Bitácora del capitán. Fecha estelar 06012012. Pasamos la crisis, pero olvidamos los detalles. He repasado algunas noticias relevantes para traer de vuelta a la memoria aquellos hechos que ya olvidamos, en un intento por extraer alguna enseñanza, o mirar atrevidamente adonde nadie ha mirado antes.
Londres, 1 de diciembre de 2009
Tras la crisis, con todo el dinero que se han ganado los banqueros a partir de todo el dinero que perdió muchísima gente, ese dinero ganado por los banqueros ha servido para impulsar la industria del adulterio. Definitivamente una manera de "construir un mundo mejor". ¿Mejor para quién? Pues evidentemente para la industria del adulterio que hace esposas y niños felices.
Reviled by the public and spurned in private, bankers have been looking for solace in adultery, according to a dating website for people seeking affairs. IllicitEncounters.com said it has seen a huge increase in the number of financial workers signing up to have affairs after the collapse of the markets in October last year, and that "finance" continued to be one of the most represented professional areas on the site. - Bankers having more affairs in recession: website
23 de diciembre de 2009
Imagina que compras un seguro contra accidente en caso de que tu vecino sufra uno, y luego le vendes un coche con los frenos defectuosos. De esta manera los bancos vendieron deudas malas, y ganaron. El banco definitivamente no es tu amigo (Véase post de Fernan2, Asesoramiento financiero: el banco NO ES tu amigo), lo que pasa es que mucha gente hoy sigue sin entrender eso.
Mr. Egol, a Princeton graduate, had risen to prominence inside the bank by creating mortgage-related securities, named Abacus, that were at first intended to protect Goldman from investment losses if the housing market collapsed. As the market soured, Goldman created even more of these securities, enabling it to pocket huge profits. Goldman’s own clients who bought them, however, were less fortunate. Pension funds and insurance companies lost billions of dollars on securities that they believed were solid investments, according to former Goldman employees with direct knowledge of the deals who asked not to be identified because they have confidentiality agreements with the firm. Goldman was not the only firm that peddled these complex securities — known as synthetic collateralized debt obligations, or C.D.O.’s — and then made financial bets against them, called selling short in Wall Street parlance. - Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won
Washington, 6 de enero de 2010
La reforma financiera, tremendamente impopular entre los banqueros, le costó la cabeza a un senador que impulsaba la reforma, al salir a la luz pública que él tenía muchos ligámenes con la industria bancaria.
Veteran Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd said on Wednesday he will not seek re-election in November in recognition that he faced an uphill battle and underscoring upheaval facing President Barack Obama's Democrats. Dodd, 65, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and leader of a financial regulations overhaul in the Senate, has been dogged by questions over his financial industry connections and was trailing badly in polls in his home state of Connecticut. - Banking chief Dodd to leave Senate
10 de enero de 2010
El crédito bancario seguía paralizado en EUA, reduciendo la liquidez de la economía y causando paro. Se pone de relieve las indecentes bonificaciones que los bancos pagaron a ejecutivos, pues el rescate bancario, que se iba a usar para que los bancos prestaran ese dinero a empresas y personas, se usó para cubrir faltantes de dinero, lo que se conoce como "activos tóxicos" (¿Qué son activos tóxicos y qué es un rescate a los bancos?). Y al cubrirse con el rescate (hoy le llaman recapitalización) llamado TARP, eso permite a los bancos mostrar que tienen ganancias, que en realidad son subsidiadas por los contribuyentes. Dicen que es un préstamo, pero se paga a una tasa inferior a la de los bonos del tesoro a 10 años, lo cual significa que bastaría que usaran el dinero para comprar bonos, para que en lugar de pagar intereses al gobierno, terminen recibiendo dinero de intereses del gobierno. Es decir, tras de que la deben, la cobran.
