Word: toxication
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...bailout money they've received, some of America's biggest banks are still unwilling to sell many of the toxic assets clogging their balance sheets. The prices being offered, they say, are simply too low, and neither massive government subsidies for buyers nor encouragement from President Obama has thus far been sufficient to change their minds...
...meeting between Obama and the nation's top bankers on March 27, the President encouraged the CEOs to participate in programs designed to purge the toxic assets. But after politely voicing support for the programs in principle, the bankers said that in practice, the prices for the toxic assets were still going to be too low when the programs are launched in coming months, according to a source who was in the room, which was confirmed by another source who was briefed by participants. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis...
...banks' resistance may be the biggest hurdle Geithner faces in his plans to rebuild the financial sector. At the height of the crisis over the winter, there were neither buyers nor sellers for the toxic assets. Saddled with the assets on their balance sheets, the banks sharply curtailed lending, threatening to throw the economy into a tailspin. The Bush and Obama Administrations poured money into the banks to allow them to restart some lending, but the toxic assets remained on the banks' books. (See five lessons from the AIG-bonus blowup...
...that point, pressure mounted from regulators, the Federal Reserve and Congress on the Financial Accounting Standards Board to loosen accounting rules so that the toxic assets' book value could be marked up to buttress the banks' balance sheets - conveniently raising the assets' potential sales price at the same time. And in late March, days before the meeting with the bank CEOs, Geithner and Obama unveiled the government subsidies for buyers, drawing big names like Blackstone and Pimco into the market to purchase the assets from the banks and resell them...
...recent report from Goldman Sachs, the firm's research analysts calculated that the best of the banking industry's toxic assets are carried on banks' books at an average of $91 (on a bond with an original $100 price). But TIME's calculations suggest that the government-subsidized buyers would pay only $70, leaving the banks with a $21 loss on each bond sold...