Bank Stress Tests Now Officially a Garbage In, Garbage Out Exercise http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/04/bank-stress-tests-now-officially.html
Not to beat a dead horse with info. so already well known.... Garbage in garbage out is exactly right.... ........................................................ The attempt to protect the higher prices/give the losers big dough.... Anybody with common sense gets this..................................................... The current political stew ....is quite rancid.... And further proves good economics simply does not mix with politics..... Never has.... And never will by design.... ........................................................... Not a single politician understands that the tax component alone kills competitive pricing capabilities.... Not one word has been mentioned about this matter.... Which should be the number one concern.... And at the moment has not even been mentioned.... ....................................................... To saddle the innocent with the guilty´s debt is one thing.... But to the extent that it keeps them out of the competition is unforgiveable... .......................................................... The problem remains what tools does the common man have to fight this ....
http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/pridealers_current.html There are 19 banks in the stress tests. IMO this is nothing more than an exercise to inoculate the banks that sell government debt with a few more thrown in just as cover.
Jobless put new slant on stress tests Rising unemployment is prompting US authorities to consider taking a tougher stance in judging the results of bank stress tests, a development that ultimately could force leading financial groups to hold more capital. The stress test process is intended to ensure that the big US banks have enough equity capital to comfortably survive a recession that is worse than officials presently expect â a so-called âadverse scenarioâ. When the stress tests were revealed two months ago, the authorities defined the adverse scenario as one in which unemployment rose gradually to peak at 10.4 per cent in late 2010. But, since the announcement was made, unemployment has risen much more quickly than was expected, even under the âadverse scenarioâ. The Federal Reserve and a number of other economic forecasters also revised down their estimates for growth over the next two years. The upshot is that the likelihood of unemployment reaching 10.4 per cent looks higher than it did at the onset of the exercise. The authorities believe it is too late to revisit the assumptions underpinning the stress tests. However, it is not too late for them to decide to interpret the implications for capital more stringently. The Treasury declined to comment. Making such an adjustment would help arguments against claims by critics such as Nouriel Roubini, chairman of RGE Monitor, who wrote on his blog: âThe stress test results are meaningless as actual data are already running worse than the worst case scenario.â http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ca1f86da-2b...c0.html&_i_referer=http://acrossthecurve.com/