Bank Failure #45 in 2011: Atlantic Bank and Trust, Charleston, South Carolina

We expected to see a series of weak economic reports last week - falling house prices, weak auto sales, lower ISM manufacturing index, and a weak labor report - and unfortunately that is exactly what happened.The employment situation report was very disappointing. There were few jobs created (only 54,000 total and 83,000 private sector), and the unemployment rate increased from 9.0% to 9.1%, even though the participation rate was unchanged at 64.2%.

Note: Apparently the graph server had a problem this morning. It appears to be working now (all the links were OK). Here is the employment graph gallery. Sorry for the inconvenience. This was a very disappointing report.

There’s no way it could happen in the United States. That’s the conventional wisdom on this side of the pond about the ECB’s bailout of the banks in Cyprus. That caper looks as if it may take a chunk out of the hides of at least some bank depositors on the tiny Mediterranean island.

Earlier today, the American Banking Association reminded Americans that there is absolutely nothing to worry about when it comes to the sanctity of US deposits: after all there is a whopping $25 billion in the FDIC insurance fund which means "insured depositors are safe and their deposits are protected by a strong FDIC fund....The FDIC insurance fund has over $25 billion in reserves and the banking industry " Obviously supposedly "insured" depositors in Cyprus also t

Richard Suttmeier submits: Bank Failure Friday closed four more private banks. The FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund haunts banking. The NAHB worries about tougher regulatory guidelines on CRE lending. Restating the ignored regulatory guidelines yet again! I look at the daily charts for Housing, and Community and Regional Banks.Bank Failure Friday – Four more private community banks failed last Friday, bringing the total for the first quarter of 2010 to 41.

Initial Reaction The establishment survey reports of +236,000 job. For the first time in four months the establishment survey was accompanied by a healthy +170,000 surge in the household survey. Let's dig deeper. The economy added a whopping 446,000 part-time jobs. Thus, the economy shed 276,000 full-time jobs. Those part-time jobs were supposedly "on purpose". It's fair to point out the volatile nature of part-time statistics, but the 446,000 increase is unusually large.