Industry executives acknowledge that the numbers being tossed around — six-, seven- and even eight-figure sums for some chief executives and top producers — will probably stun the many Americans still hurting from the financial collapse and ensuing Great Recession. Goldman Sachs is expected to pay its employees an average of about $595,000 apiece for 2009, one of the most profitable years in its 141-year history. Workers in the investment bank of JPMorgan Chase stand to collect about $463,000 on average. Many executives are bracing for more scrutiny of pay from Washington, as well as from officials like Andrew M. Cuomo, the attorney general of New York, who last year demanded that banks disclose details about their bonus payments. Some bankers worry that the United States, like Britain, might create an extra tax on bank bonuses, and Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, is proposing legislation to do so. Those worries aside, few banks are taking immediate steps to reduce bonuses substantially. Instead, Wall Street is confronting a dilemma of riches: How to wrap its eye-popping paychecks in a mantle of moderation. Because of the potential blowback, some major banks are adjusting their pay practices, paring or even eliminating some cash bonuses in favor of stock awards and reducing the portion of their revenue earmarked for pay. - Bank Bonuses, Bigger Than Ever, in the Spotlight
Londres, 11 de enero de 2010
Como las bonificaciones por buenos resultados subsidiados por el contribuyente eran un problema, los banqueros encontraron una salida fácil. Bajarían las bonificaciones, pero se subirían el salario. ¡Ah! ¡Es que siempre hay una solución simple a los problemas complicados!
Most banks have increased basic salaries and cut bonuses for executives in response to calls for leaner compensation packages after the financial crisis, according to a survey by consultancy Mercer. Four fifths of respondents in a survey of 61 banks and other financial services firms said they had made or plan to make changes to annual bonuses and short-term incentives. Some 65 percent of banks had increased basic salaries, while 88 percent decreased the weighting of bonuses in their compensation mix, according to the study. Banks were blamed for rewarding excessive risk-taking with generous bonuses and fostering a short-term culture, which led to the financial meltdown. - Banks lift executive salaries, cut bonuses
Washington, 13 de enero de 2010
Llaman a comparecer a los banqueros. Por supuesto ninguno acepta haber tenido falta alguna.
Summoned to Capitol Hill to explain their companies’ roles in the worst economic downturn since the Depression, leaders of four big Wall Street banks offered a largely clinical take on the financial crisis on Wednesday, pointing to lapses in risk management and government regulation but offering little sense of the turmoil’s human toll. Mr. Blankfein parried repeated questions over his bank’s extraordinary profits and salaries. At one point, when he likened aspects of the financial crisis to a “hurricane” and similar acts of God, the commission’s chairman, Phil Angelides, a Democrat and former California state treasurer, cut in to say, “Acts of God, we’ll exempt. These were acts of men and women.”. The House last month adopted a broad overhaul that would give the government new powers to break up huge companies, create a new consumer financial protection agency and tighten oversight of derivates trading. The Senate has yet to vote on the measure. Regulators are investigating whether Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms deliberately packaged troubled mortgages and passed the bonds off as sound investments even while Goldman and the other banks bet against those bonds, a point on which Mr. Angelides pressed Mr. Blankfein. “I do think that the behavior is improper,” Mr. Blankfein said, adding, “We regret the consequence that people lost money in it.” The four banks represented at Wednesday’s hearing have mostly returned money they received through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the 2008 effort that pumped capital into banks in an effort to spur lending. Officials from two of the biggest beneficiaries of that bailout, Citigroup and the American International Group, are expected to face the commission soon. - Voices That Dominate Wall Street Take a Meeker Tone on Capitol Hill
Wall Street's chiefs acknowledged taking on "too much risk" and having "choked" on their own cooking, but stopped short of an apology as they sparred with a commission looking into the origins of the financial crisis. The first public hearing of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission came on Wednesday as the Obama administration readies a plan to recoup taxpayer bailout funds through a special bank fee and lawmakers wrestle with changes to financial regulation. - Barons of Wall St concede failures; no apology
14 de enero de 2010
El editor de negocios Robert Peston comenta acerca de las declaraciones de Lloyd Blankfein, banquero de Goldman Sachs, pues el banquero dijo que estaba "haciendo el trabajo de Dios".
