Its funny that a year ago most felt that Downey was in better shape than FirstFed due to its more extensive branch network. Downey is pretty much toast, while FirstFed still is getting fairly positive spin in the LA Times (and a loftier stock price).

OK, I emailed Tanta days ago about the FDIC "all is well" ad in the Los Angeles Times, alluding to the potential for unusual withdrawal and deposit activity at FED and DSL (and other regionals). Not even a response to my email. Now read this: "Struggling thrift Downey Financial Corp. said today that it succeeded in staunching a recent outflow of deposits." Downey says deposits are returning, but funding still iffy | Money & Company | Los Angeles Times

Huh, maybe I should start tipping off Tom Petruno instead of Tanta. LOL!

BTW, STILL no post on the FDIC struggling?

The good thing is that the Olympics are keeping everyone calm. If Michael Phelps doesn't win an event or when the Olymics end, people will come back to the reality. And when they do, they are going to be morose about the economy. And they'll want to do something, but they will have to wait until after the elections. After the elections are going to suck.

Smithers - Is that an "insured deposit"

Here are the ones I've been examining: Chevy, Lorain, Security National of SD, and Amarillo.

Periwinkle, read their filing: "In response to the challenges facing Downey in the current operating environment, Downey has formed a special Board committee to explore a range of strategic alternatives, including the raising of additional capital to levels deemed by the Board to be appropriate under the circumstances."

You don't think the regulators are pushing them to raise? LOL!

...a special Board committee to explore a range of strategic alternatives...

aka undertakers.

I didn't think DSL would last this long. Not just their California exposure to housing but their more recent auto purchase/leasing emergencies du jour.

My mother was born on the exact day of THE bank holiday. It will make birthday cards difficult if they declare another.

"House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) today announced plans to review allegations that senior Bush Administration officials ordered the forgery and dissemination of false intelligence documents ..."

Conyers Announces Review of Allegations of Bush Administration’s Forged Iraq Intelligence

"You can buy a lot of pizzas with half of $1.2 billion "

Pizza. The best the FDIC can do is pizza. Given the pressure and time constraints, you'd think they could at least line up a French provencal eatery.

Pizza. Do I get a Pepsi with that, or just plain water?

Then the bigger culprit was the failure or negligence on the part of America’s regulators, thanks to the Republican’s laissez faire religion. Cheap money, without policing, was equivalent to legalizing heroin without any controls on usage.

There's probably some truth to that...

The flip side is that offering free heroin but saying "no herion junkies please" doesn't make much sense either.

The point was the Fed was relying on aggresive risk taking speculators (aka heroin junkies) to borrow this money and reflate the economy because they're the only ones that would.

A sane non drugged-up person would not loan money to people who just displayed the lack of judgement shown in the tech bubble.

Period.

It's not an issue of using the cheap money wisely.

The issue is that cheap money is by definition unwise, otherwise it wouldn't be cheap money -- it would be correctly priced money.

Is there a criteria for the banks where the FDIC must take it over or is it at the FDIC discretion?

I guess I am asking can the rules be broken so not to panic the public and push bankd takeovers down the road or spread them out?

Conjure is now long $US.

Hmmm. conjure or Feldstein ?
Harvard's Feldstein Says U.S. Dollar Has Further to Decline - Bloomberg.com