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U.S. Banking Crisis Accelerates: FDIC Bank Closures Well Ahead of Last Year

August 2nd, 2010 Comments off

The FDIC once again did its Friday Night below-the-radar exercise; shutting down insolvent banks while Americans and their news media were in low gear or distracted. This time, five more banks were shuttered, while the U.S. media overdosed on coverage of the wedding of the daughter of former president Bill Clinton.

With the FDIC closing of 5 banks in Oregon, Washington,  Florida and Georgia, the total for the first 7 months of 2010 stands at 108 failed institutions. This compares with a mere 69 at the same point last year. And 2009 was supposedly one of the worst years ever for bank closings in the United States since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Despite claims by U.S. economic policymakers that the American banking crisis was “cured” by the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve bailouts of the nation’s financial industry, there is no doubt that FDIC bank closings will set a record in 2010, eclipsing the already dismal figures for 2009.

In my book, “Global Economic Forecast 2010-2015: Recession Into Depression,”  I project a severe deterioration in the U.S. banking sector during the latter part of 2011. The accelerating pace of FDIC bank closings, combined with the  continuing global economic crisis and  indications of a double dip recession, would seem to provide growing validation of my prediction.

FDIC Begins 2010 With More Bank Closures

January 24th, 2010 Comments off

It is the third week of January, 2010 and the FDIC has already shut down 9 insolvent banks. True to form, these bank closures are typically announced on Friday nights, with the expectation that the weekend will allow only limited news coverage. Nevertheless, this attempt by the FDIC to manage the news and limit media exposure cannot disguise the fact that the American banking system enters 2010 in a state of acute fragility.

The seventh bank of 2010 to be shuttered was the Charter Bank in Santa Fe, the first bank in New Mexico to be closed in more than 10 years. Other bank closings occurred in Oregon, Washington, Florida, Missouri and Minnesota. All in all, not an auspicious beginning to 2010, the year that the Obama administration predicted would show strong economic growth and the emergence of the U.S. from recession and job losses.