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Fed Action Boosts Mortgage Activity
Posted on March 19th, 2009 No commentsMortgage lenders saw a spike in refinance applications after the Federal Reserve announced its new plan to buy up to $300 billion of long-term Treasury bonds and purchase $750 billion in additional mortgage-backed securities. That move translated to about a 0.25 percentage point drop on 30-year fixed rates, bringing area rates to less than 5 percent on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage. Read more in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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‘Stimulus Grant’ Scams Abound
Posted on March 8th, 2009 No commentsOnline ads that promise individuals a share of the $787-billion stimulus pie are scams, warned the Federal Trade Commission and the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which have tracked several sites and Facebook ads that offer consumers thousands of dollars in “stimulus grants.” Read more in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Dollars & Sense blog.
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‘A Better Way to Fix the Banks’
Posted on February 28th, 2009 No commentsU.S. banks may currently hold as much as $2 trillion of impaired assets. “Given the likely depth and duration of the recession, the losses on them could eventually exceed $1 trillion — on top of the $500 billion in losses already realized. Whatever the precise tally, the final reckoning is certain to be larger than many U.S. banks can absorb out of common equity and from their earnings,” writes The McKinsey Quarterly.
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Web Site Focuses on Stimulus Plan
Posted on February 24th, 2009 No commentsU.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) recently unveiled a web site dedicated to informing Wisconsin communities, residents and businesses about the details of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The web site, http://feingold.senate.gov/recovery, includes information on how Wisconsin will benefit from the bill, the Small Business Times reported.
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Takeover of Banks Inevitable?
Posted on February 22nd, 2009 No commentsThere is precedent for the U.S. government temporarily nationalizing key industries in times of national emergency. Two such interventions, the Reconstruction Finance Corp. in the 1930s and Continental Illinois Bank and Trust in 1984, involved the financial sector. But bank nationalizations abroad have been mostly unsuccessful, and as the months go by without apparent progress in solving the financial crisis, the specter of Japan’s lost decade of the 1990s grows more ominous, writes columnist Tom Saler in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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Obama Mortgage Plan Detailed
Posted on February 18th, 2009 No commentsUnder a new plan announced by President Obama’s administration, as many as 5 million homeowners with loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac may be able refinance their mortgages through those institutions. An additional 3 million to 4 million homeowners will be able to avoid foreclosure through a new $75 billion Homeowner Stability Initiative. Read more in The Business Journal of Milwaukee.
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CEOs Oppose Stimulus Plan
Posted on February 16th, 2009 No commentsThe Nicolet National Bank Business Pulse survey of 160 CEOs, conducted between Jan. 27 and Feb. 3, found that 57 percent were opposed to the government’s economic stimulus plan, 23 percent favored it and 20 percent weren’t sure. Opposition to the plan was highest – about 83 percent – among those who said they were very familiar with the plan, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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Pay Cap Won’t Affect Wis.
Posted on February 4th, 2009 No commentsThe pay cap imposed by President Barack Obama on some bank executive salaries won’t affect most Wisconsin banks that wish to apply for money from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
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Leadership Largely Unchanged
Posted on January 27th, 2009 No commentsAt banks that are receiving federal bailout money, nearly nine out of every 10 of the most senior executives from 2006 are still on the job, according to anAssociated Press analysis of regulatory and company documents.
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Two More Join Fed Program
Posted on January 22nd, 2009 No commentsThe parent companies of The Baraboo National Bank and Manitowoc’s Bank First National have joined the list of Wisconsin banks participating in the federal government’s Capital Purchase Program, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.