The FDIC released the Quarterly Banking Profile for second quarter,2009 yesterday. Some of the key points and charts from this report are presented below. More Than One in Four Institutions Are Unprofitable Charge-Offs and Noncurrent Loans Continue to Rise Net Charge-offs: “Net charge-offs of credit card loans were $4.6 billion (84.5 percent) higher than a …
Continue reading ‘Key Points from the latest FDIC’s Quaterly Banking Profile’ »
150 years ago this week Colonel Edwin Drake struck oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Ever since oil has become the most important commodity in the world.Despite the hype about green technologies and other alternative sources of energy, crude oil will continue to be the major source of energy for many years to come. In this post …
Continue reading ‘Top Oil Producing Countries in 2008 and The World’s Largest Oil Fields’ »
The best performing market index in the first six months of 2008 was the IGBVL index of Lima Stock Exchange in Peru. This index grew by 85.3% in local currency. The second and third posts went to Shenzen and Shanghai stock exchanges in China which had growth of 73.9% and 62.5% respectively. The worst performing …
Continue reading ‘The Best and Worst Performing Market Indices in Half Year 2008’ »
The only New Zealand ADR listed in the NYSE is Telecom New Zealand (NZTCY). Currently NZTCY pays a dividend yield of 8.66%. For US investors, there is no country-specific ETF or other funds for investing there.New Zealand stocks generally have excellent yields and the country was not impacted adversely by the credit crisis.The average dividend yield …
Canada and Australia have many similarities and some differences. Both countries are Federal parliamentary democracies and former British colonies. Canada has a population of 33 million while Australia has 21 million. The GDP per capita is also very similar. For example, in 2008 it was $39,183 for Canada and US$37,298 for Australia (Source: Wikipedia). The …
Continue reading ‘A Comparison of Economies: Canada Vs. Australia’ »