I just want to check on y'all to see if y'all are doing as well as the banks. Has your personal bail-out from the government put you back on Easy Street? Are you looking forward to a big bonus at the end of next month? Does your personal economic position make you too big to fail?
Danielle Douglas writes—Banks report record earnings of $40.3 billion in the first quarter:
Profits at the nation’s banks topped $40.3 billion in the first three months of the year, the largest quarterly total on record and evidence of the industry’s robust recovery, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Wednesday.
The record earnings underscore the trend of borrowers keeping up with their loan payments, allowing banks to move more money out of rainy-day funds. Banks have tapped these reserves to boost profits as low interest rates have made it difficult for them to make money on loans. Funds set aside to cover losses on troubled loans, or loan-loss provisions, dropped 23 percent from a year ago to $11 billion, the lowest level since the first quarter of 2007. At the same time, lenders charged off $16 billion in debt they could not collect, down 27.7 percent from a year earlier.
Regulators have cautioned banks not to drain their reserves in the midst of a fragile economic recovery. Last year, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said if they continued doing so at the same pace, lenders would not be prepared to incur more losses from home-equity loans and commercial loans taken out from 2004 to 2008. FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg echoed that in a news conference Wednesday, warning banks that regulators will be closely watching any additional reduction in reserves, though he said he believes that process “has played itself out.”
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Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—Obama Campaign 2.0:
It also seems reasonable to question the effectiveness of the President's political organization. It is possible the "bubble" of the White House has numbed the political instincts of a great campaigner and his staff. The President has a significant role to play in off-year elections. Historically, the President's political party loses seats in Congress. But strong Presidents have occasionally bucked the trend and prevented a crippling of their agenda. This requires a campaign of sorts, albeit not as large and complex as a presidential campaign. Will a political campaign run out of Washington, not Chicago, be as effective as the previous campaign given an anti-incumbent political environment?
David Plouffe, if reporting is correct, has been given charge of overseeing the overall campaign by posting as outside adviser to the DNC. His strategy is simple: get 15 million first-time Obama voters to turn out again. Mid-term elections are usually party base turnout elections. The broader electorate is not fully engaged because no major candidate is on the ballot. Turnout falls down to mostly committed partisans of either party. Plouffe's strategy is to engage them once again betting they will support Democrats. The Vote 2010 initiative is a gamble to change the composition of the electorate by bringing first time voters into the Democratic base. Driven byMyBO it will rely on the 2008 team of community organizers and volunteers. So the "change the electorate" model is still in place.
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Tweet of the Day:
Attention @FoxNews: Please keep @EWErickson front and center through 2016.
— @BFriedmanDC via web
On today's
Kagro in the Morning show, Fox laments female breadwinners. #GunFAIL update.
Armando's roundup, including: 1Q GDP revisions; comments on Clinton versus Obama "scandals" & the evolution of GOP crazy; the IRS & AP stories; James Comey's nomination as FBI chief, and; the plight of Beatriz, the 22-year-old Salvadoran woman being denied a medically-necessary abortion. Also: fear of terrorism prevents communities from finding out about dangerous chemicals in their midst; another casual "joking" assassination threat from Tea Party activists, and; economics turned upside-down in opposition to wage hikes.
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