Word: banking
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...good news Thursday coincided with figures showing that American industrial production in September dropped by 2.8% - the steepest fall since December, 1974. That came on the heels of statistics showing all-important consumer spending in the U.S. had tightened more than forecast. Meanwhile, despite government rescue plans and central bank rate cuts, there is little sign so far that frozen credit flows are thawing fast enough to get badly needed funds moving to businesses and households quickly...
...line of reassurance for American account holders. How are you doing in the war against fear? BAIR: We've undertaken a vigorous public education campaign about deposit insurance and our strong record of nobody ever losing a penny on their insured deposits in over 75 years. In terms of bank failures, we have dealt with a lot worse than this. During the S&L days, they were closing one bank a day for a while. As bad as things are, to some extent depository institutions have been a little bit insulated because there is a stronger system of regulation...
What was your reaction when you saw people lining up outside IndyMac branches after you took over that bank in July? IndyMac was a real wake-up call for us. It saddened me. People were waiting hours and hours in line, and they didn't need to. They could write checks, use their ATM cards. We have done a lot of public education since then, and we have Suze Orman who has done some PSAs for us. I think we've got people calmed down...
Could you give the average American an idea of what to expect going forward? More banks will fail, but if people are insured they just don't have anything to worry about. It's still a low probability that their bank is going to fail, and even if their bank does fail their insured deposits are absolutely protected. We really need credit to keep our economy going and deposits are an important part of keeping credit going. We are asking Main Street to keep faith in the banking system and keep their deposits in banks...
Nobel laureate Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University. He was chief economist of the World Bank and chairman of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers