The Institutional Risk Analyst

On Capitol Hill, Kevin Warsh appeared before the Senate Banking Committee this week to consider his nomination as Fed Chairman. Warsh reiterated that Fed “monetary policy independence is essential.” But he got some rough questions from Democrats, especially ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) She asked whether he will be a “sock puppet” manipulated by President Trump. Warren called Warsh “uniquely ill-suited for the job as Fed chair,” but frankly Warren is uniquely unquali

Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman outlined bank-friendly Basel endgame and GSIB surcharge proposals, reports Ian Katz at CapAlpha in Washington, which she said will be released in a week. Overall, the changes will result in a small decrease in capital requirements for the largest banks and more significant changes for smaller institutions. We’ll be responding to the request for comment on Basel III.

Why does the US central bank need to pay interest on bank deposits at the Fed? Because we have $35 trillion in public debt. The interest rate on T-bills, bank reserves deposited at the Fed and reverse repurchase agreements (RRPs) issued by the Fed must be roughly the same.

“The boards of the GSEs don’t have a fiduciary duty to the Enterprises,” Pulte noted. “They have a fiduciary duty to the conservatorship.”

When Elizabeth Warren and Maxine Waters spoke publicly against the CapitalOne-Discover transaction, they were actually supporting the monopoly position of JPMorgan and other large banks. By opposing CapitalOne-Discover and, indirectly, supporting JPM, Warren, Waters and other progressives are actually hurting low income consumers.

Folks in the financial sector are beginning to wonder if certain parts of the government apparatus will continue to function.

How is Goldman going to extricate itself from this profoundly unattractive business with AAPL without destroying Apple Card?

Despite what Joe Biden says about helping Americans with the soaring cost of housing, he really protects Black Rock (BK), Pimco et al

Our view is that the BKI purchase is a horrible deal for ICE shareholders, a value killer of epic proportions

Amidst the yelling and screaming of Elizabeth Warren, we suspect that Jay Powell will survive the crisis

April 29, 2017 | Last week The IRA’s Chris Whalen participated in the Executive Roundtable in San Francisco, hosted by the Morrison Foerster Law firm. We got to hear from a lot of different representatives of the mortgage and fintech sectors. The big worry at the table is that production of new mortgages in 2017 is down about 30% compared with last year due to the rise in interest rates following the November election of Donald Trump. Trump politics drives interest rates