|
Dear ,
"Seven Days That Shook Europe" - Financial Times
 | | (Click to read story) |
Seven days that shook Europe:From France to Greece: A week of dramatic political and financial shifts across the region
It all started last weekend with elections across Europe but specifically in France and Greece. People are getting tired of austerity and across the continent the socialists' parties are sweeping into power. That has led to a collapse of the bailout in Greece which in turn has led to more and more headlines that seem to indicate that Greece will ultimately exit the Euro. As we wrote when this current bailout was announced a few months back, this bailout was doomed to fail.
Are you starting to see the opportunities this crisis is presenting? You're not? Then maybe you need to give us a call. We'd love to give you a couple of ideas!
We could spend a lot of time here alone but I have other things to cover so let's move on.
Does California = Greece?
Gov. Jerry Brown of California announced this weekend that the deficit there has ballooned to $16 billion. Back in January the Governor's office had projected a deficit of only $9 billion so things have worsened there as well. Here is a link to the story.
Shortfall in California's Budget Swells to $16 Billion (NYT)
To make matters worse, 93,000 people in California face the loss of their unemployment benefits next weekend. In fact, nationwide you are looking at roughly 250,000 people that will be losing their benefits. While I try to find opportunities in every situation, I have to admit that even I am not seeing anything attractive here at this time.
How are those new regulations working out?
Another one of our continuing themes has been that nothing has really changed. Despite tough talk from the government, financial fraud prosecutions are at an all-time low according to this article from The Daily Beat, an influential online publication.
Why Can't Obama Bring Wall Street to Justice? (The Daily Beast)
Now there could be a couple of reasons for that. It could be that financial fraud itself is at an all-time low. Or it could be that financial fraud is possibly running rampant but the prosecutions of those frauds are not being followed through on aggressively enough. Based on your observations, which do you think it is?
Let me offer two examples from this week to add substance to my claim that nothing much has changed.
'Whale' Fail: JP Morgan's $2 Billion Blunder Tied to London Trader
JP Morgan lost $2 B trading. The largest bank in the United States and they just lost $2 billion on trading. Here is a quote from Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase. "In hindsight," Dimon said, "the new strategy was flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed and poorly monitored. The portfolio has proven to be riskier, more volatile and less effective of an economic hedge than we thought."
Excuse me? Look at the words he uses to describe the strategy. Flawed, poorly, riskier than we thought. Here's a question for you. Aren't banks supposed to be the safe place to put your money? If this biggest bank (too big to fail?) in the country is being managed like that, what is going on at the other banks?
How safe is your bank or credit union? Do you know? Do you check up on their ratings? Would you like to know how to do that? If so just click on the link below and send me an email with banks in the subject line. If you do that I will send you a link to a free resource that will help you keep tabs on the safety of the banks and credit unions that you do business with.
preames@reamesfinancial.com
Speaking of failing banks, here's the second story.
Ally bank considers throwing mortgage unit into bankruptcy
Yet again, an example of how nothing has changed. Remember the old GMAC? They had to be rescued back in2008. They were allowed to become a bank so that they could tap into the bailout money. They changed their name to Ally Bank. You hear their ads all the time. Well they are looking at throwing their mortgage unit into bankruptcy. Apparently they didn't learn anything either!
So again if you would like to learn how to check out your bank simply send me an email with Bank as the subject. I will send you a link to a free resource to check up on your banks and credit unions.
Until next week , Protect Your Wealth!
Sincerely,
  
| 