First he inadvertently devised the phrase - "Goldman Sachs, doing God's work" - that perhaps best captured the miracle of banks' astonishingly short journey from crisis and rescue to boom revenues and bumper bonuses. And yesterday he was on the receiving end of a resonant jibe about investment banks' ethics in selling mortgaged-backed securities to clients and then betting the firms' capital that these securities would fall in value. "It sounds to me a little bit like selling a car with faulty brakes and then buying an insurance policy on the buyer of those cars," Philip Angelides, chairman of the historic Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission told Blankfein yesterday. "It doesn't seem to me that that's a practice that inspires confidence in the markets." - Obama's bigger rod for banks
Nueva York, 22 de enero de 2010
Obama pretendía ponerle coto a los abusos bancarios al imponer medidas que tendrían un efecto similar al de separar banca de depósitos y banca de inversión para evitar que incurrieran en riesgos excesivos. Fue una buena utopía esperanzadora, como el discurso de "Yes, we can". Pero "the powers that be" (los adinerados que se llaman hoy "los mercados") pronto le serrucharon el piso a la iniciativa.
President Barack Obama's plan to limit financial risk-taking could force banks, such as Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan, to shed parts of their private equity operations. Among the proposals, which require congressional approval, is that banks or financial institutions that own banks would not be able to own, invest in or sponsor private equity funds unrelated to serving customers. A number of banks have sizeable private equity interests, for example, JPMorgan's One Equity Partners, manages $8 billion of investments and commitments for the bank, while Goldman Sachs has a vast private equity business, and invests its own capital in its funds. - Banks may shed private equity assets in Obama plan
27 de enero 2010
Adair Turner del Financial Services Authority defendió en Davos la necesidad de restringir crédito cuando hay un auge inmobiliario. ¿Le habrán escuchado?
In an interview with me at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he threw his weight behind the creation of a new official body, which would have a mandate to assess whether financial bubbles are being created and would have powers to deter lending in those circumstances. He used the example of the commercial property sector, which has crashed spectacularly over the past two years. If in the future commercial property prices started to rise excessively fast, Lord Turner would want to see a new official body pushing up the cost for banks of lending to commercial property businesses and projects. - Turner wants new powers to restrict lending in a boom
17 de marzo 2010
Los bancos no quieren que haya protección contra sobregiros para los consumidores. Si te compras una taza de café y te pasas del saldo cero de la cuenta e incurres en sobregiro, te cobran una comisión. Los bancos no quieren que la gente pueda evitar ese pago, lo que obliga a la gente a mantener un control propio de su saldo al centavo, a la hora de gastar dinero de su cuenta.
A top bank regulator said on Wednesday that the "jury's still out" about whether consumers want controversial overdraft protection that can charge them large fees for accidentally overdrawing their accounts. - A top bank regulator said on Wednesday that the "jury's still out" about whether consumers want controversial overdraft protection that can charge them large fees for accidentally overdrawing their accounts. - Bank cop says jury still out on overdraft fees
18 de marzo de 2010
El Transaction Account Guarantee o TAG era un programa de la FDIC que garantiza los depósitos de ahorrantes, que era parte del Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program para calmar los miedos de depositantes en bancos que posiblemente podrían tener problemas. El miedo continuaba y se extendió el TAG.
U.S. bank regulators may extend a guarantee program set up at the peak of the financial crisis, fearing that ending the program could spark liquidity failures at small banks. Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, said on Thursday that the agency is considering extending the Transaction Account Guarantee program, known as TAG. - Bank regulators may extend crisis-era guarantee
Nueva York/Charlotte, 21 de abril de 2010
La premisa básica de que si le va mal al consumidor le va mal a las empresas se pone de manifiesto cuando debido al paro, los precios de las casas bajan, así como la demanda de crédito. Es una verdad que estaba frente a sus narices, y como decidieron cerrar los ojos y seguir con la fe en su ideología de que salvando a la banca le va mejor a la gente, la crisis continuó. Quizás en España podrían aprender de esto, ahora que piensan rescatar bancos otra vez. Es que la mejor manera de salvar el barco es salvar a los marineros (ciudadanos/consumidores) que achican el agua, en lugar de dejar morir a marineros para salvar el barco que se hunde. Es una verdad que nadie quiere ver.
