The top eight spenders in the financial industry alone spent nearly $30 million to lobby Capitol Hill last year, according to Nathaniel Popper of the Los Angeles Times — a 13 percent overall increase from 2008. That overall increase was fueled by a 12 percent increase — to More…
With the unemployment rate hovering just shy of 10 percent and Washington focused on job creation, President Obama this month called on Congress to approve a plan that would take $30 billion in repaid TARP funds and make it available for small banks to lend to small businesses.
“We’re More…
If today’s economy wasn’t already bad enough and the need to bail out entire countries rather than just banks didn’t strike enough fear into your heart, Congressional Oversight Panel chair Elizabeth Warren has some news for you: It’s about to get worse.
Gretchen Morgenson and Louise Story’s New York Times piece yesterday was a thorough explanation of Goldman Sachs’ machinations that contributed to the collapse of AIG and the government’s perceived need to jump in and pay for everything without negotiating prices.
But unless you’re well-versed in the modern minutiae More…
The co-CEO of the Pacific Investment Management Company, which currently employs former TARP head Neel Kashkari — whose job it was to rescue the U.S. economy — is no longer as in love with the Treasury as he once was. Today, and despite the deepening concerns about a More…
The trouble facing Democrats hoping to use repaid bailout money to fund other things is this: The Troubled Asset Relief Program stipulates that all such funds be used to pay down the nation’s staggering debt.
That little inconvenience hasn’t dissuaded the Obama administration from proposing a More…
To what extent were Wall Street’s largest firms willing to sacrifice their own skin to fix the economy they helped topple? Well, not much of one.
During today’s House hearing on AIG’s bailout, a central focus was on why AIG’s counterparties — including giants like Goldman Sachs — were paid More…
It was a tough morning for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, summoned to Capitol Hill to testify on the decision-making surrounding the federal bailout of American International Group, which ultimately received more than $180 billion in taxpayer cash.
The controversy in recent weeks has centered not on the money More…
The tax on the nation’s bailed-out banks, proposed by President Obama last week, has won the support of congressional liberals, and even some conservative commentators have jumped on board. But don’t try to convince Peter Morici. The University of Maryland business professor (and prominent voice on More…
The Federal Reserve has instructed federal investigators to withhold from Congress certain documents related to the Fed’s payments to AIG counterparties, according to a recent letter from Neil Barofsky TARP inspector general, to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). The letter, available here, was published on Issa’s site.
“The Federal Reserve More…
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