Banks Financial activity

The best ways of investing money

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:10:16 -0800

Money is anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts. The main uses of money are as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value.

The word "money" is believed to originate from a temple of Hera, located on Capitoline, one of Rome's seven hills. In the ancient world Hera was often associated with money. The temple of Juno Moneta at Rome was the place where the mint of Ancient Rome was located. The name "Juno" may derive from the Etruscan goddess Uni and "Moneta" either from the Latin word "monere" or the Greek word "moneres".

One of money's problem is their investing.

Successful investing requires you to understand your financial goals and the nature of your finances. Investments form an important part of financial planning. Someone has said that anyone can earn money, but it takes intelligence to invest it.

Whether you can afford to take out the mortgage?

admin — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:08:57 -0800

When you take out a mortgage there are many things that you need to consider, and whilst the interest rate and repayment period are of paramount importance it is important to remember that there are a number of other fees that are linked to mortgages. It is vital that you are aware of the different fees that come with mortgages before you make any commitment, as learning about these fees will ensure that you know what you are getting into, what sorts of costs you are facing, and whether you can afford to take out the mortgage.

Mortgage organisation or arrangement fee: When you take out a mortgage loan you may be charged an organisation of arrangement fee by the company that has arranged or set up the mortgage loan. You should expect to pay around 2% or under by way of this fee, and if the fee is any higher than this you should seriously consider shopping around, as you can save yourself money by doing this.

A devaluation can raise the dollar value of all assets

admin — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:18:19 -0800

What began as government social tinkering--with implied threats to banks and mortgage companies to extend home loans to even the most marginal of borrowers--led to a greed-blinded mortgage banking business and the meltdown we are experiencing today. Now we are asked by the same congressional leadership to go along with taxpayer-funded bailouts of the very banksters who, while making millions, created the mess.

Despite the trillions of dollars already expended recapitalizing banks, there is very little, if any, progress to show. Will a few trillion more do the trick? That seems to be the consensus among Congress and the banks. "They are simply too big to let fail," or are they really just too big to save? We can go back to "Plan A" and buy the toxic assets. If so, at what price? What if a few trillion does not remove enough toxic waste from the system or doesn't get credit flowing again and the economy bustling?

Some argue that it is time to help Main Street, not Wall Street. So, we should "forgive" some of the mortgages for those who are 90 days or more behind on their payments. Have you quit paying yet?

The most severe financial crisis since the 1930s

admin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:05:52 -0800

The current credit crunch is the most severe financial crisis since the 1930s and that marks the end of an era of credit expansion based on the dollar. A new paradigm is urgently needed to better understand what is going on. The paradigm used until now by most economists was based on false premises.

The existing paradigm, often referred to as free-market fundamentalism, holds that markets are self-correcting, that they naturally tend toward equilibrium. Economists as far back as Adam Smith have argued against regulation or government intervention of any kind since it would interfere with the natural forces of the market.

Since 1980, we have had about five or six crises. Most serious of these crises are: the international banking crisis in 1982, the bankruptcy of Continental Illinois in 1984, and the failure of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998.

Bank of America - one of the largest banks by assets and commercial banks in the USA

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:45:52 -0800

Prior to 1999, the Bank of America that we know today was known under the name of NationsBank. Even earlier the organization was called North Carolina National Bank. As the institution branched out of its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, its name was abbreviated to NCNB. After NationsBank purchased BankAmerica with its headquarters in San Francisco, the corporation changed its name into Bank of America.

The Roots

In 1904 a man named Amadeo Giannini founded the Bank of Italy which operated in San Francisco. The Bank of Italy mainly based on catering to immigrants. The founder himself was the child of Fava/Stanghellini family. His father was shot dead after he tried to collect on a $10 debt.

Orra E. Monnette was the president and founder of Bank of America, Los Angeles somewhere in the 1920s. At this time Amadeo Giannini decided to propose Monnette a merger. It is worth mentioning that in 1920 the Bank of America, located in Los Angeles, registered an impressive increase mainly because of its successful strategy in developing an improved branch banking system.

