While You Were Working - April 24 - SmartBrief

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While You Were Working – April 24

MetLife wants a SIFI pause, BIS on monetary policy, parent-of-student loan bubbles, and one thing Wells Fargo does right

3 min read

Modern Money

MetLife

MetLife floats idea of pausing SIFI appeal - Photo credit: Warren Little/Getty Images

MetLife wants to push pause on SIFI case

On the heels of President Trump’s executive order calling for a review of the process by which the Financial Stability Oversight Council designates systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs), MetLife is asking a court to delay its ruling on an appeal by the government that challenged MetLife’s earlier court victory.

The Bank for International Settlements confirmed the obvious

The Bank for International Settlements has published a working paper that asks a rather timely question: Is monetary policy less effective when interest rates are persistently low?

If the last few years of monetary policy around the world is any indication, then the answer is obvious: Yes.

The BIS has to conduct research like this so it is armed with data the next time a policy debate breaks out regarding uber-low interest rates. The more important quesiton is: When that time comes, will anyone listen to the BIS? Let’s hope so.

More trouble in the student loan market

The amount of debt college grads are struggling to repay has been widely reported – and even propelled millions of them to Feel the Bern back during the presidential primaries.

What has been less reported is how the parents of college students are also crumbling under the weight of debt taken on to educate their kids. The state of higher education in America is on shaky ground. Many of the borrowers in the Wall Street Journal piece should have never been approved for loans. New approaches to education and pointed questions about the value of a college degree are starting to shine a spotlight on a dodgy industry – and yes, it is an industry.

But getting back to those parents who can’t pay off the loans they took out to educate their kids, they are also staring down the barrel of things like retirement and skyrocketing health care costs. Something’s gotta give; and it will always be the student loan repayments.

World Cup fiasco

Remember the days when we had to wait until a World Cup was over to truly appreciate the financial ruin it placed on the host country? I mean … at least we got to enjoy the matches in South Africa and Brazil before feeling so bad about the long-term pain that was destined to ensue.

Nowadays, the pain is on display for everyone – including the bankers – to see and feel 5 years before the first ball is kicked.

WYWW Appetizers

  • Not-so-good days in the retail and commercial real estate industries.
  • Wells Fargo might not know how to live, but at least it knows how to die.
  • Post-crisis, banks are responding to capital requirements differently.