Banks including Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) said the credit losses that have plagued the financial sector amid the recession are easing but they are making fewer new loans. Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest bank in the United States by assets, posted a slightly lower first-quarter profit as mortgage originations dropped after a boom in mortgage refinancing in the year-earlier quarter. Regional U.S. banks have struggled as high U.S. unemployment and falling home prices hurt their core business of lending to consumers and local businesses. - Banks' loan losses easing but demand down
Washington, 23 de abril de 2010
Hubo una época muy efímera de esperanzas y sueños utópicos, donde la banca enfrentaba la posibilidad de volverse "aburridamente" adversa al riesgo bajo las condiciones que propnía la reforma financiera de Obama. Esto por supuesto significaría menos ganancias para los adúlteros banqueros, y menores faltantes y eliminación de la necesidad de rescatar bancos al eliminar las causas de los faltantes. Desafortunadamente la reforma no prosperó y lo que se aprueba es sólo una caricatura de la reforma original, una serie de medidas cosméticas que no resuelven problemas de fondo. Por supuesto, luego la gente aterrizó en la realidad. Dicen que unos nacen con estrella, y otros nacen estrellados.
If Congress approves financial regulation reform -- and that looks likely to happen soon -- banking stands to become a duller business. On the "out" list will be unrestrained trading desks spitting out exotic debt instruments. On the "in" list will be the banker trying to find a solid, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage for borrowers with good income. That culture shift is a specific goal of the Obama administration and congressional Democrats, seeking to reshape bank oversight after the worst financial crisis in 70 years. The U.S. action follows huge taxpayer-funded bank bailouts and parallels efforts in Europe to tighten oversight. Measures could include new taxes on financial institutions and higher capital requirements. - Banks face pressure to get dull
Londres, 29 de abril de 2010
Un comité de bancos centrales acordó nuevas reglas porque los bancos estaban moviendo activos para evitar cargos. Los bancos querían que se retrasara la medida.
A global committee of central bankers and supervisors is not looking to delay tough new capital requirements on bank trading books from next January despite industry concern, a committee official said on Thursday. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision agreed the new rules last year to plug a loophole highlighted by the financial crisis, whereby assets were moved from the bank book to the trading book to avoid heavy capital charges. "The committee is not considering a delay. We have not in any way discussed postponing that," Basel Committee Secretary General Stefan Walter told the Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit. - Basel sticks to new bank capital deadlines
Londres, 14 de junio de 2010
Los bancos se niegan a asumir pérdidas por la crisis financiera por medio de reestructuraciones de deuda. Adivinen quienes son los que tienen que asumir las pérdidas.
Banks unwilling to take losses on their troubled property assets are limiting restructuring experts to giving them one-dimensional deleveraging strategies, possibly extending a credit logjam for a decade. Simon Davies, managing director in the restructuring and reorganization group at Blackstone (BX.N), said real estate had degenerated into a "amend and extend business" where stressed creditors tended to view active restructuring as a last resort. - Banks resist restructuring pain: Blackstone
7 de diciembre de 2010
Finalmente le explican al americano promedio lo que era el TARP. Es decir, vivió toda esta crisis y hasta el final le explicaron un poco. Muy poco y demasiado tarde, porque muchos americanos ya viven en la ruina y la pobreza.
The Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as TARP and more familiarly as "the bank bailout'' was hastily put in place in September 2008 as stock markets plunged, credit markets around the globe seized up and the world seemed on the verge of a cataclysmic financial meltdown. Congress authorized the Treasury Department to use up to $700 billion to stabilize financial markets through the program -- a step that inspired widespread public outrage, helping to fuel what became the Tea Party Movement, and, in the mind of most economists, one that played a crucial role in pulling the global economy back from the brink. In a report released in October, the administration said it expected a $17 billion loss from its investments in General Motors, Chrysler and the auto finance companies, as well as a $46 billion loss from housing programs like the mortgage modification program known as the Home Affordable Modification Program. - Credit Crisis — Bailout Plan (TARP)
La jerga financiera está llena de términos que no son nada complicados, pero que los hacen complicados a propósito para hacer que la gente no entienda nada. Si quieres averiguar el significado puedes consultar el glosario de la BBC: Financial glossary.
Todavía sin final feliz a 2 años de aquellos tumultuosos eventos, no sabemos si habrá luz al final del tunel. No sabemos si los que causaron la crisis se saldrán con la suya como lo han hecho en los últimos 400 años. Lo que sí sabemos es que muchos americanos aún no entienden la estafa de la que fueron víctimas, y padecieron a causa de un problema que no causaron.