Bailout

?I don?t want to paint a dramatic picture, but I just want to say that a year ago we couldn?t imagine the debate we had in the spring and the measures we had to take? over Greece, Merkel said ... ?We are facing an exceptionally serious situation as far as the euro?s situation is concerned.?

Net income for the 7,760 insured commercial banks and savings institutions reporting quarterly financial results totaled $14.5 billion, a considerable improvement over the $2 billion reported a year ago. Third quarter net income was below the $17.7 billion and $21.4 billion reported in the first and second quarters of this year, respectively, but the shortfall was attributable to a $10.1 billion quarterly net loss at one large institution that had a $10.4 billion charge for goodwill impairment. Absent this loss, third quarter earnings would have represented a three-year high. Almost two out of every three institutions (63.3 percent) reported higher net income than a year earlier, and fewer than one in five (18.9 percent) was unprofitable. This is the lowest percentage of unprofitable institutions since second quarter 2008. A year ago, more than 27 percent of all institutions reported negative net income.

In November, the seasonally adjusted composite index of manufacturing activity ? our broadest measure of manufacturing ? rose four points to 9 from October's reading of 5. Among the index's components, shipments rose four points to 7, new orders edged up two points to finish at 10, and the jobs index increased six points to 10.

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Full post as published by Calculated Risk on November 23, 2010 (boomark / email).