Final Bailout White Paper

4 Comments

1. I can’t believe this author recommends investing in t-bills. Not only is he recommending investing in a bankrupt institution, the US government, he is recommending investing is a criminal/terrorist organization, the US government. Crime doesn’t pay.

   Hard assets are the only safe haven, and hard assets that are easily concealed and transportable are the safest, IE, gold and silver.

   Marion McCoskey
   http://www.WhatGov.com

2. I was dismayed to see that my bank (One United Bank) is listed in this report as “believed to be at risk of failure.” Since I was not familiar with ratings by thestreet.com, which are featured prominently in the paper, I went to http://www.thestreet.com/screener/index.html to see if I could find some more detail on why they rate my bank as a “D”.

   TheStreet.com doesn’t describe their rating methodology, other than to say it’s a “complex analysis of hundreds of factors.” They do mention, however, that their ratings are based mainly on the 10-Q call reports, and from the looks of it they used the 1st qtr 2008 reports. I looked at their reports for two banks with which I am familiar: One United Bank (rated a D) and Pacific Western Bank (rated a B-), and I have to say I’m a bit skeptical.

   TheStreet.com rates One United’s profitability as about 4.5 out of 10, and Pacific Western’s profitability as about the same. However, the 1st Qtr call report for One United showed them with an annualized return on equity of about +16% and the 1st Qtr call report for Pacific Western with an annualized ROE of about -95%. (Ouch!) How does that one add up?

   The 2nd qtr call report for One United can be found at http://www.ibanknet.com/scripts/callreports/getbank.aspx?ibnid=usa_935308 . Pacific Western’s Bank can be found at http://www.ibanknet.com/scripts/callreports/getbank.aspx?ibnid=usa_494261 . That shows One United moving farther into the black, and Pacific Western more into the red.

   Maybe I’m missing something here. I’m obviously drilling down into fine details, but if those don’t add up, I do have to wonder in general about the accuracy of TheStreet.com’s ratings….

3. You can check credit unions, as well as banks, here:

   http://www.bankrate.com/brm/safesound/ss_home.asp

4. The list of banks in the White Paper are jaw dropping. I plan on sending this to friends and family.

   Is there a resource that lists the ratings of credit unions?

   It would also be interesting to know which banks/credit unions are considered healthy and strong.

   Thanks!

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