Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Credit Unions Seized, Bailout Asked

More evidence that we are not out of the woods of financial crisis yet, despite the federal government spending trillions to rescue the financial sector. On Friday three large wholesale credit unions which lost billions in the real estate bubble collapse were seized by federal authorities. The credit unions involved were holding toxic mortgage backed "assets" on their books.  Federal authorities at the National Credit Union Administration closed down the institutions located in Connecticut, Texas and Illinois. Forty-four is asking Congress for a bailout program for the 27 credit union wholesalers nationwide, ranging in size from $10 to $50 billion. Five wholesalers have been shut by regulators over the last 18 months. Gold also hit a new high on Friday (>$1300) as frightened investors scrambled for a safe haven in the face of news that the Fed will continue "quantitative easing" causing the dollar to devalue further. Unfortunately, every other major country in the world is following the same Pied Piper of cheap money into an economic policy cul de sac.

[chart: Martin Weiss @ marketoracle.com]