Cycle of rising unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies raising economic stress

AP analysis: Economic stress up in much of nation
Cycle of rising unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies raising economic stress

(Source AP) California, Michigan and South Carolina suffered the most financial pain in May as unemployment, home foreclosures and bankruptcies rose, according to The Associated Press' monthly analysis of economic stress in more than 3,100 U.S. counties.

The latest results of the AP's Economic Stress Index show the worst financial crisis since the 1930s causing lingering damage even as other signs suggest the recession is winding down.
The average county's Stress score, fueled by worsening unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies, rose to 10 in May, from 9.7 in April.

In May 2008, the average Stress score was 6.2. The pain was lower then because the economy was still expanding. In fact, the second quarter of 2008 was the last time the economy grew.

The AP calculates a score from 1 to 100 based on each county's unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates. The higher the score, the higher the economic stress.

Under a rough rule of thumb, a county is considered stressed when its score zooms past 11. In May, 36 percent of the counties scored 11 or higher, up from 34 percent in April. But the latest reading was slightly better than February and March, when nearly 40 percent of counties were at or above that threshold.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and many other economists predict the recession will end later this year. Even if it does, unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies are likely to keep climbing and cause further harm in many communities, economists predicted.

"The pain will linger well after the recession is over, making for a subdued economic recovery," said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research.

Many economists say the recession eased from April to June and that the economy might start growing again as soon as the current July-to-September quarter.

Among states, California, Michigan and South Carolina showed the most economic stress in May, with their counties' scores averaging 16, 15.9 and 15, respectively, the AP analysis shows.
California has been battered by the housing bust, and Michigan has absorbed the brunt of the auto industry crisis.
"And South Carolina is a little bit of everything," said Sean Snaith, economics professor at the University of Central Florida. "Manufacturing and construction jobs have been hard hit in the state."
One common thread running through all three states is heavy jobs losses. Rising unemployment, in turn, is escalating foreclosures and bankruptcies.
The rising economic stress comes as California, saddled with a whopping $24.3 billion budget deficit, and other states are scrambling to cope with fiscal crises. Read More...
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/AP-analysis-Economic-stress-apf-2726778711.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=

The Financial Crisis: Charting a Global Recovery

The Financial Crisis: Charting a Global Recovery

June 22, 2009—New World Bank analysis of the global economy paints an unprecedented picture: global output falling by 2.9 percent and world trade by nearly 10 percent; accompanied by plummeting private capital flows, likely to decline from $707 billion in 2008 to an anticipated $363 billion in 2009.

As the world enters what appears to be an era of markedly slower economic growth, the World Bank’s annual Global Development Finance (GDF) report, released today, updates the outlook for the global economy, and explores the broad approach that will be necessary to chart a worldwide recovery.

“Extraordinary measures by governments around the world have helped save the global financial system from complete collapse, but the economic recession in the real sectors persists,” said the World Bank’s Justin Lin, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Development Economics. “To break the cycle, we need bold policy measures, including restoration of domestic lending and global capital flows.”

Lin was speaking at the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics, underway in Seoul, where experts have gathered to discuss the financial crisis. He emphasized the key role that developing countries—the engine of future global growth—can play in the global recovery, as well as the grave development emergency posed by the impact of the crisis on poor, vulnerable countries.

Deepening global recession

As capital became increasingly hard to come by, and uncertainty soared about future demand, there was a sharp decline in production of manufactured goods, and in global trade in these goods. The level of industrial production in rich countries has dropped by 15 percent since August 2008, and that in developing countries, excluding China, by 10 percent. Read news... Permanent URL for this page: http://go.worldbank.org/XNOU707YR0

IMF says worst not over

IMF says worst not over

LONDON (Reuters) - The head of the IMF questioned on Monday any debate about when to roll back stimulus spending, saying the world economy had yet to weather the worst of a recession that claimed a record number of European jobs.

The 16-country euro zone lost a record 1.22 million jobs in the first quarter, official data showed. Employment during the first quarter fell 1.2 percent year-on-year, the deepest annual drop since measurements started in 1995.

Even if some form of economic recovery is not far off, analysts say unemployment will climb for many months to come.

