Reader, doing the simple math the FDIC is ahead of last year's rate already. Given that the economy is very like to take a sharp turn for the worse this fall and that there are many banks effectively waiting their turn at FDIC staff scrutiny, the number is likely to reach 200, in my opinion. The Wall Street zombie banks are another category entirely, and probably won't survive even having the losses that they have parked off of their accounting statements come home to roost. The next 8 months is likely to be very bumpy.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CN) – Bank of America claims mortgage insurers owe it more than $535 million for losses it suffered when the housing bubble burst. BofA, which bought the poster boy of the subprime lending fiasco, Countrywide Financial, 2 years ago, says title insurers unfairly refuse to cover busted mortgage loans that originated before the financial meltdown.

March 15 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., two of the biggest traders of over-the- counter derivatives, are exploiting their growing clout in that market to secure cheap funding in addition to billions in revenue from the business.

"It is well enough that people ... do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." Henry Ford, American industrialist

"It seems to me that Europe, especially with the addition of more countries, is becoming ever-more susceptible to any asymmetric shock. Sooner or later, when the global economy hits a real bump, Europe's internal contradictions will tear it apart." Milton Friedman, American economist

They certainly know what “schadenfreude” means in Germany. But the attempt by the German paper, Der Spiegel, to link the UK to the travails of Greece, takes the concept to a malicious and irrational extreme:

When the 12 European Nations raced to embrace the single currency, euro, it was supposed to be a forward step in the process of European Integration, towards the United States of Europe. In retrospect, the euro has not only not contributed to deeper integration but is certainly close to undermining its foundations. The economic and debt crises have forced countries to resort back to their bitter past relations up to the point where Greeks are demanding that Germany pay WWII reparations.

Recently, I talked to the CEO of a very successful Icelandic company that has grown steadily over the decade it’s been operating. Every year, the CEO would go through the annual report, lean back and think with great satisfaction that his company was indeed showing a healthily steady growth. Then the banks and their satellite companies would come out with their annual accounts – and the CEO’s heart would sink, questioning what on earth was he was doing: compared to these companies his company’s growth was pitiful. Now, anno 2010, his company is still doing well and even hiring people.

This week, ABC News World News with Diane Sawyer is airing a series about the struggling middle class. The show's producers posed the following question to a few of the nation's leading economic and financial analysts, including UMKC's own William K. Black.

Just when you thought that nothing could stink more than Timothy Geithner's handling of the AIG bailout, a new report details how Geithner's New York Fed allowed Lehman Brothers to use an accounting gimmick to hide debt. The report, which runs to 2200 pages, was released by Anton Valukas, the court-appointed examiner. It actually makes the AIG bailout look tame by comparison. It is now crystal clear why Geithner's Treasury as well as Bernanke's Fed refuse to allow any light to shine on the massive cover-up underway.

*This is an english translation of the greek publication.