CNBC had an excellent program called “House of Cards” that has aired a few nights ago, and will continue to be aired on televeision a few more times (check out the schedule).  You can watch the entire program, thanks to Hulu.com. �
Let’s hope we are all wealth and retired by the time this house of [...]

Something’s gotta give at Sirius XM. �
As of Sept 30th 2008 they had $360 million in cash and $2.8 billion of long-term debt.  On February 17, 2009 — Sirius has $300 million in debt due to mature. �
Echostar has stepped in and purchased part of that $300 million.  Echostar isn’t playing their cards too close, [...]

Yahoo posted an article on Friday — 15 Companies That Might Not Survive 2009.  It’s a list of many companies that we take for granted are around.  Not only do we take for granted having their products, but their jobs!  On this list are over 351,500 jobs on the line.  That’s scary. �
Not all of [...]

I just stumbled on another blog, Jeflin’s Investment Blog, who had an interesting post for predictions in 2009 called Coming To Grips With A Harsh Year In 2009. �
Read the article, below are high level predictions – 

More Bank losses and failures
Commercial properties hit badly
Burst of the Treasury bubble
Crude oil to reach $75
Go Long on Gold

They [...]

The first government to go under, due to the widening global financial crises is Belgium.

In an article on the ft.com website, a more European centric news organization, an article talking about the failure of the Belgium coalition government appread on Tuesday Dec 23.
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“Belgium’s King Albert II formally accepted the resignation of the coalition [...]

Recently we have thought about changing our name to reflect what ever the current industry in crisis was, but since that just about everyone, we will stick to Whybanksfail.
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It looks like GMAC, which was trying to get additional bailout funds by converting to a bank holding company has failed to meet reserve requirements. Lets [...]

On Friday, the FDIC and Georgia regulators shut down the third Georgia-based bank this year. The Community Bank, based in Loganville, Ga. became the 20th nation bank failure this year and was followed by two bank failures in California, making the total number of bank closures this 22.

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Breakdown:  The Community Bank �
·         Total assets of [...]

The Saudi Prince has spoken, but it’s not enough to help Citigroup out of the downward plunge it is on.  Citibank opened 4% lower, but it got much worst as the day went one. Losing more then 26% to trade close the day at 4.71
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Breakdown: Citibank Losses

$20.3 billion in losses on declining mortgages and bad [...]

When talking about stocks for the past few weeks I have been using the term “time travel”.  We can buy stocks for prices that we haven’t seen in years, or even decades.  Who wouldn’t like that?
General Motors (NYSE:GM 2.92 on 11/12/2008) closed at $2.92 yesterday.  A price we haven’t seen since 1943.  The last time [...]

As the government prepares to shell out cash, in an effort to rescue the American Banking sector, 24 banks have signed up for the current round of the bailout program. As “lending has dried up and many loans have gone bad” the need for the cash is more and more apparent. Although much sentiment is [...]

In the last two days we have seen dramatic action at yet another two banks, with National City (NCC 2.08 10/24/08) being bought by PNC, and now Alpha Bank and Trust of Alpharetta, Georgia becoming the 16h Bank this year to be seized, by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance.
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In the past two months, [...]

In an effort to stimulate the economy the Chinese government is drafting new tax and spending policies that will allow greater control of the slowest growth China has seen since 2003. Third-quarter numbers came in a 9 percent, while healthy for any other country, dangerous for the Chinese who have much depending on strong continued [...]

Let the carnage begin.
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As the crisis continues, institution like Bank of New York-Mellon Corporation who announced this week a decline in third-quarter earnings, are looking for ways to cut expenses. �
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As they evaluate the current business environment and decide where their business is going, many will look at all alternatives including head count at [...]

We’re all thinking it. Will Citigroup fail?
Well, lets take a look at the stock compared to the others that have failed.
Take a look at Citigroup’s stock pricing on Google Finance (EHD).

Citigroup’s 52 week YTD high was $10.03. Currently Citigroup is priced at $7.15.  Yes, Citigroup has gone down 15% in trading today (October 10, 2008).  Citigroup [...]

It’s hard to believe, but Morgan Stanley, one of the few remaining investment banks with support of the government, may follow the path of Lehman Brothers.

Investors questioning the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group deal with Morgan Stanley caused a steep drop in stock value for the bitten company.
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Morgan Stanley has seen its stock down more [...]