Underlining the fragile state of the global economy, an influential economist said China would not see a rapid rebound and South Korea's finance minister said its economy was still sliding, although the pace had slowed.

But in southern Italy, Group of Eight finance ministers meeting at the weekend described their economies in the most positive terms since the collapse of U.S. bank Lehman Brothers nine months ago heightened the world's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"Their (G8) stance is that we are beginning to see some green shoots but nevertheless we have to be cautious," International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said during a visit to Kazakhstan. "The large part of the worst is not yet behind us."

Pressure has been building in the G8, particularly from fiscally conservative nations such as Germany and Canada, for plans to wind down stimulus as soon as it is no longer needed. Read Article... http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE55E0BJ20090615

New jobless claims drop more than expected; retail sales rise for first time in 3 months

New jobless claims drop to 601K; retail sales rise
New jobless claims drop more than expected; retail sales rise for first time in 3 months

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of newly laid-off Americans filing jobless claims fell more than expected last week and retail sales grew in May for the first time in three months. But a rise in the number of people continuing to receive jobless aid signaled that an economic recovery is still far off.

The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment benefits fell last week by 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 601,000. That's below analysts' estimates of 615,000.
Still, the number of people claiming benefits for more than a week rose by 59,000 to more than 6.8 million, the highest on records dating to 1967. The department also revised last week's data on continuing claims, replacing what had been a drop of 15,000 with an increase of 6,000.

That means continuing claims have set records for 19 straight weeks. The data lag initial claims by a week.
Retail sales rose for the first time in three months in May, as a rebound in demand at auto dealerships and gas stations helped offset weakness at department stores. The Commerce Department said retail sales increased by 0.5 percent last month, in line with economists' expectations. It was the largest increase since sales rose 1.7 percent in January following six straight declines.

Excluding autos, retail sales also grew 0.5 percent in May, better than the 0.2 percent gain that economists had expected.
Consumers may be spending a bit more and layoffs may be slowing, but companies are reluctant to hire amid the longest recession since World War II. That makes it harder for the unemployed to find work.
Jobless claims are a measure of the pace of layoffs and are seen as a timely, if volatile, indicator of the economy's health.
The four-week average of claims, which smooths out fluctuations, fell to 621,750, down from a high of about 658,000 in early April. Many economists see the decline as a sign that layoffs have peaked and the recession is bottoming out.
Still, the levels are far above what is customary in a healthy economy. Initial claims stood at 388,000 a year ago. Read Article...
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-jobless-claims-drop-to-apf-15499914.html;_ylt=AnFrSL.4kfVt62DWnohZ9mm7YWsA?sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=

IEA Raises Oil Outlook for First Time in 10 Months

IEA Raises Oil Outlook for First Time in 10 Months

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- The International Energy Agency raised its global oil-demand forecast for the first time in 10 months on signs that the economic slowdown is abating.

The adviser to 28 nations increased its global oil demand estimate for this year by 120,000 barrels a day to 83.3 million barrels a day, driven by consumption in U.S. and China. Consumption worldwide will contract by 2.9 percent from last year, the biggest drop since 1981, the agency said in its monthly report today.

“These revisions do not necessarily imply the beginnings of a global economic recovery, and may only signal the bottoming out of the recession,” the Paris-based agency said. “It’s a fairly modest uptick. Underlying demand levels remain weak.”

Oil prices have climbed 61 percent this year. They traded above $72 a barrel in New York today for the first time in seven months on growing optimism about an economic recovery and as a weaker dollar drives investors toward commodities. Futures in New York rebounded to a seven-month high of $72.30 after the release of the report from as low as $71.32 earlier in the day.

Confidence in the world economy rose for a third month as U.S. job losses slowed and global production improved, a Bloomberg survey of users showed yesterday. A U.S. Labor Department report on June 5 showed the country lost the fewest number of jobs since September last month.
Tighter Fundamentals

Rallying crude prices have been driven by both tighter supply-demand fundamentals and “short-term flows” of speculative capital, David Fyfe, head of the IEA’s oil industry and markets division, said in a phone interview from Paris.

