Government Wants to Play Good Bank, Bad Bank

The 'Helicopter Economics Investing Guide' is meant to help educate people on how to make profitable investing choices in the current economic environment. In addition to the term helicopter economics, we have also coined the term, helicopternomics, to describe the current monetary and fiscal policies of the U.S. government and to update the old-fashioned term wheelbarrow economics.

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The buzz on the wires yesterday was talk that the Obama administration is considering a good bank, bad bank policy. This would entail the government becoming the bad bank (like somehow that hasn't already happened) by buying up most, if not all, the toxic assets in the banking system. For anyone who missed it, this was the original intent of the biggest waste of government money of all time TARP program (Troubled Asset Relief Program). The Federal Reserve has also been doing this is various ways as well. Yesterday's reports said that the federal government would take on an (additional) trillion dollars in bad debt. As usual, the downside risk of major inflation that would result from implementing this policy was ignored by the media.

There was plenty of other 'good' news for the market to rally on as well. The House passed an $819 billion stimulus bill (it still has to be approved by the Senate). The bill would cut taxes at bottom instead of the top of the income structure (the most effective way to stimulate the economy), provide billions of dollars for infrastructure projects, help states balance their budgets, and provide relief to people who've lost their jobs or homes. Getting in touch with their Herbert Hoover roots, every Republican in the House voted against it. Just as a reminder, all the Republican leadership supported TARP and provided the votes from the rank and file to insure its passage.

The Fed also held up its end of the bargain yesterday as it two day meeting ended. To no ones surprise, it announced that it was keeping its zero interest rate policy in place. The Fed also reiterated that it will continue to buy mortgage-backed securities and other assets. The stock market rallied on this and all the other highly inflationary news and and as been the case for many months, the U.S. dollar counter intuitively rallied (only counter intuitive if you don't assume the government is manipulating it behind the scenes). Beaten down financial stocks led the way up.

Wells Fargo was one of the biggest winners, rising 30%. It only lost $2.55 billion last quarter.... or so it claims. Those results didn't include its Wachovia purchase, which would have increased Wells Fargo's loss by $11.2 billion (based on the reported figures, the reality is actually much worse). The bank took a whopping $37.2 billion in credit write downs at Wachovia. Even without the Wachovia losses, Wells Fargo still lost 79 cents a share. Analysts were completely off the mark as they have continually been since the Credit Crisis began and were expecting a 33 cent gain. While this should have tanked the stock, it didn't. Wells announced it was keeping its dividend and wouldn't need any more TARP funds (which is has been using to pay its dividend), so the stock shot up. Whoever said Disney was the king of fantasy, never looked at the U.S. banking system.

NEXT: GDP - Report is Bad, Reality Worse

Daryl Montgomery
Organizer,New York Investing meetup
http://investing.meetup.com/21

This posting is editorial opinion. Like all other postings for this blog, there is no intention to endorse the purchase or sale of any security.