treasury

How Bruce Berkowitz stumbled with AIG

The investor admitted he misjudged the government's intentions with the insurer. What does that mean for Berkowitz's giant stake?

FORTUNE -- With AIG stock cratering nearly 50% this year, all eyes have turned to investor Bruce Berkowitz, AIG's largest private shareholder. The 52-year-old fund manager looked especially smart last year while amassing 40 million shares of the insurance giant. Back then, AIG shares were skyrocketing and embarrassing hedge fund managers like Steve Eisman MORE

Gross boosts wrong-way bet on a bond crash

A little Treasury rally doesn't faze the loquacious bond bear Bill Gross.

Gross, the manager of the world's biggest bond fund, increased his bet against U.S. government debt last month while adding to his record cash position – even as bond prices rallied.

Gross' Pimco Total Return fund held 43 cents of cash for every dollar it had in assets, according to data from the end of April (see chart, right). That's MORE

Fannie bailout nears $100 billion

Fannie Mae is nearing another not so magical milestone.

The government-owned mortgage investor posted its latest quarterly loss Friday, blaming the recent house-price double dip for a rise in credit costs. Fannie (FNMA) also said its regulator will ask the government for more money to cover those losses.

The $6.5 billion request from the Federal Housing Finance Agency will bring the company's cumulative draw on Treasury funds since its September 2008 takeover MORE

Why the banks aren't lending to businesses

The Treasury and the Fed have furiously pursued a closed monetary loop that purposely excludes all useful deployment of capital. The budget talks are just more evidence of that.

By Moshe Silver, Hedgeye

FORTUNE -- Here is a business owner's budget: How much revenue did we take in this quarter? And how much did it cost us to keep the doors open this quarter? How much is left over? Now we know MORE

Pimco's Gross betting against U.S. debt

Bill Gross is putting his investors' money where his sizable mouth is.

Gross, who manages the world's biggest bond fund and has spent recent months jawboning about the dangers of U.S. debt, has placed a $7 billion bet against Treasury bonds, according to the latest statistics released by his Pimco Total Return fund.

Gross made a splash last month by selling all the big bond fund's Treasury holdings and calling the federal MORE

How to lose friends in Washington: Be TARP cop

Until last week, Neil Barofsky was the special investigator of the TARP program, where he says his main job duty was blunting the effects of the Treasury's bad decisions.

FORTUNE -- Neil Barofsky has been chasing bad guys for much of his professional career. Whether it was as an assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York or in his most recent gig as the man trying to make MORE

Bailed-out Ally files for IPO

The government is getting ready to start cashing out of another bailout.

Ally Financial filed Thursday to sell shares to the public. The company didn't say how much money it expects the offering to raise, but a report in the Detroit News puts the likely figure at perhaps $6 billion or so. All the proceeds will go to taxpayers as Treasury whittles down a 74% stake in the lender.

All told the MORE

Treasury tiptoes toward housing exit

Don't look now, but the government is gingerly tugging at one of the smaller slats propping up the mortgage market.

Treasury said Monday it will sell a big portfolio of mortgage-backed bonds over the next year or so, in a move to wind down a crisis-era program providing financing for residential housing.

The move comes as house prices are once again headed lower -- though not because loans, recently around 5% for MORE

TARP deadbeat list hits 142: update

The TARP deadbeat list continues to grow.

The number of banks missing scheduled quarterly dividend payments to the government hit 142 last month, according to the latest Treasury report on the subject. That's up from 123 in November, 115 in August and 91 in May, SNL Financial said.

The delinquent banks have $3.7 billion of government loans outstanding, SNL said. The list of the late banks is available from Treasury here, starting MORE

China passes $1 trillion in Treasuries

It turns out China does own more Treasury bonds than the government's official numbers have been letting on.

China held $1.16 trillion of U.S. government bonds at the end of 2010, Treasury said Monday in its preliminary revision of data on foreign portfolio holdings.

That's up $268 billion from the previous official tally covering the same dates, released two weeks ago, and puts China ahead of the No. 2 U.S. foreign lender, MORE