Analysts expect prices to average $61 a barrel in the fourth quarter of this year, according to the median of forecasts compiled by Bloomberg. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said this month it expects oil to reach $85 by the end of the year,

The outlook for 2009 consumption in the most industrialized countries, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, was raised “marginally” to 45.2 million barrels a day. Inventories of crude and refined products in these nations amounted to 62 days of demand as of the end of April.
Read Article...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a0JQcQcnQLFs

Brazil has gone into recession after its economy contracted by 0.8% in the first three months of 2009.

Brazil's economy enters recession
Brazil has gone into recession after its economy contracted by 0.8% in the first three months of 2009.

(Source BBC)
The figure from statistics agency IBGE was still better than expected and a big improvement on the 3.8% decline in the last three months of 2008.

Most economists define a recession as being two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
Also on Tuesday, Romania went into recession following a decline of 4.6% in the first three months of the year.
It had contracted 3.4% in the last three months of 2008, according to the statistics agency Ins.
The International Monetary Fund, which has recently approved a 12.9bn euro ($18bn; £11.1bn) loan for Romania, predicts that its economy will contract by 4.1% in the whole of 2009.

'Momentum'

In Brazil, while household spending grew 0.7% and government spending expanded 0.6%, capital spending fell by 12.6% in a sign of companies cutting back on investment.
"The stronger first-quarter number should add some momentum to the view that the second-quarter recovery could be stronger than expected and growth may not be as bad for the whole year," said Paul Biszko from RBC Capital Markets.
"Obviously it's positive for the currency and I think it will lessen the need for the central bank to cut interest rates aggressively, moving forward."
Foreign investors have been putting money into Brazil recently in the hope that its economy will recover more quickly than other countries.
The Ibovespa stock market index has been reaching levels not seen since before the global financial crisis.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8091632.stm

Pace of layoffs expected to slow, but jobless rate likely rose above 9 percent in May

Despite fewer cuts, May jobless rate seen rising
Pace of layoffs expected to slow, but jobless rate likely rose above 9 percent in May

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With companies in no mood to hire, the unemployment rate is still rising. But the furious pace of layoffs is easing as the recession loosens its hold on the country.
The Labor Department on Friday is slated to release a report expected to show that a net total of 520,000 jobs were lost in May. If economists are right, the figure would mark the second straight month that job losses slowed. It also would be the fewest job reductions since October.
"A loss of that many jobs is bad, but would be taken as a sign that the heavy weights on the economy and the labor market seem to be diminishing a bit," said Steven Cochrane, managing director of Moody's Economy.com.

The deepest job cuts of the recession came in January when 741,000 jobs disappeared, the most since 1949.
Job losses averaged 700,000 a month in the first quarter but dropped to 539,000 in April. They should average around 500,000 in the current quarter and taper off to 250,000 per month in the final quarter of this year, according to some projections. Read Article...
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Despite-fewer-cuts-May-apf-15446726.html

Bernanke: Recovery will be slow

Bernanke: Recovery will be slow
(01:23) Report Reuters Video

June 3. - Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke says the weak labor market and the continued tightness of credit will slow the economic recovery's pace.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers on Wednesday (June 3) that data shows the economic contraction may be slowing, but unemployment will continue to rise for some time."We expect to see some growth -- not robust growth -- but some positive growth later this year," Bernanke said.Bernanke said he still anticipates that the economy will start its recovery later this year, but cautioned that "we will have a weak labor market for some time."
NOTE: Original sound only, no reporter narration.

EXCLUSIVE: Global crisis spending lacks direction: poll

EXCLUSIVE: Global crisis spending lacks direction: poll

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two-thirds of people believe "massive government spending" to combat the financial crisis shows a lack of clear direction, according to a poll of nations representing 75 percent of the global economy issued on Wednesday.
The Ipsos/Reuters survey also found that 60 percent of the people in the 23 countries polled say increased government regulation will stifle economic growth, an opinion particularly strong in the United States and emerging market giants India and China.

