Finance my Money » banking http://financemymoney.com Mon, 14 May 2012 00:09:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Millionaire Matchmaker contestant and stories of the housing bubble. http://financemymoney.com/millionaire-matchmaker-contestant-and-stories-of-the-housing-bubble/ http://financemymoney.com/millionaire-matchmaker-contestant-and-stories-of-the-housing-bubble/#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:41:07 +0000 myfinance http://financemymoney.com/?p=753 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Millionaire Matchmaker contestant and stories of the housing bubble.", url: "http://financemymoney.com/millionaire-matchmaker-contestant-and-stories-of-the-housing-bubble/" });]]> I shouldn’t be surprised regarding some of the stories coming out from the actions taken by individuals during the housing craze.  There have been times that I have seen people at a store for example going absolutely nuts over one dollar for a purchased good.  Even within individuals you may know, I’m sure you would be reluctant to lend out money without seeking some sort of collateral.  The Millionaire Matchmaker contestant shows a case of simply not checking into the facts.

“(Forbes) While trouble is something that Prozer created, his real problems with the feds came when he recruited Wachovia Bank employee Fedor “Stan” Salinas to provide false information to another bank, Park Avenue in Valdosta, GA (closed by regulators in 2011 and assets given to Bank of the Ozarks), to secure a $3 million loan.  Salinas was paid $25,000 for telling Park Avenue Bank that Prozer had tens of millions of dollars on deposit at Wachovia. Prozer got the $3 million loan, which he never repaid.  Salinas also pled guilty yesterday.”

Did you catch all that?  Basically, this person had someone provide false information to get a real $3 million loan that he never repaid.  Multiply this case by hundreds of thousands and you can get a sense why things fell completely apart.

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]]> http://financemymoney.com/millionaire-matchmaker-contestant-and-stories-of-the-housing-bubble/feed/ 0 How many banks are in the US? Number of US banks shrinks while banking assets increase. http://financemymoney.com/how-many-banks-are-in-the-us-number-of-us-banks/ http://financemymoney.com/how-many-banks-are-in-the-us-number-of-us-banks/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:39:42 +0000 myfinance http://financemymoney.com/?p=683 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "How many banks are in the US? Number of US banks shrinks while banking assets increase.", url: "http://financemymoney.com/how-many-banks-are-in-the-us-number-of-us-banks/" });]]> Do you ever wonder how many banks are active in the United States?  Do you ever think about the amount of assets held at these banks?  More people today have taken a thorough desire at learning the details about their banking system and this is for the better.  US banks are backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC for short.  What is surprising since the financial crisis hit is that the total asset base of banks has increased while the number of US banks has actually decreased.  One of the big issues was around the too big to fail banks of our current banking system.  Much of the banking wealth is aggregated into a few large banks.  Not much has changed to reverse the too big to fail model.  To the contrary these too big to fail banks have gotten even bigger.  So how many banks are in the US?

dollar bill george washington

How many banks are in the US?

To find the current figure on banking data we can head over to the FDIC site and pull up a few charts.  The first chart will look at the total number of US banks:
number of us banks

Source:  FDIC

The number of FDIC insured banks is under 7,500.  The trend has moved in one direction since 1995.  It is surprising to many Americans that even prior to the Great Depression, the US had over 20,000 active banks.  The consolidation of banking into a few larger banks is a long-term trend.

While the overall total number of banks has shrunk, the total asset base has increased:

assets of savings institutions

US banks have roughly $14 trillion in total assets.  The term asset is used loosely because many of these banks have real estate loans that are valued significantly lower than their current book value.  In accounting you are taught to mark-to-market values to get an accurate picture of your true holdings but this rule was suspended during this crisis.

The rise of problem institutions is still very high for US banks.

problem bank list

While much of the current data seems to pointing at more jobs, there are still a number of banks in deep trouble.  Keep in mind that US banks need to keep certain capital requirements just to stay compliant.  A recent stress test done by the government found that four large banks failed the actual test.

How many banks are in the US?  The total number is 7,357.

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]]> http://financemymoney.com/how-many-banks-are-in-the-us-number-of-us-banks/feed/ 0 Over 67 percent of Americans not happy with the size and influence of corporations. http://financemymoney.com/over-67-percent-of-americans-not-happy-with-the-size-and-influence-of-corporations/ http://financemymoney.com/over-67-percent-of-americans-not-happy-with-the-size-and-influence-of-corporations/#comments Sat, 05 Feb 2011 17:58:06 +0000 myfinance http://financemymoney.com/?p=535 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Over 67 percent of Americans not happy with the size and influence of corporations.", url: "http://financemymoney.com/over-67-percent-of-americans-not-happy-with-the-size-and-influence-of-corporations/" });]]> As it turns out many Americans are not happy with the size and influence of the current corporation structure.  This should come as no surprise as the middle class continues to shrink and is getting smaller by the day.  A recent survey by none other than Gallup found that 67 percent of Americans are not happy with the current structure of the corporate machine:

“(The Coming Collapse Blog) The American people are becoming increasingly angry about the extraordinary amount of power and influence that corporations have in the United States today.  A new Gallup poll found that 67 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the size and influence of major corporations in the United States today.  Not only that, the most recent Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index found that only 26 percent of Americans trust our financial system at this point.  The mainstream media is acting as if this is a new phenomenon, but the truth is that a dislike of giant corporations goes all the way back to the founding of this nation.  Our founders held a deep distrust for all big concentrations of power, and they intended to set up a nation where no one person or no one institution could become too powerful.

Unfortunately, we have very much strayed from those principles.  In the United States today, the federal government completely dominates all other levels of government and mammoth international corporations completely dominate our economy.

If our founding fathers could see what is going on today they would probably roll over in their graves.

The history of the corporation can be traced back to the early part of the 17th century when Queen Elizabeth I established the East India Trading Company.

Our founders were not too fond of the East India Trading Company.  In fact, it was their tea that was dumped into the harbor during the original Boston Tea Party.”

Will our government do any significant reforms?  Time will tell.

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