(video) Chris Whalen: New Bank Bailouts Under Dodd-Frank For Bank Of America, Wells Fargo Within 12 Months - Runs just 3 minutes.  Huge government restructuring and intervention is on the way.  Next year will be a killer. - The Daily Bail

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U.S. Boosts Ally Stake to 74% as Lender Prepares for Share Sale - By Dakin Campbell and Rebecca Christie - Ally Financial Inc., the auto and home lender bailed out by the U.S., moved closer to shedding taxpayer ownership as the government converted $5.5 billion of preferred stock into common shares. - Bloomberg

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Four (easy) Pieces - Ben’s got his head in the sand? - Bruce Krasting

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The Best Hedge Fund Manager Of The Year Explains How China Caused The Crisis - Courtney Comstock … "We were giving them dollars that were only really worth 70 cents [in Chinese RMB]. So for every $1 we gave them, we should have given them $1.39. Put another way, we were selling them $1 bills for $1.39 in plasma TVs."  "The U.S.’s trade imbalance with China became its largest “practically overnight."  So we had China’s goods and China had our dollars.  "With their American dollars, the Chinese bought U.S. debt, allowing new mortgages to be created cheaply, at floating rates, at teaser rates for two or three years – the infamous 2/28 and 3/27 mortgages.” … - Clusterstock at Business Insider

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(who will blink?) Showdown looms over raising the nation’s debt limit - By Jim Puzzanghera - As lawmakers and the White House engage in another game of economic chicken, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says hitting the debt ceiling would cause ‘catastrophic damage to the economy.’ - LA Times Business

Poll shows strong opposition in the private business community to raising U.S. debt ceiling - As the fight heats up over extending the U.S. debt ceiling, 60% of private businesses and their lenders don’t want to see an increase out of fear it will hurt the economy, according to a new poll from Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management. - LA Times Business 

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NY Fed’s ‘Mr. Inside’ Dudley flapping his gums - John Crudele - The president of the Federal Re serve Bank of New York doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.  The entire Fed regularly observes what it calls a "blackout period" starting one week before Federal Open Market Committee meetings and lasts until the Friday after those meetings. … William Dudley, the head of the New York Fed, seems to have his own rules about talking to people during the blackout period. … - NY Post