Clifford Young of Ipsos Global Public Affairs, the international market research and polling company that carried out the online poll, said the survey showed opinions were mixed with a majority still wanting more government action on the economic downturn despite their concerns.
"There's worry and some degree of uncertainty about government actions," Young said. "The general message is we want governments to do something, but not too much, and we don't want to go back to the dark ages."
The survey of 23,000 people, conducted from April 14 to May 7, showed 58 percent don't think the United States has done enough to reinvigorate the global economy, 53 percent believe the European Union needs to do more, and more than two-thirds think China has not done enough. Read more...
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE55211E20090603

BoE keeps UK interest rate held at historic low of 0.5%

BoE keeps UK interest rate held at historic low of 0.5%
(Source The Times)
The Bank of England paused for breath today in its battle to combat the economic slump, holding interest rates at 0.5 per cent and staying its hand over any other changes in its recession-fighting strategy of quantitative easing.
The Bank switched to a “wait and see” stance after a six-month long scramble to shore-up the economy with drastic interest rate cuts and, since last month, a radical move to jump-start growth by “printing money”.
The noon verdict (09 April)from the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee confirmed City predictions that official interest rates would be left on hold at their present 315-year low of just 0.5 per cent.
Mervyn King, the Bank’s Governor, had made clear last month that he saw little scope for further cuts. The record of the Monetary Policy Committee's last meeting showed it was anxious that further rate cuts could backfire, deterring banks from lending and hitting savers.

The Bank had also been widely expected to order no change for the moment in its drastic “quantitative easing” plan to pump extra, newly-created money through the economy by buying up a range of assets from the financial markets.
The controversial move to buy assets worth a total of £75 billion over three months began only last month, and is less than a third complete, with the Bank having so far purchased some £26 billion of UK government bonds or gilts, and about £400 million of corporate bonds — company IOUs. Read Article...
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article6065520.ece

From Bubble to Depression?

From Bubble to Depression?
(Source Wall Sreet Journal)
Bubbles have been frequent in economic history, and they occur in the laboratories of experimental economics under conditions which -- when first studied in the 1980s -- were considered so transparent that bubbles would not be observed.
We economists were wrong: Even when traders in an asset market know the value of the asset, bubbles form dependably. Bubbles can arise when some agents buy not on fundamental value, but on price trend or momentum. If momentum traders have more liquidity, they can sustain a bubble longer.
But what sparks bubbles? Why does one large asset bubble -- like our dot-com bubble -- do no damage to the financial system while another one leads to its collapse? Key characteristics of housing markets -- momentum trading, liquidity, price-tier movements, and high-margin purchases -- combine to provide a fairly complete, simple description of the housing bubble collapse, and how it engulfed the financial system and then the wider economy.
Read article and analysis...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123897612802791281.html

How the Crash Will Reshape America

How the Crash Will Reshape America

(Source: The Atlantic Monthly, March 2009)
The current economic crisis is unlikely to result in the same kind of shared experience. To be sure, the economic contraction is causing pain just about everywhere. In October, less than a month after the financial markets began to melt down, Moody’s Economy.com* published an assessment of recent economic activity within 381 U.S. metropolitan areas. Three hundred and two were already in deep recession, and 64 more were at risk. Only 15 areas were still expanding. Notable among them were the oil- and natural-resource-rich regions of Texas and Oklahoma, buoyed by energy prices that have since fallen; and the Greater Washington, D.C., region, where government bailouts, the nationalization of financial companies, and fiscal expansion are creating work for lawyers, lobbyists, political scientists, and government contractors.

No place in the United States is likely to escape a long and deep recession. Nonetheless, as the crisis continues to spread outward from New York, through industrial centers like Detroit, and into the Sun Belt, it will undoubtedly settle much more heavily on some places than on others. Some cities and regions will eventually spring back stronger than before. Others may never come back at all. As the crisis deepens, it will permanently and profoundly alter the country’s economic landscape. I believe it marks the end of a chapter in American economic history, and indeed, the end of a whole way of life.

