Just as Lending Club announced that they had emerged from their quiet period, Prosper announced that they will be entering one.  A SEC “quiet period” is the period of time between the filing of the SEC paperwork and when the SEC officially accepts and marks the paperwork effective.   I can’t say that I completely understand [...]

Yesterday, WaMu lowered their interest rates on their high yield interest bearing savings.  Today, ING Direct announced a similar move. WaMu dropped their rate from 4.0% down to 3.0%.  Not entirely unexpected given their recent troubles and their buyout by JP Morgan Chase.  ING lowered their rate a little less drastically from 3.0% to 2.75%. [...]

Last week, it was announced that Wachovia was to be acquired by CitiGroup.  The deal was to have the assistance of the FDIC and the Treasury. Today, in a complete change of direction, Wachovia announced that they were instead going to be acquired by Wells Fargo.  The new deal, worth a reported $15.1 Billion will [...]

Finance Junkie at Pluggedinfinance had a pretty good idea.  Why not allow WalMart to bail out one of these failed banks? I think it’s a splendid idea.  I like WalMart.  I disagree with the arguement that WalMart puts mom and pops out of business.  I think that WalMart makes life better for a pretty large [...]

Earlier today, banking giant WaMu, was put into a conservatorship by the U.S. Treasury.  That’s a nice way of saying that the bank was failing and failing fast.  I’m of the opinion that if they can’t handle their money very well and fail, then let them fail.  Sure it disrupts things, but that’s the American [...]

I just got word that WaMu will be raising their rate on their online savings accounts to 4.00%!  Looks like the rates really might be back on the rise. Of course, WaMu is reportedly in trouble so it could just be a ploy to get some quick deposits so that they can get a little [...]

With apologies to Wil for republishing in entirety. REQUEST FOR URGENT CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP From: Minister of the Treasury Paulson Subject: REQUEST FOR URGENT CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP Dear American: I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude. I am Ministry of the Treasury [...]

The Dow dropped by nearly 504 points (503.99) yesterday.  Now what?  Don’t panic.  As the bells start ringing to open the markets again today, they will likely slip even further.  Don’t panic.  There’s a silver lining to this. I’m an optimist.  The glass is always half-full.  The silver lining here is actually a benefit of [...]

Mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will be placed into a conservator-ship by the Feds. The plan, which was delivered by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and James Lockhart, director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise, places the twin mortgage buyers into “conservatorship” to be overseen by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Under conservatorship, [...]

Emigrant Bank announced their newest high yield savings account today.  Called the Dollar Savings Direct account, it will pay out what they claim to be an industry high 3.75% on all balances over $1000. I believe that there is at least one account that pays higher than 3.75% and the WaMu account is paying out [...]