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Banks Admit Bailout Won't Work

Posted Oct 17, 2008 09:48am EDT by Henry Blodget in Investing, Recession, Banking

From ClusterStock.com, Oct. 17, 2008:

So much for that story. A few days ago, when Hank Paulson called the heads of the nine families to Washington and shoved cash down their throats, he announced that the banks would use this new taxpayer cash to lend.  They won't, of course. They'll hoard it like a starving family who has just been given a grocery cart full of food.

And after a few days of silence, even the banks are finally admitting that. So it's back to the drawing board for Paulson & Co.

Next steps? Find a way to force the banks to write their assets down to nuclear winter levels, so 1) private investors don't have to worry about getting sandbagged and therefore invest more in the banks, and 2) the banks know they won't be forced to take more multi-billion dollar losses. Only then will the banks begin to lend again. And at that point, the only challenge will be finding people and companies to lend to, in an economy headed straight into the tank.)

NYT: , John Thain, the chief executive of Merrill Lynch, said on Thursday that banks were unlikely to act swiftly. Executives at other banks privately expressed a similar view.

“We will have the opportunity to redeploy that,” Mr. Thain said of the new capital on a telephone call with analysts. “But at least for the next quarter, it’s just going to be a cushion."...

“I don’t think that the market wants to see that capital being put to work to leverage the business up again,” said Roger Freeman, an analyst at Barclays Capital, which acquired parts of the now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers last month. “My expectation is it’s quarters off, not months off, before you see that capital being put to work.”...

Jamie Dimon, the chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan, said his bank was in a stronger position to use the money than some of its competitors.

“It’s clear that the government would like us to use the capital,” Mr. Dimon said on a conference call with analysts on Wednesday. “If you are a bank that is filling a hole, you obviously can’t do that.”

Who is "a bank that is filling a hole"? Seven of the nine that just got taxpayer money.

See Also:
Sorry, Hank, Bailout Isn't Working
But What About the Next $1 Trillion of Writedowns?

258 Comments

zaidner
zaidner - Friday October 17, 2008 10:02AM EDT

i fully agree to the comments, the bank will use to fill the hole or to pay dividend to the shareholders. see what happened to ubs switzerland

Nevetsdp
Nevetsdp - Friday October 17, 2008 10:04AM EDT

Give the "BAIL OUT" a chance to work. It is not an over night fix. Things will get better. It always does. We, the taxpayers, need to get ALL corrupt political trash out of our government. It is us, the people of this great nation, that has the power to do so. We don't need all the PORK put into bills to get them passed. It is time for the american people to stand up and say we have taken enough of all the crap, and take control of the country.

brenda
brenda - Friday October 17, 2008 10:04AM EDT

The banks and other finacial institutions created their own problems by resorting to slick marketing ploys. They should be held accountable and be made to dig themselves out of the mess that they created. Afterall, these institutions are run by supposedly highly educated individuals. I have every faith that if they truly think back upon the theories taught in school, that they can figure out another way to go about doing business that has less potential to blow up in their faces in the manner that the last 20 to 30 years of poor business decisions coming home to roost has done. Neccesity is said to be the mother of invention. Let's ee what turns up. Has a bailout been reserved for me?

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Friday October 17, 2008 10:05AM EDT

Why dont they just give every tax-paying citizen a check for 5000.00 to help pay bills?

__A_YAHOO_USER__
__A_YAHOO_USER__ - Friday October 17, 2008 10:06AM EDT

It will work gradually after 7 years of abuse.....T Banker and Debtior both abuse the system of credit for the last sevem years of abuse..... it will work........Patient......no magic ..........it take time to take effect probably Mr Bush is gone allready when it took effect......Give a year .........No quick fixed the most is 3 three months and beyond.....No casualty start will go up the following with a broken legs and arms............Either Obama or Mccain will witness the magic formula is working........It will work........

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Friday October 17, 2008 10:08AM EDT

It will work....that is for sure..........

__A_YAHOO_USER__
__A_YAHOO_USER__ - Friday October 17, 2008 10:10AM EDT

Are you Hedge Fund or Short seller.....All you say is all negative...

Mark
Mark - Friday October 17, 2008 10:15AM EDT

You think the bailout will work, give it more time???? Are you crazy and ignorant? They have blatantly ripped the US tax payers off of close to 5 trillion when you add everything up. Not one penny for the tax payer, oh my bad they will give our money back to us at interest. This is socialism. We need to get off our butt and not vote in Obama or McCain. They are all crooks. Obama is blatantly calling for socialism and people are lining up to vote him in, amazing to me. Distribution of wealth is the very fundamentals of communisim. Why are we not arresting him for even the consideration? I am floored at the political ignorance in this country. We are doomed. We sit and let them steal our money and say gee it will work, they will pay us back. Has anyone noticed they still owe 10 trillion to other people they have to pay back? Do you think anytime in our lifetime we will see this? We will see a socialist police state before we see any tax money returned.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Friday October 17, 2008 10:16AM EDT

Surprise. Surprise! Throw cash at loser business models to solve symptoms of problems without root cause analysis. Who'd a thunk... ??? Nothing like government intervention to fix things. I say, take the hit for your mistakes. Let the failed banks fall. Install a new overlay banking system to pick up the pieces. Pain in this regard is unavoidable. Its just a question of do we want it in the form of short term accute or long term sommatic pain. Bretton Woods II, being advocated in Europe will bring the recapitalization of America. The cost of insurance for t-bill continues to rise. Its all about faith with fiat currencies, and the world is losing faith. Very difficult situation for a country that must use additional debt to service existing debt. If a company ran its business like this, it would be called a pyrimid scheme and would collapse with its executives prosecuted for their deception. Lets put our plan in place on how to move forward and take the hit now. America is bankrupt and no longer in a position to act as the super-power we once were. Thank you Mr. Bush (and company) and goodbye!

