Integrity Bank, 10th bank failure, FDIC says

FDIC has already announced the tenth bank in failure this year. Georgia's Integrity bank was the latest bank that was said to have failure in its making system.




All depositors of Integrity Bank, including those with deposits in excess of the FDIC's $100,000 insurance limit, will automatically become depositors of Regions Bank for the full amount of their deposits, the FDIC said in a statement.

Depositors will continue to have uninterrupted access to their deposits and will remain insured by Regions Bank.

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Personal income has a largest drop in 3 years

Personal income is said to have dropped for three years, the biggest drop ever recorded. Is'nt it an obvious sign of economic turmoil?



Personal income fell in July, but disposable personal income sank even further. Disposable personal income - which is what consumers have after they pay taxes - fell by 1.1% in July, after a 1.9% tumble in June. In May, however, disposable income jumped by 5.7%, largely due to the initial wave of stimulus checks.

The stimulus program provided consumers with cash to spend, and in general, Americans spent it, boosting the nation's economy. On Thursday, second-quarter gross domestic product was revised up to 3.3% annual growth, after being initially reported at 1.9%, according to the Commerce Department.

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Analyst: FDIC needs half trillion dollars to rescue troubled banks

The list of US troubled banks deeply alarmed FDIC as it increased by 30 percent for this quarter alone. To resuce these banks, FDIC may have to borrow money from the Treasury Department. how much it needs? Well, half a trillion dollars is needed to counter these banks failures.




The discussion was prompted by an announcement Tuesday by the FDIC that it was increasing the number of banks on its watch list to 117, up from 90 in the first quarter.

“We don’t think this credit cycle has bottomed out yet,” said FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair at a press conference Tuesday. “I don’t like to make predictions, but I think it’s going to continue to be very challenging, and as I said I think the number of banks and assets on the troubled bank list will continue to go up.”

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FDIC: Troubled US bank list keeps growing

The list of troubled bank is seen growing from 90 banks in the first quarter to 117 in the second quarter according to FDIC.





Analysts, as well as the FDIC, are quick to point out that the number of failures so far isn't close to the numbers seen during the savings & loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. During that tumultuous period, more than 1,000 institutions failed.

But as an increasing number of banks have gone bust, Bair warned Tuesday that the industry may soon face higher premiums to help replenish the FDIC fund used to insure depositors of failed institutions.

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Economy slow growth seen, but may avoid recession

A survey of economists, representing the wide range of industries, revealed that they were less pessimistic about the economic outlook for the months of June and July. The general statement of the survey claimed that the economic growth is seen in a slow pace but it does not mean it would embrace recession, yet it still can avoid it.




According to the latest survey, more firms are planning increases in capital spending, but continued slowing in the housing and tighter credit have had an impact.


"More respondents than in the past two surveys said tighter credit market conditions have affected their business negatively for the most part,'' Simonson said.

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Is Lehman Brothers really in deep trouble?

There are some investors who are reportedly doubting the fund assets of Lehman Brothers,while some predicted, that it will soon be taken over due to its troubled assets. Some analysts likewise claim that Lehman is still gaining. What is really happening to Lehman Brothers? Is it really in great trouble?





Shares in Lehman rose sharply in reaction to the report. The stock has plunged more than 80 percent since early 2007, leaving the bank worth some $9 billion at this week's valuations.

Bove said that even if KDB doesn't make a bid, it could team up with a US firm to acquire Lehman.

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Fannie and Freddie stocks continue to plunge

The US Federal Reserve, in collaboration with the US government has made its best to back up and rescue the US two mortgage giants through an immediate approval of housing bill which is designed to rescue htem. But despite of their initiative, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued to report a great loss. Their shares have dropped more than 2o percent as housing markets woes continue.

On July 30, President Bush signed into law a housing bill to boost Fannie and Freddie. The bill gave the Treasury Department the authority to loan unlimited amounts of money to Fannie and Freddie and also allows for Treasury to buy up shares of the two firms if necessary.

