By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums
The U.S. banking industry enjoyed its second-most profitable year in history in 2012, according to a new report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., but that may not be enough to save the jobs of thousands of bankers.
"I'm going to save more."
U.S. banks ended 2012 with their best profits since 2006 and fewer failures than at any time since the financial crisis struck in 2008. They're helping support an economy slowed by high unemployment, flat pay, sluggish manufacturing and anxious consumers.
U.S. banks are ending the year with their best profits since 2006 and fewer failures than at any time since the financial crisis struck in 2008. They're helping support an economy slowed by high unemployment, flat pay, sluggish manufacturing and anxious consumers.
Vilified as a chief cause of the global financial crisis three years ago, America's banks appear to be quietly on the mend.
A federal program giving unlimited insurance guarantees to some no-interest bank accounts, enacted at the height of the financial meltdown, will die out at the end of the year after the defeat of a Senate plan to extend it.
Last week, Christine Jacobs, the CEO of Theragenics Corp., a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange that makes medical devices and is involved in cutting-edge cancer cures, wrote a letter to President Obama explaining why it was necessary to "begin moving our U.S. manufacturing to Costa Rica."
U.S. banks are enjoying their best profits in six years and are lending a bit more freely. The gradual improvement suggests that the industry will sustain its healing from the worst financial crisis in decades and help strengthen the economy.
Mitt Romney decried the Dodd-Frank Act as "the biggest kiss that's been given to New York banks I've ever seen." Since its passage, 122 community banks have closed. If the election had turned out differently, there would have been a prospect of repealing Dodd-Frank. There still may be grounds for a modicum of reform, particularly of "too big to fail" (TBTF) banks and doctrine.
How much drama can take place in boardrooms and on intra-agency phone conferences? Sheila Bair aims to find out in her financial-crisis memoir, "Bull by the Horns: Fighting to Save Main Street From Wall Street and Wall Street From Itself."
Vikram Pandit abruptly stepped down as CEO of Citigroup on Tuesday, surprising Wall Street, after steering the bank through the 2008 financial crisis and the choppy years that followed.
Last week, following the presidential debate, national attention was again focused on the Dodd-Frank Act, the Obama administration’s response to the financial crisis. The attention is well deserved: Dodd-Frank, Obamacare and the threat of higher taxes brought on by January’s fiscal cliff are among the chief reasons why the U.S. economy is stuck in its weakest recovery on record.
Discover Bank will pay millions in fees to settle accusations by regulators that it pressured credit card customers to buy costly add-on services such as payment protection and credit monitoring.
Apple on Wednesday revealed that the new iPhone 5 will be in stores in the U.S. and several other countries on Sept. 21.
U.S. bank earnings rose 21 percent in the April-June quarter and lending to consumers increased, adding to evidence that the industry is strengthening four years after the financial crisis.
