Why is no one talking about finance anymore!! And why is there no PM on this?
Quick financial headline. Latest on the stress test: Officials Unveil Details of Stress Tests WASHINGTON – U.S. officials unveiled details Wednesday of how they plan to convert preferred shares the U.S. Treasury holds in hundreds of financial institutions into common stock that would help banks survive an even worse-than-projected economic downturn. Under the plan, which includes “stress tests” aimed at measuring how the banks would hold up under both baseline and extreme economic situations, institutions would have six months to raise private capital before getting a government-issued capital buffer. “Supervisors will work with institutions to estimate the range of possible future losses and the resources to absorb such losses over a two-year period,” banking regulators said in a joint statement. The adverse situation tests would assume a 2010 unemployment rate of 10.3%, Case-Shiller home price declines of 22% in 2009 and 7% in 2010 and gross domestic product contractions of 3.3% in 2009 and 0.5 in 2010. Regulators expect to complete the tests by the end of April. Any capital provided to the institutions under the new program, known as the Capital Assistance Program, would be preferred securities convertible into common equity at a 10% discount to the prevailing price as of Feb. 9. The securities will come with a 9% dividend and would be convertible at the issuers’ request once supervisory approval has been received, the U.S. Treasury said Wednesday. If not converted or redeemed within seven years, the securities would automatically be converted into common stock. Banks that have already issued preferred shares to the U.S. government under the Troubled Asset Relief Program’s Capital Purchase Program would be able to convert those shares to the new convertible instruments. The government has so far invested more than $196 billion in more than 400 institutions through that program. The new government investments require banks to submit plans for their use of government capital. Any bank participating in the program also will be subject to restrictions on dividend payments, share repurchases and acquisitions. Banking regulators in their joint release said, “Currently, the major U.S. banking institutions have capital in excess of the amounts required to be considered well capitalized.” The U.S. is requiring banks with assets of more than $100 billion to participate in the stress tests. Those banks will be given immediate access to government capital if needed. Write to Meena Thiruvengadam at meena.thiruvengadam@dowjones.com and Michael R. Crittenden at michael.crittenden@dowjones.com
KarenC Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I never signed up for role play I guess Karen’s just not interested in fun and excitement. And we were just starting to get along… :-/
numi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > KarenC Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I never signed up for role play > > I guess Karen’s just not interested in fun and > excitement. And we were just starting to get > along… :-/ Ah don’t be like that - I’ve actually been defending you today - saying you were one of the nice one’s!!
Haha, thank you for the kind words. Being a gentleman can be a dirty job around here, but someone’s gotta do it. As for “defending” me…hmm…I wonder what I’ve missed out on for the last few hours? Things were pretty quiet here in the morning, and since that time I’ve just been bouncing from one meeting to the next. Are you done with work for the day?
Your welcome 
Oh you missed a fair bit - I’d be surprised if these threads aren’t deleted by tomorrow. Oh yeah sure I finished work about 4 hours ago… You’re probably about 5 hours behind me!
What are you wearing to sleep?
Who says I’m going to sleep - only twenty past 10 here!
Ok so what are you wearing to surf the internet?
Not again… you know you’re getting as bad as scando at this stage!
What’s so bad about describing a t-shirt and jeans? Unless that isn’t what you’re wearing…
KarenC Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Not again… you know you’re getting as bad as > scando at this stage! uh oh Scando, you have some competition! I think you better up your game!
wtf - don’t encourage these guys - they don’t need it - they’ll say this stuff anyway!
haha, don’t even pretend that you’re not dying to know what he’ll say next. The suspense is killing me…
Which one - scando, brian, john, numi… who knows who or what will be said! sure there’s a thread just on what they want to do to mona and myself already!! 
Ok how about this, I’ll give you multiple choice and you can select the one that most closely matches what you are wearing: a) t-shirt and jeans b) just a t-shirt c) just jeans d) underwear e) nothing Everyone else can play along too.
Hahaha no one wants to play your game!
Already played it.
Oh yeah - don’t see you picking an option!
D) -To some level I may be correct… if not I still win.