Making It Up As They Go Along

Jan 15, 2009

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp chair Sheila Bair: "The FDIC will never go broke. We are still running at a surplus, our reserves seem to be quite fit for the projected closure activity that we have,"

Nov 27, 2009

FDIC Fund Slides into the Red
"It’s official: the overwhelming number of bank failures since the onset of the nation’s financial crisis have pushed the FDIC’s insurance fund into negative territory. The agency said Tuesday that its reserve used to protect consumers’ deposits when a financial institution goes under is $8.2 billion in the hole."

FDIC Problem Bank List Surges to 552

"In a report from the FDIC that the Deposit Insurance Fund has been operating in the red since the third quarter, down by $8.2 billion, there was other bad news, as the number of banks on the problem list of the FDIC has now risen to 552, which in reality is probably much worse than it seems."

These banks have combined assets of $345.9 billion. The real list of troubled banks is over 1000. Good luck with that.