The price tag on a government bailout is likely to be costly, with estimates ranging from $25 billion to $100 billion.

Fannie spokeswoman Amy Bonitatibus declined to comment on the company's stock activity or any plans to meet with the Treasury about a bailout. Spokesmen for Freddie Mac were not immediately available for comment.

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Energy Stock: A time for closer and fresher look

After the recent sell-off in energy shares, S&Phas boosted its recommendation on the sector to overweight. Here's why

Relative strength vs. the S&P 500 has contracted right back to support from its 65-week exponential average and remains in a long-term uptrend. While we still think that technical indicators show that crude oil could fall further into the $100-to-$110-per-barrel range, the majority of the weakness is behind it, in our view.

In all, we recommend overweighting the S&P 500 Energy sector, as we think historically elevated oil prices, what we view as relatively low valuations, and a positive technical outlook will lead to a resumption of broader market outperformance.

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Financial Crisis Could Get More Worse Ahead, Experts Say

Financial crisis has not yet been finished yet it could get more worse in the next few months, economic experts observed. The year-old financial crisis is expected to bring huge big economic shocks to the US economy and stock market.



His comments were echoed by Morgan Stanley co-President Walid Chammah, who told a German newspaper that the financial crisis will probably not end until next year or even 2010.

"We will likely see more insolvencies among small U.S. regional banks that have focused on mortgage business," Chammah said. .

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morgan Stanley stocks tumble

The shares of Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, continued to tumble despite its efforts to save its shares on its third quarter perfoemance. Its stocks fell about $2.12 in the morning, pushing it down to 20 percent so far in this year.

Morgan Stanley plans to repurchase about $4.5 billion of auction-rate securities that it sold to retail clients before the market collapsed in February.

On Tuesday, Deutsche Bank (DB) analyst Mike Mayo trimmed his third-quarter profit estimate to 80 cents from 95 cents per share, and his full-year estimate to $4.20 from $4.50 per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters (TRI) expect profit of 94 cents per share in the third quarter and $4.54 per share in 2008.

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Global Economy is bigger worry than US, Survey says

Investors worldwide are more worried about the world economy as it is getting lower and lower. They are less concern of the US economy and inflation. This was according to a survey conducted by Merril Lynch.




The fall in inflation expectations fed into a lowering of expections for interest rates, according to the survey. Some 41 percent of respondents said they expected short-term rates to be lower in a year's time versus 27 percent who thought that in July.

The survey showed that investors have become more bullish on the dollar although polling closed before the currency's latest surge.

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Most Econmically Powerful Cities in the World

What do you think are the world's most economically powerful cities? Forbes.com has recently released the so called list of most economically powerful cities. What your guess?

The overarching lesson: Keep looking east. The world's fastest-growing economies, such as Shanghai, China; Beijing, Jakarta, Indonesia; and Mumbai, India, are growing at twice the pace of the Western world.

Cities with enormous populations like Sao Paolo, Brazil, and Mexico City also have economies projected to grow by more than 4% annually. They won't be the size of Tokyo or New York anytime soon, but with business-friendly policies, their economic power can be expected to continue climbing.

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RBS' largest six month loss is $1.5 billion

The Royal Bank of Scotland reported $1.5 billion loss for the previous six months, the largest loss ever recorded in the british banking history.

"The results we have published today demonstrate progress in a number of important areas, and it is all the more unsatisfactory, therefore, that they record a loss as a result of our credit market write-downs," said chief executive Fred Goodwin.

"We are determined to ensure that the inherent strengths of the Group's diverse business model are not obscured in this way again," he said.

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ECB Leaves no changes on interest rates

The European Central Bank and the Bank of England will remain on its current inerest rates as the two banking institutions decided to unchanged the interest rates despites slowing growth and inflation.

The decisions by both banks confirmed expectations by economists that hamstrung policymakers in Britain and the euro zone have decided that for now the best of their limited options is to do nothing.

