Collection of Interesting, Worth Reading NEWS, ANALYSIS & ARTICLES

The plan announced this week by the US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner is designed to clear away a large load of so-called “toxic assets” clogging up America’s financial system. But what are these assets? And how will the plan work?

Financial Times provides a very good video explanation that even the beginners can understand.

Here is the mother of all rescue plans!!! As we all know (If you don't know please READ HERE) that among all the issues, issue of toxic assets in at the center of all the banks. This issue in turn is affecting the ability of banks to extend more loans and hence making things worse. As NY Times states, it is believed that there are around $2 trillion of troubled assets that are ruining the balance sheets of banks. In his effort to bring the market back to normal Mr. Obama is planning three pronged approach.

1. To facilitate the selling of banks' troubled assets, FDIC will set up special purpose investment partnerships and lend nearly 85% of money that the above said partnerships will be needing.
2. US treasury will hire few investment management firms and will match the private money on dollar-for-dollar basis.
3. US Treasury, in collaboration with US Federal Reserve, is planning to expand lending through Term-Asset Backed Security Loan Facility (TABSLF). This is more targetted towards the individuals and small businesses. To read more about TABSLF click here OR here.

Rather than just the government doing it alone, it want to encourage private investors (Such as Hedhe Funds, PE firms) whose sentiments are at the lowest and who have put their money under the mattress. To do that FDIC will provide nonrecourse loans — that is, loans that are secured only by the value of the mortgage assets being bought — worth up to 85 percent of the value of a portfolio of troubled assets. The remaining 15 percent will come from the government and the private investors. The Treasury would put up as much as 80 percent of that, while private investors would put up as little as 20 percent of the money, according to industry officials. Private investors, then, would be contributing as little as 3 percent of the equity, and the government as much as 97 percent.

This sounds like a good plan but this plan alone (apart from other rescue packages) gonna cost US a whopping $1 Trillion and there are so many treacherous complexities that haven't been resolved since the bush government was in power.

Recently I stumbled upon an article on fixing the toxic asset problems of the US banks by Lowell Bryan and Toos Daruvala (Directors of the NY McKinsey Office). The article is well argued but as suggested it is just a conversation starter. They are arguing that mark-to-market (also called fair value accounting) is not good in times of high volatility and they are suggesting that mark-to-model approach is the best suited in these times. But they somehow overlooking the fact that mark-to-model has its own flaws because everybody will be having their own model and there will be no standards. On top of that investors are not fools who will believe the models of these financial institutions and they will still be more inclined towards the mark-to market model since value of a asset is its price in the market not in some formulae.

The original article can be read below:

I am starting my first entry with the some basics of the current state of the economy of the world. May of you would be wondering how this mess was created at the first place. Yes, the mess was created... it did not happen all by itself. You may say the cause to be greed, loose regulations or any other but something caused it. So read the following in the order they are written:

Financial Crisis for Beginners - There are lot of other articles on this page. If those interest you then do read them to get a full picture.

What is National Debt

Interest Rates for Beginners

Federal Reserve for Beginners

Bank Failures

Bank Runs

Above articles are basics. If you have some more energy to read then go through these articles as well. These are little more than beginner ones...

Primary Surpluses and Sustainable Debt Levels in Emerging Market Countries

Keynes Economics Theory

Keynes Theory being tested by Obama first time since it is written

The Recession Paradox: Spend Or Save?

Reviving The Economy: What Really Works?

And some other related ones that I thought will interest you are here...

How Hedge Funds and other investors are making money on toxic assets of banks

Wall Street on the Tundra (Iceland's Fall)