The credit crunch has dramatically increased the potential returns

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:49:40 -0800

DAVID WIGHTON - the FT’s US BANKING EDITOR — One of the top bankers in New York sums up the key for the Wall Street banks in 2008 in one word: capital.

The credit crunch has dramatically increased the potential returns for banks with free capital to deploy. “We can make three or four times what we did six months ago using our balance sheet,” he says.

The rub is, of course, that capital is tight on Wall Street.

The subprime meltdown has left the banks with massive losses while risks they thought had been passed to other investors are bouncing back on to their balance sheets.

The past few weeks have seen Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch raising tens of billions of dollars, largely from investors in Asia and the Middle East.

The oldest banks in the world

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:20:05 -0800

Banks act as payment agents by conducting checking or current accounts for customers, paying cheques drawn by customers on the bank, and collecting cheques deposited to customers' current accounts. Banks also enable customer payments via other payment methods such as telegraphic transfer, EFTPOS, and ATM.

The name bank derives from the Italian word banco "desk/bench", used during the Renaissance by Florentines bankers, who used to make their transactions above a desk covered by a green tablecloth. However, there are traces of banking activity even in ancient times.

In fact, the word traces its origins back to the Ancient Roman Empire, where moneylenders would set up their stalls in the middle of enclosed courtyards called macella on a long bench called a bancu, from which the words banco and bank are derived. As a moneychanger, the merchant at the bancu did not so much invest money as merely convert the foreign currency into the only legal tender in Rome—that of the Imperial Mint.

Financial system that engenders systemic risk

admin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:32:58 -0800

The current credit crisis has prompted many calls for regulation to prevent such an event from ever happening again. Economies that risk occasional credit crises enjoy higher long-run growth, and the cost of the

bailout is well within historical norms. ( about crisis see also " George Soros about the Financial Crisis " )

As the US economy is hit by the financial crisis and associated bailout costs, it is useful to take an international perspective on current events. In the last three decades, many developing countries have also experienced financial crises and large bailouts. Yet, the growth gains brought by financial liberalisation and deregulation have, in most cases, far more than offset the output and bailout costs of crises. Importantly, financial liberalisation by itself did not generate crises – government meddling and implicit bailout guarantees were often involved. In many ways, the US story is not so different.

In the current debate, pundits are railing against the enormity and unfairness of the US bailout, not to mention the bad precedent it will set. Many also point to financial deregulation as a key cause of the crisis. But the facts suggest otherwise.

Financial Crisis is a Death of Capitalism

admin — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:24:35 -0800

KABIRU DANLADI’s OPINION, DAILY TRUST (ABUJA) — After two centuries of being a world super power, recent events point to the fall of the greatest super power in the history of the modern world - the American Empire. Writing in his Foundation stories to show that every Empire, even the most powerful one, has to fall eventually, Isaac Asimov, a Russian commentator said that everyone knows that America achieved its peak power and world influence in the twentieth century. But how much longer is it going to last?

It is very hard to predict what will happen in the next few years, basically because we still have little knowledge of what is happening inside the country. The only thing that came to us is what is sieved through their powerful media and the media help a lot to hide the realities on ground. But, as Asimov observed, there are certain signs that may give early hints that the end is approaching. One of them is the recent financial crisis that hit the country. Today the father and mother of modern capitalism is making provision for 'intervention' to save their financial market from shrinking further.

History lessons for financial crisis

admin — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:44:36 -0800

A global financial crisis of the current magnitude is unique. But two historic events offer lessons for a way out, say economists.

First, move with alacrity. During the Great Depression a protracted delay in aiding banks proved fatal – a lesson Britain and now, this week, the United States have taken on. Second, coordinate globally. The Bretton Woods agreement near the end of World War II became an effective tool for reworking a shattered world economy. Calls for a second Bretton Woods are now being sounded by such figures as Britain's Prime Minster Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and World Bank president Robert Zoellick.

Central to European leaders discussions Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels is this motto: A global crisis requires a global solution. The subtext is that much tougher regulation is required.