MoneyRates Blog
Bank Rates May Waver As Dubai Crisis Plays Out
Traditionally, the Friday after Thanksgiving is one of the quietest and calmest of the year in the U.S. financial markets. Not this year. News that Dubai was looking to delay payment on $60 billion in debts rocked the stock market and sent bond yields lower.
This drama will probably play out in multiple installments, as Dubai’s [...]
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Bad News for Dollar Good News for Tomorrow’s Bank Rates?
If you’ve got CDs, savings accounts, and money market accounts, you’re likely concerned about the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar. It can be very frustrating to be not only receiving low interest rates on your savings, but also to be perceiving the value of the dollars in those deposit accounts declining.
Indeed, the [...]
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Bank Rates Taste Bitter Medicine in Bank Deleveraging
The Quarterly Banking Profile from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) showed a dramatic de-leveraging of bank risk levels in the third quarter of 2009. This is a necessary step in curing part of what ails the banking system — but it is a bitter pill for depositors to swallow.
In the third quarter, loan balances [...]
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FDIC Insurance Fund Hurt by Bank Failures
For the first time since 1992, the FDIC’s fund that protects bank deposits has fallen to a negative balance. A negative balance of $8.2 billion, in fact.
At the end of the second quarter, three months ago, the FDIC bank protection fund amounted to $10.4 billion.
Bad bank loans are the main culprit in the decline of [...]
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Banking Reform Fervor Cools — for Now
Not long after introducing a bill that would have meant sweeping reforms for the banking industry, Senator Christopher Dodd has backed off in the face of opposition from both parties to the scope of his proposal. While no one has been able to get Democrats and Republicans together on what banking reforms are needed, Dodd’s proposal [...]
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Would You Buy a Jumbo CD from a Mexican Bank?
Mexico’s richest man, one of the richest men in the world, Carlos “Slim” Helu, was on CNBC the other day claiming that Mexico’s banks and overall financial system are in excellent shape, especially when compared to the still troubled state of many American banks.
Meanwhile, three of the four biggest banks in the world are headquartered [...]
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Bank Rates Need Rethinking with New Inflation Numbers
As expected, October’s inflation number represents something of a turning point for the inflation environment. Depositors now need to watch closely to see how savings account rates, money market rates, and CD rates respond.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for October of 2009 increased by 0.3%. That’s a fairly normal monthly increase for inflation, but it is [...]
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Savings Accounts, CDs, and Millionaires
Investopedia has a nice piece up right now about how to save a million dollars. Tips include:
– Stop spending on useless stuff.
– If you deserve a raise, make sure you get it.
– Don’t overpay your income taxes.
Money-Rates provides readers with the ability to quickly find the best CD rates, best savings account rates, best money [...]
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Bank Rate Watchers Should Keep An Eye On This Week’s Inflation Number
The Consumer Price Index for October will be released this Wednesday, and it could mark the beginning of the end for the spate of deflation the U.S. has experienced for much of the past year. For bank rate watchers, wondering when savings account interest rates and CD rates will start to rise, inflation remains a [...]
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Will Big Banks Really Be Broken Up Into Bits and Pieces?
Not sure if you’ve been following the latest bank hearings–there have been so many of them over the past year, who could begrudge you for missing out–but these bank hearings may be bigger than most.
The Senate is dicussing what to do about the “too big to fail” big banks and too big other companies that [...]
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Market Recipe Bad for Bank Rates — For Now
The mix of factors now prevailing in the financial markets is almost the perfect recipe to challenge anyone depending on CD rates, savings account rates, or money market rates. In other words, it may be the perfect poison for bank rates. Fortunately, markets eventually tend to find antidotes to their own ills.
First the poison, then [...]
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Home Sales Rise, So May CD Rates
The fact that home sales rose in 45 out of 50 states in the third quarter may, eventually, mean that interest rates on CDs, savings accounts, and money market accounts are headed higher.
The connection between higher home sales and higher deposit rates is far from a taut equation, but think about it for a second:
Who–and, perhaps [...]
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Raising Bank Rates May Depend on a Pick-Up in Lending Activity
As the economic recovery gets haltingly underway, one of the things depositors should keep an eager eye on is lending volume. It’s not that those depositors are necessarily looking to borrow money themselves, but a pick-up in the lending business may be a key in pushing bank rates higher.
You name it — CD rates, savings [...]
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Fannie Mae Tax Credit Debate Indicative of Tangled Web
In one of the more interesting bank stories of the new century, investment bank Goldman Sachs and renowned investor Warren Buffett want to buy $3 billion worth of federal tax credits from Fannie Mae, the government-owned mortgage finance company.
Government regulators are unsure of the fairness of such a deal because the tax credits would reduce [...]
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Bank Reform Debate Continues Even as Recovery Continues
It’s not surprising that former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker has voiced the opinion that banking reform must include the break-up of large institutions, including the separation of commercial and investment banking operations. However, having John S. Reed’s voice join the same chorus is really reason for pause.
Paul Volcker’s regime as Fed Chairman was strikingly different from that of [...]
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Reverse Mortgage Scammers Being Driven Out of the Industry
Like cockroaches scattering when you turn on the lights, reverse mortgage scammers are running scared.
This migration is partly due to laws and lawmakers intent on preventing reverse mortgage scams, and perhaps more largely based on the ready availability of honest, comprehensive reverse mortgage information on the Internet.
Reverse Mortgage Protective Measures
The most popular form of reverse [...]
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Bank Rates At Risk When Stock Market Falters
It was more tricks than treats for the stock market as the month of October wound down, but if bank depositors think the stock market’s woes don’t concern them, they may also be in for an unpleasant surprise.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average had four days with losses of a hundred points or more in the [...]
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