Of Recessions and Recoveries

Of Recessions and Recoveries
V-Shaped. L-Shaped. Shallow but long. Deep but short.
Economists use phrases like these to characterize recessions. Use this graphic to compare the current recession -- and the eventual recovery -- to other downturns and to put the current crisis in perspective. Data will be updated regularly over the next two years. (Interactive Grapic on WSJ online)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123574078772194361.html#articleTabs%3Dinteractive

Economy in Worst Fall Since '82
Output Sank 6.2% Last Quarter; Plunging Trade, Investment Signal Trouble Ahead

A Look at the Autos on the Chopping Block

A Look at the Autos on the Chopping Block
1/16/2009 (Video MarketWatch)
Detroit's Big Three automakers are looking to downsize. WSJ's John Stoll talks about some of the brands that might be sold or scrapped, including the Hummer.

What is the lipstick indicator?

What is the lipstick indicator?

After World War I, Victorian-era prudishness began to melt away as adventurous girls dared to display more calf below their skirts. Flappers bedecked in headbands and short, shapeless dresses characterized the decadence of the Roaring '20s. But women's style shifted following the stock market crash in 1929, and during the Great Depression, hemlines dropped back down toward the floor.
In 1926, economist George Taylor noticed that fluctuating fashion. Like the stock market, the length of many women's dresses also fell with a peculiar synchronicity. Perhaps this hemline index, as Taylor coined it, reflected the grim economy's psychological effect on the public. It wasn't a time for rash celebration and risk taking; instead, the Great Depression called for a return to fiscal modesty. Read More...

http://money.howstuffworks.com/lipstick-indicator.htm

Annual Forecast 2009: Major Global Trends: Recession, Russia, The Jihadist War

Annual Forecast 2009: Major Global Trends: Recession, Russia, The Jihadist War

The world begins 2009 in its first synchronized recession since 1974. The proximate cause of the global slowdown was the collapse of the U.S. subprime housing market, which touched off a liquidity crisis as American financial institutions that had participated in subprime were forced to set aside cash to rebalance their asset sheets. As the recession deepened, loans far healthier than those originated in subprime also went bad, compounding the need to rebalance and draining more capital out of the system. This contributed to a credit crunch that continued into the New Year. This “simple” credit crisis is hardly the end of the story.

If money is akin to water, then a liquidity crisis is analogous to a very low tide that exposes a host of dangers lurking beneath the surface. The United States sports the fewest of these dangers. Its culture of change means that inefficiencies are regularly and ruthlessly purged from its system. For example, the mortgage brokers who made subprime possible are all already out of business, and most of the investment houses that gorged on securities linked to subprime — up to and including Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch — have either gone bankrupt or been acquired by more stable institutions. This obsession with efficiency and rapid evolution results in the constant uncovering of problems, but this very constancy means that the problems tend to be small. In the current case, subprime and its related issues struck more or less at once, but the United States will be able to recover from the problems without getting caught up in unrelated issues. This hardly means that the American recession is a fun time — for one thing, the liquidity crisis has triggered a painful broad-based credit rollback — but the United States is not facing any deeper structural issues.

You can Download the Article and a PDF report by going to the Stratfor Global Intelligence Site: Annual Forecast 2009: Major Global Trends: Recession, Russia, The Jihadist War

Bank failures: 13 in 2009, Friday the13th

Bank failures: 13 in 2009, Friday the 13th

Bank failures: 13 in 2009, Friday the13th

Closures in Nebraska, Florida, Illinois and Oregon bring the number of bank failures to 13 this year as the financial crisis continues to roll.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Four banks folded Friday, bringing the total number of banks to fail this year to 13.
Deposits at Sherman County Bank, based in Loup City, Neb., the first bank in the state to fail since 1990, will be taken over by Heritage Bank, based in Wood River, Neb., according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Meanwhile, accounts held by Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast based in Cape Coral, Fla., will be assumed by TIB Bank based in Naples, Fla., the FDIC said. It is the second bank to fail in Florida this year and the fourth to go under in that state since the economic crisis unfurled.
Corn Belt Bank and Trust Company, based in Pittsfield, Ill., the third bank to fail in the state since January 2008, was also shuttered by state regulators, and its deposits were turned over to The Carlinville National Bank out of Carlinville, Ill.
Pinnacle Bank, Beaverton, Oregon, was closed by the Oregon Division of Finance and Corporate Securities. The FDIC entered into an agreement with Washington Trust Bank, Spokane, Washington, to assume all of the deposits of Pinnacle Bank.
Customers who banked with Sherman County Bank, Riverside, Corn Belt Bank, or Pinnacle Bank will automatically become customers of the new owners, and will retain their account protection under the FDIC, which insures single accounts up to $250,000, and joint accounts up to $500,000, the government agency said. Read Article...

