Bank Failures in the United States

Companies / Credit Crisis 2009 Aug 20, 2009 - 05:02 PM

By: Global_Research



Bob Chapman writes: We had a bank go on Thursday and now we have a continuation of the Friday Night FDIC Financial Follies.

Federal and state regulators closed two small Arizona banks Friday evening, but depositors won't feel any pain.

Phoenix-based Community Bank of Arizona and Union Bank in Gilbert were shuttered, with deposits of both institutions purchased by Oklahoma-based MidFirst Bank.

Regulators also closed three other banks elsewhere around the country on Friday, raising the year-to-date total to 77.

Much to their dismay,Americans learned last year that they ‘owned’ Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Well, meet their cousin, Ginnie Mae or the Government National Mortgage Association, which will soon join them as a trillion-dollar packager of subprime mortgages. Taxpayers own Ginnie too. Only last week, Ginnie announced that it issued a monthly record of $43 billion in mortgage-backed securities in June. Ginnie Mae President Joseph Murin sounded almost giddy as he cheered this ‘phenomenal growth.’ Ginnie Mae’s mortgage exposure is expected to top $1 trillion by the end of next year—or far more than double the dollar amount of 2007. Ginnie’s mission is to bundle, guarantee and then sell mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, which is Uncle Sam’s home mortgage shop. Ginnie’s growth is a by-product of the FHA’s spectacular growth. The FHA now insures $560 billion of mortgages—quadruple the amount in 2006. Among the FHA, Ginnie, Fannie and Freddie, nearly nine of every 10 new mortgages in America now carry a federal taxpayer guarantee.


http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article12892.html