.

Every person in the State of Michigan has had to examine their budget and drastically cut their spending. Individuals and businesses alike. There is no reason that this government should not or cannot do this as well. Call your Michigan Legislator and tell them to cut the crap (literally) and vote to pass the Budget Proposal we’ve had since June!

FedUpUSA will be blogging live from the Michigan Capitol Building’s gallery via Twitter all day. The link to follow us on Twitter is on the left.

The Debt Revolt Is On – September 28, 2009

Had enough with bailing out insolvent banks with your taxpayer money, only to have them stab you in the back? Then this video is for you.

Liberals seek health-care access for illegals – September 28th, 2009
Democrats give demands

Fearful that they’re losing ground on immigration and health care, a group of House Democrats is pushing back and arguing that any health care bill should extend to all legal immigrants and allow illegal immigrants some access.

Backdoor amnesty, followed by an immediate increase in benefits to those that are in our country illegally is being proposed by Congress.

How many times do we have to say NO before they understand us?

Perhaps we should fire up the fax machines, phones, and computers again and let them know our feelings on this issue, in no uncertain terms.

As Subprime Lending Crisis Unfolded, Watchdog Fed Didn’t Bother Barking – September 28th, 2009

The visits had a ritual quality. Three times a year, a coalition of Chicago community groups met with the Federal Reserve and other banking regulators to warn about the growing prevalence of abusive mortgage lending.
This Story

They began to present research in 1999 showing that large banking companies including Wells Fargo and Citigroup had created subprime businesses wholly focused on making loans at high interest rates, largely in the black and Hispanic neighborhoods to the south and west of downtown Chicago.

The groups pleaded for regulators to act.

The evidence eventually led Illinois to file suit against Wells Fargo in July for discrimination and other abuses.

But during the years of the housing boom, the pleas failed to move the Fed, the sole federal regulator with authority over the businesses. Under a policy quietly formalized in 1998, the Fed refused to police lenders’ compliance with federal laws protecting borrowers, despite repeated urging by consumer advocates across the country and even by other government agencies.

The hands-off policy, which the Fed reversed earlier this month, created a double standard. Banks and their subprime affiliates made loans under the same laws, but only the banks faced regular federal scrutiny. Under the policy, the Fed did not even investigate consumer complaints against the affiliates.

As always, read the rest of the story at the link above.

So, let me get this straight: The subprime lending crises happened NOT due to a lack of regulation, but due to a lack of investgation by the regulators? Someone should alert Congress, because they on The Hill seem to believe that we need MORE LAWS that will no doubt go unenforced in the future! I bet you already have their phone number, don’t you?

As a companion to the Oct 2nd Problem Bank List (unofficial), below is a list of failed banks since Jan 2007.

From the FDIC FAQs: (ht JB)

11. When is the DIF expected to go negative?

FDIC estimates that the DIF balance as of September 30, 2009 will be negative.

However the DIF reserves against future losses, and the DIF still has cash to pay for bank closures – but I show the DIF balance as zero on the following graph:

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

The graph shows the cumulative estimated losses to the FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) and the quarterly assets of the DIF (as reported by the FDIC). Note that the FDIC takes reserves against future losses in the DIF, and collects fees and special assessments – so you can’t just subtract estimated losses from assets to determine the assets remaining in the DIF.

The cumulative estimated losses for the DIF, since early 2007, is now over $44.5 billion.

Regulators closed three more banks on Friday, and that brings the total FDIC insured bank failures to 98 in 2009. Although regulators have slowed down in recent weeks, they are still on pace to close over 130 banks this year – the most since 1992.

Failed Bank List

Deposits, assets and estimated losses are all in thousands of dollars.

Losses for failed banks in 2009 are the initial FDIC estimates. The percent losses are as a percent of assets. Note that losses for the Irwin banks were combined by the FDIC, so one of the banks shows up as zero percent in the table.

See description below table for Class and Cert (and a link to FDIC ID system).

The table is wide – use scroll bars to see all information!

Click here for a full screen version.

NOTE: Columns are sortable – click on column header (Assets, State, Bank Name, Date, etc.)

Class: from FDIC

The FDIC assigns classification codes indicating an institution’s charter type (commercial bank, savings bank, or savings association), its chartering agent (state or federal government), its Federal Reserve membership status (member or nonmember), and its primary federal regulator (state-chartered institutions are subject to both federal and state supervision). These codes are:

N National chartered commercial bank supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

SM State charter Fed member commercial bank supervised by the Federal Reserve

NM State charter Fed nonmember commercial bank supervised by the FDIC

SA State or federal charter savings association supervised by the Office of Thrift Supervision

SB State charter savings bank supervised by the FDIC

Cert: This is the certificate number assigned by the FDIC used to identify institutions and for the issuance of insurance certificates. You can click on the number and see “the last demographic and financial data filed by the selected institution”.

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STOP THE LOOTING AND START PROSECUTING!