Courtesy of Pam Martens
Deutsche Bank Headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell into financial markets with a report that “about a year ago” the U.S. Federal Reserve had “designated Deutsche Bank AG’s sprawling U.S. business as being in a ‘troubled condition.’ ” The Financial Times added to market angst by also reporting yesterday that the FDIC, which provides Federal deposit insurance to U.S. banks, has designated Deutsche Bank as a “problem bank” sometime within the past year. Until yesterday, both of these actions by Federal regulators were secret and unknown to Deutsche Bank’s shareholders, to the markets and to the New York Stock Exchange where Deutsche Bank’s stock trades in the U.S. Over the past year, Deutsche Bank’s stock has lost more than 40 percent of its value as a result of a lack of positive earnings for three years and serial regulatory lapses and settlements.
More bad news arrived today with credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s slashing Deutsche Bank’s credit rating to BBB+ from A-. That will mean margin calls to Deutsche Bank along with demands for more collateral on their sprawling derivative exposure.
U.S. President Donald Trump has a lot on his mind right now, not the least of which is the revelation that during the FBI’s April 9 raid on his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, it had seized secret tape recordings made by Cohen. On MSNBC this week, attorney Michael Avenatti said he is aware that at least one of those tapes is a conversation with Donald Trump.
The Cohen trove of thousands of yet-to-be released documents and recordings are currently considered the biggest threat to the presidency of Donald Trump. Deutsche Bank, however, could prove to be a far larger problem.
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