In Europe the recession is just beginning

Europe had "catastrophic" 4th quarter: EU Verheugen
BERLIN (Reuters) - The European economy is sliding deeper into recession and the fourth quarter of last year was "catastrophic," European Union Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said on Sunday.
"The figures the European Commission will present next week will, unfortunately, show that we have slipped deeper into recession," Verheugen told German radio DeutschlandFunk.
"The last quarter of 2008 was catastrophic in every respect."
It was unclear whether he was referring to the euro zone or the wider European economy. The European Commission is due to present its forecasts for the euro zone next week.

The high end Art Market, the auction houses and the end of the bubble.

The incredible shrinking saleroom (Dec 24th 2008)
The high end Art Market, the auction houses and the end of the bubble.

With more than 200.000 lay-offs in Wall Street alone and many more in London and other financial districts around the world, stock markets off between 35 % and 55% globally, property prices like in East Hampton fallen by over 35%, and the gobal recession taking shape, the high end Art Market can be expected to take a heavy hit.

(from The Economist) THE moment the art market plummets is almost always signalled by a sudden catastrophic sale. This time was quite different. The top of the market can be narrowed down to the two-hour cocktail slot on Monday, September 15th 2008, when Oliver Barker raised more than £70m ($107.8m) in the first session of “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever”, the epic sale of Damien Hirst by Damien Hirst.
Thousands of people came to see the show in London during the ten days it was on view in the run-up to the sale. So many people registered to bid that Sotheby’s had to open up two extra rooms to accommodate the overflow. Against a background of one of Mr Hirst’s colourful spin paintings, Mr Barker worked the rooms hard. Just two lots of 56 failed to sell, and only three sold for less than the low estimate.

Third-quarter results, which cover the long summer period when there are no sales, revealed little. Only the fourth-quarter figures, due out in February, will show the full picture.
Auction house executives are already bracing themselves. “We are predicting dramatically reduced sales volumes,” Edward Dolman, Christie’s chief executive told The Economist on December 18th. “We’ve seen confidence dwindle away. People are not certain where prices are. Buyers all round are being very circumspect.” Death, divorce and debt will continue to provide artworks for the auction market. But discretionary sellers, who don’t have to sell, are likely to want to sit it out until things improve. “We’re not predicting much discretionary selling at all next year,” Mr Dolman said.

Getting in line for the Bailout Funds.

Getting in line for the Bailout Funds, because 'the money is up for grabs'.

2008: The beginning of the Bailout
Worldwide bailout funds and Government help provisions are nearing a couple of trillion US dollars. There is a staggering amount of money involved, in the U.S. alone already 700 Billion dollar ($ 700.000.000.000,-), which is probably not enough.
If the USA, Europe, UK and Asia are counted all together it's going up to $3 Trillion (3000.000.000.000,-) or more.
What we are beginning to see now is more and more companies are asking for help. ("The money is available. So why not use it?")
First came Banks, the Financial Industry and Insurers, then came the Auto Industry, now the Housing Industry is getting in line.
Are Services, IT, Realtors, Manufactoring, Medical, Travel, Transport, Agriculture and Food Industries next in line?
When is Governemt beginning to ask for more money to sqeeze out the taxpayers because more (inefficient or nonproductive) bureaucrats are needed to handle the bailout requests?
Or will we get a whole new industry, the Bailout Specialists, -when all the money is gone they have to be bailed out themselves? (Like subsidy experts in certain European countries).

According to a recent CNN Poll most American think behaviour like Bernie Madoff is common and fraud occurs often in financial institutions, and that more government oversight is needed to stop it.
So, Wallstreet has a real image problem.
TIP: when your daughter comes home with "a banker for Christmas", get counseling!

We have not heard the well managed industries in the past 30 or odd years, when the 'CAN DO!' mentality and growth was the adage and money was to be made.