Implode-Explode Heavy Industries news feed

Welcome to the Everything Boom, or Maybe the Everything Bubble

Wed, 09 Jul 2014 14:17:25 GMT

Welcome to the Everything Boom -- and, quite possibly, the Everything Bubble. Around the world, nearly every asset class is expensive by historical standards. Stocks and bonds; emerging markets and advanced economies; urban office towers and Iowa farmland; you name it, and it is trading at prices that are high by historical standards relative to fundamentals. The inverse of that is relatively low returns for investors.
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Prefer a more solid asset? The price of office and apartment building has risen similarly; office space in central business districts nationwide costs $300 per square foot on average, up from $147 in early 2010, according to Real Capital Analytics. In Manhattan, an investor in an office building can expect rent payments after expenses to add up to only a 4.4 percent return, known as the capitalization rate, lower than even in 2007, the top of the last boom.

New Year's Eve Gold Rush At Shanghai Shopping Mall

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 18:36:51 GMT

``Total sales at the shopping mall were 578 million RMB, a little less than 100 million dollars. 200 kilos of gold bars is already 10% of the total. So 200 kilos of gold bars and gold jewelry and diamond, and luxury watch sales make up a big percentage of total sales. This is just one shopping mall in a city of 30 million people. And Shanghai is just one city in a country of 1.4 billion people. ''

Electrical Workers #527 Federal Credit Union Closes

Sat, 25 May 2013 10:04:41 GMT

``Electrical Workers #527 Federal Credit Union served 527 members and had assets of $622,857, according to the credit union's most recent Call Report. Chartered in 1963, Electrical Workers #527 Federal Credit Union served a number of select groups centered primarily on electrical workers in the Texas City area.'' -- micro-implode...

FDIC Sues Management of Failed Florida Bank for $48M

Sat, 18 May 2013 02:55:14 GMT

``The defendants are nine former executives and directors of Peninsula, including its former chairman and chief executive, Simon Portnoy, and its president and executive vice president of commercial real estate lending, Richard Solano, along with the estate of a deceased former director.''

A Disappointing Debut at the S.E.C.

Tue, 07 May 2013 04:43:18 GMT

``The S.E.C. proposal would let the foreign branches of American banks avoid rules being developed under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and instead follow rules that prevail in the foreign countries where the deals are done. Foreign banks involved in derivative deals with American companies also could adhere to their own country's rules as long as those rules are deemed broadly comparable to Dodd-Frank rules. ''

FDIC Hits Six Banks with Enforcement Actions

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:29:28 GMT

``The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took enforcement actions against six banks last month that tied to their capital, compliance and financial condition, according to a series of orders released Friday.''

The Best Way to Save Banking Is to Kill It

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:27:24 GMT

``A genuinely radical approach would be to kill banking as we know it. Rip all banks, large or small, in two -- separate deposit-taking from credit-creation. Back the deposits one-for-one with reserves at the central bank. Then fund loans not with deposits or other money-like liabilities but by tapping investors who understand they've put their savings at risk.''

Callaway: Cyprus omen for U.S. stock rally

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:26:36 GMT

``While Cyprus may be puny -- even smaller than Greece -- in terms of its significance to global markets, its turmoil is symptomatic of a European financial system careening from crisis to crisis without end.''

Imploded: I.C.E. FCU of Inglewood, Califorina

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 23:44:40 GMT

The National Credit Union Administration, closed tiny I.C.E. FCU of Inglewood, Califorina, making it the third federally insured credit union liquidation in 2013. The ailing credit union had assets of $3.4 million. Read our full coverage here.

Debt-Ridden Car Salesman Turned Congressman Lectures About Importance Of Balanced Budget

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:16:14 GMT

Car salesman turned congressman, Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) whose car dealership has at least $2.5 million in debts insisted that companies and individuals must balance their budgets "every single day."

Gold Bears, Beware! Don't Take On Central Banks

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:02:16 GMT

``"When you see central bankers acquiring gold, you can kind of take it like this: You don't fight in the stock markets when the Fed (U.S. Federal Reserve) is easing, so you wouldn't want to fight the central banks when they're buying gold, because they have deep pockets," Philip Silverman, managing director at Kingsview Management in New York told CNBC on Thursday.''

New Stream Hedge Fund Executives Charged with Criminal Fraud

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:10:41 GMT

Today at 1pm in Hartford, Conn. federal court executives of Ridgefield-based hedge fund New Stream Capital were indicted on 19 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud. Tom Carson, DOJ pressman, confirmed the arrest of David Bryson and his co-founder Bart Gutekunst along with his CFO Richard Pereira last week. The case has been unsealed today. I first reported in 2009 the hedge fund was being investigated for investor fraud by the FBI at Hedge Fund Implode and continued to report on the fund's bankruptcy and investor lawsuits for DealFlow Media and Forbes over the last two years.

Imploded: Amez United Credit Union of Detroit, Michigan

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:34:27 GMT

Amez United Credit Union of Detroit, Michigan, was been shut down by the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation today and it's carcass was fed to the National Credit Union Association as receiver. The tiny credit union served about 160 members and had $168,000 in assets. Read our full coverage here.

Imploded: Covenant Bank, Chicago, Illinois

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 13:45:20 GMT

Covenant Bank, Chicago, Illinois, is the 3rd FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation in 2013. The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $21.8 million. Read our full coverage here.

Homeward Residential warns of 370 layoffs

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:08:59 GMT

``Homeward Residential Inc. filed a notice Tuesday under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act saying it could cut 370 jobs at its Jacksonville office between April and August. Coppell, Tex.-based Homeward is a mortgage banking firm that changed its name a year ago from American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc., and then was acquired in December by Ocwen Financial Corp.''

Edward Jones Mortgage closing in Minn., 214 employees affected

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:07:26 GMT

Edward Jones Mortgage notified the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development that 214 Minnesota workers could lose their jobs.
The St. Louis Park operation will close March 7, according to an employee who answered the phone Wednesday, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports.
Edward Jones Mortgage, which stopped offering mortgages Jan. 11, is a subsidiary of San Francisco-based Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), according to SEC filings, and a joint venture with St. Louis-based investment firm Edward Jones.

Imploded: NCP Community Development Federal Credit Union

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:12:41 GMT

Community Development Federal Credit Union, is the second first insured credit union to be placed into conservatorship in 2013, as The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has assumed control of service and operations. The members held approximately $2 million in assets. Read our full coverage here.

The relentless punishment of the American saver. Fed policy has encouraged spendthrift attitude and yield seeking behavior from Americans.

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:26:33 GMT

How bad have things gotten? High yield bonds (i.e., junk bonds) were yielding something like 20+ percent in 2008. Today they are pulling in 5 percent or what a standard CD was yielding in the early 2000s. Are we really in such a stable market? We are in a period of exuberance and Greenspan can tell us how that went in the early part of the 2000s.

Imploded: First Minnesota Bank, Minnetonka, Minnesota, Assumes All of the Deposits of 1st Regents Bank, Andover, Minnesota

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:29:49 GMT

First Minnesota Bank, Minnetonka, Minnesota, Assumes All of the Deposits of 1st Regents Bank, Andover, Minnesota, is the second FDIC bad bank hit list for 2013. The agency estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $10.5 million. Read our full coverage here.

Imploded: Westside Community Bank, University Place, Washington

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 02:30:00 GMT

Westside Community Bank, University Place, Washington, is number one on the FDIC bad bank hit list for 2013. The agency seized the small lender in Washington state, making it the first U.S. bank failure of 2013after 51 closures last year. The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $20.3 million. Read our full coverage here.