The major stock indexes declined on Thursday (Feb. 28).
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Yesterday someone sent me a story about how federal regulators are preparing for a wave of U.S. bank failures. Today someone else sent me the same basic story, but from a different source. This made me think, "Hmmm..."
In turn, I went to Google News and entered "bank failure." Sure enough, in 0.27 seconds, Google identified that phrase in 473 news articles.
Faced with a number that large I elected to peruse only a few dozen headlines, enough to see that the scope of bank-related topics went well beyond just the worries of regulators. Issues ranged from falling bank earnings, to banks hitting customers with hidden fees, to recent research in England showing that bank failures tend to produce a marked increase in the rate of heart attacks. That all speaks for itself, I guess...
As for the potential wave of bank failures, the short version is that the FDIC is hiring. According to its Web site, the agency wants people with:
"Skill in performing duties associated with a financial-institution closing, such as receivership management, resolutions and/or asset disposition; knowledge of the resolutions process as it relates to complex financial institutions."
It also says that these jobs include "very frequent overnight travel," with salaries as high as $180,770.
News reports also say that data from Q4 of 2007 raised eyebrows at the FDIC -- for example, the non-interest income of banks declined for the first time since the 1970s, while loans which are 90 days past due increased by nearly one-third, the biggest quarterly jump in 24 years.
One other line I came across was: "Experts say you shouldn't panic."
It's safe to assume that the "experts" really don't see this news as bad enough for me to jump out a window. So, when they say "don't panic," they probably mean something along the lines of:
"Don't remove your money from the bank... or, for that matter, from the stock market either."
If panic means leave yourself vulnerable, then no one deserves the advice of "experts" more than they themselves do.
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