"It should not have come as surprise to anyone that, on balance, the (Bank of England) felt it could do nothing but sit tight this month, a situation that is likely to prevail for a few more months," said Hetal Mehta, senior economic adviser to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club.

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AIG reports $8billion quarterly loss

As the second quarter ended, American International Group Inc. has reported a total loss of $8 billion. The reported loss was the company's third quarterly defecit as the credit crunch in the global market obviously and directly affected the company.

AIG executives will hold a conference call to discuss the company's results with investors on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.

The second quarter has been a difficult one for not only AIG, but the entire insurance industry. The sector struggled through tight financial markets, as well as storms that ravaged the Midwest and South.

The Travelers Cos., Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. and MetLife Inc. all posted profit declines for the April-to-June quarter, and Genworth Financial Inc. reported a quarterly loss driven by credit-related investments.

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"No Votes" for yahoo directors Seen Increasing in Revised Tally

The recount of shareholder votes for yahoo board of directors was more of a disdain to the board, as the revised tally showed more no votes for the elected new members of the board. The recent board election and the recount of votes according to some observers have reflected a high degree of shareholders dissattisfaction to the possible management of the new board members.

Mr. Bostock, Mr. Kern and Mr. Burkle are on Yahoo’s compensation committee, which approved a controversial plan to retain employees. Critics said the retention plan made any acquisition of Yahoo more costly. Mr. Bostock and Mr. Burkle, as well as Mr. Yang, were heavily involved in the negotiations with Microsoft.

Yahoo conducted the new tally after Broadridge Financial Solutions, a brokerage services firm that transmitted votes on behalf of some Yahoo shareholders, said it had made a “truncation error” that resulted in the underreporting of votes withheld from several directors. As a result, 200 million shares that had been cast against some Yahoo directors were voted for them.

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Creative Capitalism According to Bill Gates

What is creative capitalism? How this improves the lives of billions of people? Bill Gates, the world's billionaire has something to say and share about creative capitalism and how he's trying to change our views about capitalism.



It might seem strange to talk about creative capitalism when we're paying more than $4 for a gallon of gas and people are having trouble paying their mortgages. There's no doubt that today's economic troubles are real; people feel them deeply, and they deserve immediate attention. Creative capitalism isn't an answer to the relatively short-term ups and downs of the economic cycle. It's a response to the longer-term fact that too many people are missing out on a historic, century-long improvement in the quality of life. In many nations, life expectancy has grown dramatically in the past 100 years. More people vote in elections, express their views and enjoy economic freedom than ever before. Even with all the problems we face today, we are at a high point of human well-being. The world is getting a lot better.

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Market expects inflation insights from Fed

The roller-coaster ride in the US stockmarket has put it in a mixed data of corporate earnings. With a choppy oil price, and slightly economic slump, investors are expecting new key earnings reports and assesment of the US economy from US Federal Reserve.




Short-term interest rate futures, which measure market sentiment toward Fed policy, were little changed in the wake of the jobs report.

"We have the Fed meeting but I am not expecting any big reaction to that. I think the market is going to stay in a fairly well constrained trading range and is going to move up and down with daily movements in oil," Dickson said.

Even with oil prices significantly below their all-time high above $147 per barrel, they continue to be a wild card as geopolitical tensions remain high in the Middle East.

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US Economy Is moderately growing

US economy, despite economic turmoil is seen slowly growing. The moderate growth of its economy maybe due to its series of economic action to regain its status, as it is previously slding down.

The GDP report also reflected the continuing fallout in housing. Builders cut back at an annual rate of about 15 percent for the quarter -- although that was a better showing than early this year and late last year.

Businesses trimmed spending on equipment and software and reduced investment in inventories.

An inflation gauge tied to the GDP report showed all prices galloping ahead at a rate of 4.2 percent in the second quarter, the fastest pace since the end of last year.

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