Judging by all the ads I saw on my commute this morning, Capital One has rolled out a new marketing campaign. At least half-a-dozen ads on my Metro car announced that Capital One offers interest rates that are five times higher than offered by their competitors: And what is that 5x interest rate? Just one percent. Such are [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Banks’
Bank Marketing When Interest Rates Are Almost Zero
Posted in Business, Macroeconomics, tagged Banks, Capital One, Interest Rates, Marketing on October 13, 2011 | 2 Comments »
A Second Thought on the Cost of TARP
Posted in Budget, Finance, tagged AIG, Auto, Banks, Budget, CBO, Finance, TARP on December 1, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Two commenters (Jack B. and John L.) raise an important point about the $25 billion price tag that the Congressional Budget Office recently placed on the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Their concern is that the $25 billion figure includes some impacts that should rightfully be attributed to other government actions, not to TARP itself. To illustrate, suppose that [...]
How Much Did TARP Cost? $25 Billion
Posted in Budget, Finance, tagged AIG, Auto, Banks, Budget, CBO, Finance, TARP on November 29, 2010 | 15 Comments »
The much-maligned TARP program will cost taxpayers only $25 billion according to the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. That’s substantially less than the $66 billion CBO estimated back in August or the $113 billion that the Office of Management and Budget estimated in October. The good news, budget-wise, is that the government is [...]
The Looming Budget Battle over the Bank Tax
Posted in Budget, Finance, Politics, tagged Banks, Budget, Deficit, Finance, TARP, Taxes on May 4, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner appeared before the Senate Finance Committee today to push the Administration’s proposal for a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee, more commonly known as the Bank Tax. The purpose of the fee is to [M]ake sure that the direct costs of TARP are paid for by the major financial institutions, not by the [...]
Microlending Comes to Washington
Posted in Economy, Finance, tagged Banks, Finance on March 31, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Banks continue to be reluctant to lend to small businesses. As a result, NPR reports (ht Ray), some small businesses are turning to a form of microlending. A case in point is Ryan Fochler, a pet care entrepreneur: After being turned down by bank after bank, Fochler came across the Latino Economic Development Corporation, a [...]
Can TARP Be Used to Pay for a New Jobs Program?
Posted in Budget, Finance, Politics, tagged Banks, Mortgage, Stimulus, TARP on December 4, 2009 | 10 Comments »
Washington is abuzz with the idea that Congress, the White House, or both may try to use unspent TARP funds as a way to promote job creation (see, e.g., this WSJ story and this WaPo story). Over the past two days, many reporters have asked me about the mechanics of this idea–can the government really [...]
Capital One Warrants Bring in $146.5 Million
Posted in Auctions, Finance, tagged Auctions, Banks, TARP on December 4, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday the Treasury auctioned off its TARP warrants in Capital One. Treasury sold the warrants for $11.75 a piece, well above its $7.50 reserve price, but below some private estimates of $19.00 or more. I wouldn’t have gone as high as $19.00 myself, but I would have ended up a winner in the auction if [...]
TARP Warrants: Let the Bidding Begin
Posted in Auctions, Finance, tagged Auctions, Banks, TARP, Warrants on December 2, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Thursday is a nice milestone in TARP’s history: with the help of Deutsche Bank, Treasury is auctioning off the warrants it received when it invested in Capital One. The company has already paid off the preferred stock that the government purchased last fall, and will now be free from TARP oversight once the warrants are [...]
Lessons from the Fall of Lehman
Posted in Economy, Finance, Macroeconomics, tagged Banks, Citigroup, Economics, Fannie Mae, Finance, Freddie Mac, Lehman on September 16, 2009 | 4 Comments »
As you have undoubtedly noticed, this week marks the one-year anniversary of the fall of Lehman Brothers–the moment at which the financial crisis became a severe economic crisis. I did an interview on Fox Business on Tuesday to discuss some of the lessons learned. (My wife’s comment on the interview: “You need to straighten your collar [...]
Wall Street Goes to Washington
Posted in Economy, Finance, Politics, Regulation, Uncategorized, tagged Banks, Economics, Fannie Mae, FDIC, Federal Reserve, Finance, Freddie Mac, J.P. Morgan, Lehman, Pimco, Politics, Regulation, TARP on September 13, 2009 | 2 Comments »
A front page story in today’s Washington Post (“In Shift, Wall Street Goes to Washington“) documents the Capital’s rising importance in the financial world: J.P. Morgan Chase for the first time convened its board in Washington this summer, calling the directors to a meeting at the downtown Hay-Adams hotel, then dispatching them to Capitol Hill [...]
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