"Big investors like pension funds and endowments, licking their wounds from miserable returns last year, are bracing for more.
"In the next few weeks, private-equity firms -- which buy companies, take them private, restructure and resell them -- will report declines of 15% to 50% for the fourth quarter of 2008 amid the deep economic recession, analysts and investors say. Two big private-equity firms already have reported sizable declines in the value of their hard-to-price holdings.
"Those drops in turn will further batter the performance of public pension funds, foundations and endowments. These institutional investors had barreled into private-equity investing ..." Big Investors Face Deeper Losses As Private-Equity Shops Revalue Assets, Institutions Brace for Worst - Mar 2009
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"'I don't think there is a pass-fail on the stress test,'" a government official said. "'This stress test is not a test for who is insolvent or not.'"
"Rather, government officials say the tests will be used to gauge how much extra capital big banks might need as a buffer to continue lending through the economic downturn. The Treasury Department said Tuesday that it would invest an additional $100 billion and $200 billion into banks on top of the $250 billion it has already said it would put in.
"Lawmakers, analysts, and some bankers argue the banking system is worse off than many acknowledge. David Burg, a portfolio manager at Alpine Mutual Funds in Purchase N.Y., said a severe stress test could show that 98% of banks "need a lot more capital." Reviews, 'Stress Tests' May Reveal Deeper Bank Troubles - Feb 2009
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"Written by seasoned financial writer Dave Kansas, The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street as We Know It makes sense of the madness, revealing how the crisis is affecting our financial lives and what steps we should take to inform and protect ourselves. This comprehensive, practical and accessible book delivers:
* An inside look at the financial wizardry, easy money and overconfidence that drove the subprime crisis, credit crunch and market meltdown
* An analysis of the New World Order—the banking behemoths, the government's role—and how it will affect Main Street
* A look at what's safe: a rundown of which investments are protected and which aren't and how fund protection has changed
* Individual investor strategies: stocks, bonds, retirement and real estate (and whether you should think seriously about 'the mattress') ...
"Dave Kansas is Editor at Large of FiLife.com, a new online personal finance joint venture between Dow Jones and IAC Corp. Prior to that, Kansas spent four years as editor of The Wall Street Journal's Money & Investing section and was editor in chief of TheStreet.com during its formative years, and he is the author of two previous books, The Wall Street Journal's Complete Money & Investing Guidebook and TheStreet.com Guide to Investing in the Internet Era. He and his wife, Monica, live in New York City." The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street as We Know It: What You Need to Know About the Greatest Financial Crisis of Our Time--and How to Survive It (Paperback)
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