Jin Liqun explains with crystal clarity the prerequisite conditions for China’s potential role as a “white knight” riding to the financial rescue of the Eurozone. To whit – if it is not good for China, and it is not a good investment, China is not going to participate in the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). Then in explicit terms, with no BS, no mincing of words, and no diplomatic artifice, Jin Liqun lectures Europe on exactly the problem with the Eurozone labor laws and welfare state.

Dipping into MF Global client funds to backstop the firm’s heavily leveraged high risk bets on European debt is about as serious as it gets. We’re talking – Federal Felony / Criminal Fraud / Grand Theft / Go To Jail / Do Not Pass Go / Do Not Collect $200 / Throw Away The Key / – that kind of serious. If tapping segregated client funds at a broker dealer is not criminal fraud, then it is at least criminal negligence for CEO Jon Corzine.

“The donklephant is a genetic monstrosity whose every moment of existence is unbearable agony.” – Jon Stewart

Listen, you’ll get no arguments from me that, on the whole, capitalism has been a positive force. But the problem is it’s an amoral system when gone unchecked and it just continues to find new and inventive ways to make money until something like 2008 happens. And today…even though they didn’t need to be…Goldman Sachs [...]

Yesterday, in a background briefing, the administration announced a three year spending freeze on portions of the budget. Since departments with the fastest growing government expenditures like Defense, VA, the State Department, and entitlements are excluded from the “freeze”, it will have a negligible effect on the ballooning deficit. One cannot help but wonder if the administration is trying to be all things to all people, and risks representing nothing to no one.

The President is on the stump, giving speeches, sitting for interviews, and conducting town-halls in a media blitz supporting the financial system reform initiative. He campaigned on this reform and his administration has promoted several iterations of the bill since taking office. In the meantime, Democrats in the House and Senate are crafting reform bills that are inconsistent (if not incompatible) with each other and with the President’s promises.

Jon Stewart Clip

In Feb 2009, the company reported this… Bank of America Corp. expects to pay back U.S. Treasury relief funds within the next three years, and “categorically” does not need further government funding, Chief Executive Ken Lewis told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo in a televised interview Friday. Bank of America has received up to $45 billion in [...]

Who’s this guy? Meet Kenneth R. Feinberg, the new pay “czar” for the White House. He’s tasked with reigning in the out of control compensation at companies the government helped recently. I think it should be noted right off the bat that this is tied to executive compensation and bonuses…two pots of money that are [...]

And this is for 2008…a year when their failure nearly brought the entire world’s financial system to its knees. I don’t care if these bonuses were contractual or not. New circumstances (you know…like BANKRUPTCY!) could allow them to renegotiate with their employees. From the AP comes the list… Citigroup… Citigroup Inc., one of the biggest [...]

Most people don’t realize that the insane gas prices last year had nothing to do with increased demand and had everything to do with market speculation and hoarding encouraged by the top investment banks. Now True/Slant’s own Matt Taibbi uncovers the truth behind the scam. Read the rest at True/Slant.

Even though he’s only been in office for 5 months, this has still be a long time coming. And there are some important measures being introduced for home loans and consumer protection. From Wash Post: Many of the specific proposals will require legislation, and today’s announcement will drop the plan into an already heated debate [...]

Even after reading this article I think it’s an open question, but I wasn’t aware that we were paid dividends on the preferred shares. From McClatchy: In addition to returning the $68 billion, the 10 banks paid the government $1.8 billion in dividends on the preferred shares of stock the government owned. That translates to [...]

That’s out of the nearly $230B given out over the past 9 months. In other words, nearly 30% of the money that we would NEVER see again is being paid back. And the government could actually make a profit if they choose to exercise stock options, but there’s word they won’t do that. Here’s more [...]

Today, Congress sent President Obama the much talked-about bill setting in place new rules for the credit card industry. The new restrictions will protect debt-ridden consumers from many of the surprise charges common in the industry, like over-the-limit fees and a charge to pay the bill by phone. People under 21 also will find it [...]

I don’t think think this comes as a huge surprise, and it’s certainly disheartening. From Wash Post: The government signaled yesterday that its financial rescue efforts may have reached their high-water mark, announcing that the much-anticipated “stress tests” of 19 large banks showed that only one, GMAC, was likely to need additional taxpayer aid and [...]

It’s almost been two months since Geithner announced the details of how the stress tests would go down, and now the government is set to announce the results for a bunch of banks. Still, the focus is certainly on the top two. From Financial Times: Citigroup and Bank of America are working on plans to [...]

On Thursday, President Obama announced support for a new bill aimed at protecting credit card holders. As early as next week, House Democrats expect to act on a bill that would make it harder for the industry to slap new fees and rates on cardholders while also requiring clearer disclosure of the costs and risks [...]

Between Wells Fargo and this news, doesn’t anybody think that this may put a slight damper on those Tea Parties on Wednesday? From MarketWatch: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Monday it swung to a profit in the first-quarter compared to the prior period, and announced it has commenced a public offering of $5 billion of [...]

And there was much rejoicing… From MarketWatch: NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Wells Fargo & Co. said Thursday that first-quarter earnings will surge to a record $3 billion, well ahead of analyst forecasts, as loan losses and provisions dropped from the previous difficult quarter and its mortgage business thrived. Wells shares jumped 22% as the bank [...]