Could this be good for China's financial health?

The bailout of AIG stands out as the largest commitment of public funds for a single private company in financial history. How did the world’s biggest insurance company become the largest corporate ward of the government, of all time?

Last month, I called attention to an article in Caixin magazine about the implosion in Beijing of something called a “credit guarantee company,” and examined the potential risks such entities pose to China’s financial stability.  Today, Caixin published another must-read article about a new crisis in which credit guarantees — […]

has this great item from 1995 (h/t to Boing Boing):

[credit provider=”YouTube”] Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren emphasised the importance of maintaining short term credit stability by guarding the market for money market mutual funds in a speech he gave in Stockholm last week.Pointing out similarities to the collapse of short-term funding that escalated after the fall of Lehman Brothers […]

Europe and all things European have been holding the world’s attention to an extent that it’s all too easy to forget that life goes on elsewhere. One of the corollaries of the European shock has been a general global deleveraging rolling right through to the emerging markets.

Todd Martin, an Asia equity strategist at Societe General SA, talks about the outlook for China’s economy and credit market. Martin also discusses global stocks and commodities. He speaks with Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg Television’s “On the Move Asia.”

[credit provider=”DanielleCM via flickr” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/danni_m/536492895/”] According to Reuters, EU finance ministers have prepared a statement calling for European banks to raise their capital.The move would signal acknowledgment of the ineffectiveness of bank stress tests conducted by the European Central Bank in July. This couples mounting speculation that banks may indeed […]

Foreign central banks have doubled the assets they keep with the Federal Reserve, in a sign that they may no longer have confidence in commercial banks.

[credit provider=”Danske Bank via Pragmatic Capitalism” url=”http://pragcap.com/cds-market-to-euro-banks-this-is-worse-than-2008″] The cost of insuring junior and senior bonds at 25 European banks has doubled since April, according to a Bloomberg report.Such numbers appear to confirm fears that funding problems are threatening to cripple European banks.

[credit provider=”[clint] via flickr” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintw/241152422/sizes/m/in/photostream/”]On Friday, Wells Fargo disclosed that it had agreed to pay $590 million to settle class-action lawsuits brought by investors concerning bonds sold by Wachovia, which Wells Fargo acquired in October 2008.Among the claims in the suits: That Wachovia misrepresented the quality of a mortgage portfolio […]

[credit provider=”Flickr rosefirerising” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosefirerising/4139267835/”] Credit rating agency opinions always provide the steps a company or government needs to take in order to improve its grade.Standard & Poor’s rating action on the U.S., which downgraded the country’s long-term debt from AAA to AA+ on Friday, August 5, 2011, includes the information […]

CHICAGO – These days, the United States media are full of ordinary Americans venting their rage at the incompetence and immaturity of their politicians. Even though the US government’s debt limit was raised in the nick of time, the process was – and remains – fraught with risk. Why, the […]

Good morning. Here’s the news:

So imagine for a moment that you are the person at, say, Moody’s Investor Services in charge of deciding whether to lower the credit rating of the United States of America. Would the last four weeks have firmed up your impression that the Obama Administration and the US Congress has […]

[credit provider=”en.wikipedia.org” url=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:May_2010_Greek_protests.jpg”] Will a hidden link between the Greek debt situation and the U.S. banking system ignite the next global credit crisis? The odds of the “next” global credit crisis are increasing with each new day, and with each new revelation. And escalating fears are hitting worldwide stock markets […]

[credit provider=”Wikimedia Commons” url=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tiberius_NyCarlsberg_Mirrored.png”] Dylan Grice may think buying commodities is a bad bet against human ingenuity, but he’s willing to make an exception to his rule for gold.That’s because while Grice thinks humans are getting more and more creative in terms of science, technology, and production, they are doomed […]