On Wednesday JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported strong third-quarter earnings as its thriving investment banking business more than offset the rising loan losses about which the bank has warned that the bank that would continue for the foreseeable future.

$3.59 billion profit to JPMorgan

JPMorgan, has reported a $3.59 billion profit but it has also said that it roughly doubled the amount of money that has been set aside by the bank for failed home and credit card loans in the quarter.

Loan losses continues to rise

It has been predicted by the banks for some time that their loan losses would continue to rise. And in JPMorgan’s earnings statement, it has been confirmed by the CEO Jamie Dimon that this trend continues.

Investment bank net income

JPMorgan said that its investment bank net income came to $1.92 billion, this has been raised up $1 billion from a year earlier as fixed income trading thrived.

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In response to the U.S. Treasury’s call to speed the process and help prevent foreclosures, Citigroup Inc has significantly boosted its mortgage modification offers this month.

In a report released on Tuesday, CitiMortgage said that it has already helped 108,000 homeowners in the last quarter to avoid potential foreclosure, a rise of nearly 30 percent over the previous period.

It has participated fully in the President Barack Obama’s Home Affordable Modification Program, known as HAMP, to ease loan terms for up to 4 million borrowers.

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According to a Treasury Department report, the largest U.S. banks have found it more difficult to meet demand for loan modifications than their smaller rivals. As stated by a U.S. Treasury official, the pace and effectiveness of the government’s anti-foreclosure programs has been limited by the inability of some mortgage servicers to keep up with demand.

David Sisko, the head of default management services for Deloitte & Touche LLP said that the Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. are likely to show the poorest levels of homeowner assistance among the 31 companies participating in President Barack Obama’s $75 billion loan modification program. The government said it wants to clearly show the companies that are doing the most to help.

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If we look into history of different countries we will find that different countries faced the financial crises at different times. As the world is facing now financial crisis now also, the question comes in mind that who are those who run this finance horse, what are the reasons which leads to financial crises? Or is there is someone who is holding all the strings and keep them pulling? So many questions come in mind when mind starts thinking about it.

Well I had searched about this and compiled these ten nasty crises. Check out these ten dramatic crises.

1 – Argentine economic crisis (1999 – 2002)

Argentinean economy was destabilized in 1980s when Latin American Crisis struck it. Argentine was an import dependent country where people usually convert their peso into dollars to feel secure. The high inflation rate leads its currency to lose the confidence and adding oil to fire the government that time spent generously on itself while ignoring the country’s crumbling industrial infrastructure.

Mexico and Brazil were the major trade partners of the Argentine in 1980s both countries suffered the economic crises which spread out in Latin America. Brazil’s currency was devalued in 1999 that damaged a lot Argentinean exports and adding fuel to fire the dollar was revalued giving a harsh blow to Argentinean Peso.

Till 1999 the country was having 3^rd consistent year of economic decline but the government haven’t devalued the peso, which made the crisis worse. In such conditions the investors ran on banks for dollars to send abroad for safety. Meanwhile the government freezes everyone’s bank accounts. This step of the government raised violence amongst citizens and protests through out country were started. The government was collapsed in 2001. While in crisis the people were bartering for goods because lack of cash, many people eked out a living by scavenging cardboard for recycling plants.

The new government 1^st tried to setup a third currency between dollar and peso but that failed. Then it instructed the banks to convert all dollars into pesos. That step worked and peso was lead to diminish in value. Because of that exports got higher and in meanwhile the government tightened its tax policies, improves social welfare, encourages business growth and put the reserve dollars up for sale in market. The country got the surplus trade because of its agricultural products anyhow its still struggling with inflation.

Lesson

Freezing bank accounts leads the crises to get worst. It can’t be a smart step to tackle the crisis.

2 – Russian Financial Crisis (1998)

The Russian government in 1993 introduced inflation-free short-term treasury bills known as GKOs to finance the country’s deficit. GKOs were traded on currency exchanges. Most of it was state owning while only 1/3 of funding came from foreign speculators who were attracted by high interest rates. Like a classic Ponzi scheme the government used proceeds from sales of new GKOs to payoff interest on matured bills.

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Mortgage rates in U.S. have fallen to another record low as the week closes. It is has declined for 10th consecutive week this time.

As Freddie Mac reported this Thursday that 30-year fixed rate mortgage yields have averaged about 5.01% for the week ending on January 8th, 2009. it is a 9 basis point decline from last weeks’ rate. It is nice to compare it with the rates this time last year. which were 5.87% .

Since The Govt. Sponsored Agency Freddie Mac started the survey(1971), this is the lowest reported level for these rates.

15-year fixed rate mortgage is even lower at 4.62%. It is has declined sharper from 4.80% levels of last week and a down hill slide of 5.43% level of this time, last year. It is said to be the lowest reported rate since June 13, 2003.

It is expected that this will impact on adjustable-rate mortgage especially the 5-year adjustable mortgages which averaged about 5.5% this week down from 5.7% last week.

Plain English: What does it mean for house owners

Well, the the house owners around US are struggling with increased cost of living and job uncertainty, these attractive rates can offer real relief in terms of monthly amount spent on home loan re-payments. Most of the homeowners will see this as an opportunity to get rid of expensive adjustable rate mortgage and get a fixed payment loan instead for the peace of mind that comes with it. As It the fixed-rate mortgages are not likely to go down any further, It is a good time to bet on them.

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