The Institutional Risk Analyst

Mark Twain called Washington ''the grand old benevolent National Asylum for the Helpless'' in his classic "The Gilded Age."

We recently added Western Alliance (WAL) and GHLD to our portfolio

By any reasonable standard, Janet Yellen should have already resigned, but not in the strange world of Washington.

Last week not a single member of the Big Media managed to ask Fed Chairman Jerome Powell about the state of the US banking system

The Federal Open Market Committee has arguably lost control of monetary policy and has placed America's banks in grave risk.

Fact is, Dr. Brainard has primary culpability in the growing economic pain being felt around the country.

As the FOMC moves short-term rates towards 6%, we expect to take another run at double-digit rates for prime residential mortgage loans.

The big take away from Q4 2022 earnings is that credit expenses are headed higher and at a brisk pace

Crypto, of course, is not an asset as much as a bad idea that was given life by Quantitative Easing

We hear in the channel that regulators are making their views of future loss probabilities very clear in guidance to the top banks

The Fed’s de facto embrace of inflation encourages misallocation of economic resources on a grand scale....

But nothing lasts forever in mortgage land or in financials. Stay tuned and pay attention to LT rates and spreads...

The US government now owns the largest reverse lender in the country.

Many in the Buy Side chorus are looking forward to lower interest rates, but we are concerned that next year could really be about solvency

Since 2008, dollar swap spreads have traded below Treasury yields, suggesting a persistent demand for dollars coming from offshore.

Rapidly rising interest rates in Q3 2022 pushed down the tangible capital for the US banking industry to negative $1.9 trillion

The US banking industry has been rendered insolvent by the Federal Open Market Committee

Despite all the hyperbole, the great crypto fraud was a small game, like the party poker that many crypto enthusiasts share in common

There are literally dozens of banks in the US made insolvent by the policy moves of the FOMC over the past year.

Crypto has gone from a sort-of juiced up equity strategy to a distressed credit story in just hours.