Earlier today we mocked Jamie Dimon for announcing the cancellation of his firm's stock buyback program, just two shorts months after March 13, when none other than JP Morgan forced the Fed to scramble and release the full stress test ahead of schedule, after Jamie Dimon decided to frontrun the full FRBNY stress test release (whose sole purpose was to determine under what worst case scenario the Fed was ok with allowing JPM and various other Bank Holding Companies to proceed with dividend raises/stock buybacks) and announce just that - a dividend increase and a stock buyback. Well, in addition to some well justified egg in Dimon's face, today's results actually have some far more troubling implications. Because while we now know that the buyback ... Continue reading →

BY ROBIN SIDEL AND DAN FITZPATRICK J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. suspended share repurchases just two months after announcing a giant buyback program, in the latest fallout from the trading blunder that has cost the company at least $2 billion in losses, hammered its stock price and tarnished its reputation as the best-managed big U.S. bank. Chief Executive James Dimon told investors and analysts at a conference Monday that the New York company stopped the buybacks out of an abundance of caution and compliance with a new set of international capital guidelines, saying in reference to money-losing trades that "we want to box this thing first." ...BY ROBIN SIDEL AND DAN FITZPATRICK J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. suspended share repurchases just two months after announcing ... Continue reading →

Kyle Bass was one of the handful of hedge funders who made a fortune betting against housing during the subprime bust, and since then he's been stalking his next big "career trade." For years now, his big target has been Japan, a country with a debt-to-GDP ratio of over 200% and a shrinking/aging population. He's convinced that it's only a matter of time before the country implodes in a massive sovereign debt crisis that sends bond yields soaring, while the yen becomes worth less than confetti. Back in early 2010, there was a story about how he took out a mortgage in yen, because he was so sure that it was going to implode, thus meaning he'd get his house for free. Well, it hasn't ... Continue reading →

By: News Desk U.S. Treasury Secretary speaks with the PBS NewsHour's Jeffrey Brown Thursday at Marlin Steel Wire Products, a factory in Baltimore Editor's note: Video clips will be posted here soon. Tune in to Thursday's NewsHour broadcast for the full interview. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the PBS NewsHour's Jeffrey Brown during a factory tour Thursday that he couldn't understand why the debate over the federal debt limit is back again. The visit to Marlin Steel Wire Products, a Baltimore manufacturer of wire baskets that employs 30 workers and exports to some 36 countries around the world, was part of an ongoing effort to get out of Washington to promote the administration's economic agenda. Geithner made those comments during a wide-ranging interview about the ... Continue reading →