Mark
Mark - Friday October 17, 2008 10:19AM EDT

I cannot get over the optimism. I feel sorry for my family that we are stuck in a country that is so blindly ignorant. Everyone but Paulson and Bush and some Democrats say it cant work, it will fail. This WILL NOT WORK!!!!

EdmundM
EdmundM - Friday October 17, 2008 10:20AM EDT

What should happen is that a certain portin of the capital given by the govt should be REQUIRED to be used for lending and unfreezing the credit markets. Who the hell do these people think they are? They are getting money from the govt for a purpose not for their discretionary use. The problem is that they can't be trusted to do the right thing, so they have to be forced. If they wont do it in a reasonable time frame then they should be seized or the executives should be ousted and someone else who is on the bus should be put in. It is absurd that the Treasury and the citizens of the country should stake these guys so that they can sit on their asses and feel good about themselves instead of getting the economy moving again and doing business.

EdmundM
EdmundM - Friday October 17, 2008 10:20AM EDT

What should happen is that a certain portin of the capital given by the govt should be REQUIRED to be used for lending and unfreezing the credit markets. Who the hell do these people think they are? They are getting money from the govt for a purpose not for their discretionary use. The problem is that they can't be trusted to do the right thing, so they have to be forced. If they wont do it in a reasonable time frame then they should be seized or the executives should be ousted and someone else who is on the bus should be put in. It is absurd that the Treasury and the citizens of the country should stake these guys so that they can sit on their asses and feel good about themselves instead of getting the economy moving again and doing business.

ROY
ROY - Friday October 17, 2008 10:21AM EDT

If McCain wins - stocks will go down If Obama wins -- stocks will crash even more :-(

__A_YAHOO_USER__
__A_YAHOO_USER__ - Friday October 17, 2008 10:21AM EDT

Paulson & companies are HEDGE FUND MANAGERS LOCATED OR BASED IN NEW YORK....IT HAS NO RELATION NO NO FAMILY RELATION TO SECRETARY PAULSON..... paulson comapanies made a $ 1 Billion Dillar in short selling and they have a bet against Barclays Bank, Llyods TSB Halifax Bank of Scotland...and most all Merillyn thei victim.....They spread bad publicity to make people panic and profit from company collapse.....

Robert
Robert - Friday October 17, 2008 10:22AM EDT

I agree with "Nevetsdp". The sooner we clean out the Congress of all the incumbents, the sooner the economy will recover and the brighter all our futures will be.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Friday October 17, 2008 10:23AM EDT

Stop this bailout crap! The banks are not going to lend with this new found cash! They are not borrowing to small businesses like mine. Another couple of weeks and I am going to have to close my doors, wheres my bail out going to come from, the fed, the banks, D. NONE OF THE ABOVE! If I am going to survive in my business, I am going to have to lay everyone off and hope I can wait it out, I have no other options!

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Friday October 17, 2008 10:24AM EDT

FREEBIRD !!!!!

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Friday October 17, 2008 10:25AM EDT

After 'listening to all the experts', I have come to the conclusion...THERE ARE NO EXPERTS.

Anthony
Anthony - Friday October 17, 2008 10:26AM EDT

Obama wants to guarantee more bank liabilities. Since when is it the government's job to guarantee bank liabilities? Isn't that what got us into this mess with Fannie and Freddie? Dodd, Barney, Bush, Obama, McCain, Bernanke, and especially Paulson should all be prosecuted under RICO. Go to www.votenader.org. Look at the documenntary about Nader "An Unreasonable Man". Watch Zeitgeist and Zeitgeist the addendum. Also pay attention to Ron Paul. Then you will understand our two party system is a hoax and gives no choice to the U.S. citizen. All these sheep that vote for Obama and McCain deserve whats coming to them- a fascist police state there to preserve the interests of corporations and lobbyists. It's truly disgusting. So all you sheep go back to Walmart, keep buying your cheap goods, go to Applebees and keep stuffing your faces full of garbage, keep watching American Idol and other such nonsense designed to diverte your attention away from the real issues. Its really disgusting.

JOHN
JOHN - Friday October 17, 2008 10:28AM EDT

Give me a break, this only happened a week ago and Henry Blodget, he of the stellar reputation, is already damning it. What the govt action did was stabilize the banking system, it's not going to head off a recession because that die is already cast. What it will do is prevent a complete economic meltdown and temper the length and depth of the recession. Clearly the banks are going to protect their ratios, this is what the cash injections were principally about, duh, but taken with the other actions it's going to prevent a complete freeze up of credit although credit is going to tighten substantially.

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