As the U.S. economy continues to try to climb out of the sinkhole left by the 2008 bank meltdown, looming disasters in Europe and Japan could end up plunging us back into a recession in the coming months, warns a new report from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. [More]
federal reserve bank
Federal Reserve Smacks Wells Fargo With $85 Million Fine
Punishing Wells Fargo for alleged mortgage funny business, the Federal Reserve has fined the bank $85 million. Accusations include falsifying mortgage applications to let unqualified borrowers receive mortgages and directing those with good credit into costly subprime mortgages. [More]
Report: Bank Of America Close To Paying $8.5 Billion Back To Securities Investors In Settlement
Bank of America is reportedly close to settling with investors burned by securities backed by mortgages from Countrywide Financial, which BofA acquired in 2008. The investors, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Blackrock Financial Management, have been twisting the bank’s arm to get it to buy back ill-advised loans that defaulted during the subprime mortgage crisis. [More]
Fed Says We Gotta Let Individual Banks Fail
A healthy economy “must be able to allow individual institutions to fail,” said Thomas Hoenig, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City president. He’s absolutely right. [NYT]