» What this means for consumers: This settlement isn’t simply something that affects Capital One’s customers — rather, it helps set some guidelines for the entire industry, by forcing stronger warnings on add-on services sold by credit card companies; by setting a standard for clear payouts of refunds to consumers; and by discouraging other companies from selling the programs, which many consumer advocates dismiss as “junk products.” Simply put, the Capital One settlement sets a future standard for the financial industry as they work with the CFPB.
Follow ShortFormBlog • Find us on Twitter & Facebook
» So, um, what happened?! To put it simply, the company has a lot of work to do to unravel the bad investments they made, and while they managed to pull out from the most volatile part, they haven’t gotten out entirely. Remember how angry you were when you found out JPMorgan Chase announced the trading loss? Quadruple that.
Follow ShortFormBlog • Find us on Twitter & Facebook
The return address was listed as a European central bank, which would likely increase the chances of him opening it.New York Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne • Discussing the package received by Josef Ackermann, the CEO of Germany’s Deutsche Bank, which contained a fully-functioning bomb. The bomb didn’t detonate and was intercepted before it reached the CEO. Officials are saying that mail rooms at financial institutions should tighter up their security after the incident. source (via • follow)
Here’s Bank of America’s stock over the past five years. Steep freefall, yes? Well, it looks like it might suck even more, because the company’s stock is right near the $5 mark for the second time since 2006; it it goes below it, investors would see extra restrictions placed on the stock. Bad things come in fives for BofA.
» A pretty hefty one-time charge: While Goldman Sachs’ profits for the current quarter, $2.74 billion, were down 21 percent from a year earlier because of the payday to their sugar daddy, if you don’t count the payment to Warren, their profits — $8.38 billion — would have been up by 49 percent from a year earlier. In other words, they’re richer than we are and Wall Street is celebrating.
Our investigation found a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest, and wrongdoing.Sen. Carl Levin • Offering an assessment of a report that his subcommittee, which is searching for the causes of the financial crisis, released about the crisis. The report singles out Goldman Sachs, calling it a “case study” for the conflicts of interest that abound around Wall Street — specifically for betting against the very subprime mortgage packages it was selling. Levin also wants to bring perjury charges against Goldman’s CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, for his testimony in Congress last year. In other words, someone has watched “Inside Job.” The stock market is down on the news of the 600-page report. source (via • follow)
» Whoa! Did your heart just stop? Ours did too. It actually created a short delay in posting this. *whew* Now that we’ve caught our breath, let us explain. After Bear Stearns went under in early 2008, a special plan was put in place to offer emergency, quickly-paid-back loans to banks during the financial crisis to ensure they continued to run smoothly. All loans required collateral, all were low-interest, and all have already been paid back. The program also ended in May of last year, so no worries about any residual effects. But yeah. Have you ever seen $9 trillion? It would probably require dozens of Scrooge McDuck’s money vaults.
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
