Timothy Geithner

Goldman Sachs Got Off Easy

Lloyd Blankfein photoGoldman got to keep 100% of what it really wanted, namely the ability to cling to its claim that if did nothing wrong. 

It did acknowledge a “mistake” for not telling CDO buyers that hedge fund operator John Paulson helped booby-trap the security before it was sold. It is common for the SEC settle Wall Street cases without an admission of guilt, but is not typical for it to allow the accused party to do but at the same time admit to a “mistake.” That’s how it works when your political influence permeates the government. You get to deny wrongdoing at the same time you admit to wrongdoing.

'Firestorm' Promised to Save Politically-Connected Chicago Bank

ShoreBank logoAccording to a story over the weekend from the Chicago Tribune, the $135 million that the Obama Administration reportedly coerced from TARP recipients like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup may not be enough to save ShoreBank, the politically connected “community” lender whose big bank bailout was supposed to make it eligible for its own TARP funds. From the Tribune:

The bailout of Chicago-based ShoreBank has hit a serious snag as the Federal Reserve and Treasury drag their feet on whether to provide funding to the ailing South Side lender, sources close to the situation say….

The Treasury is deferring to the Federal Reserve. One source said some at the Fed want ShoreBank to raise more private dollars before it gets government money.

SEC Must Ban Auto Czar Steven Rattner From Securities Industry

Rattner photoThe Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly considering a ban on former auto czar Steven Rattner from working in the securities industry for up to three years. Even if he gets the three years, it would be pitifully short.

Rattner oversaw the bailouts of Chrysler and GM, which were conducted to the benefit of the United Auto Workers. In the GM bailout, billions of dollars were simply stolen from bondholders and turned over to the union-controlled funds.

Scott Brown Victory Is Reaction to Obama's Corruption of Democracy

Scott Brown photoIn recent days, Barack Obama gathered with House and Senate Democrats in the Cabinet Room of the White House to “negotiate” health care. They no doubt grew alarmed as Scott Brown surged in the polls, but they seemed strangely unaware that their very actions  — meeting behind closed doors in a rump legislative conference from which Republicans were excluded — were fueling the outrage that would make possible a Brown victory.

Even worse, when asked the impact on health care by a Brown victory, they sketched out various scenarios, from not immediately seating Brown to passing the bill under reconciliation, requiring only 51 Senate votes. The unceasing message to Massachusetts voters was that their vote did not count.

Black and Hispanic Broadcasters, Congressmen Seek Bailout

Maxine Waters photoRadio and television broadcasters - at least those catering to black and Hispanic audiences - soon may join financial services and auto manufacturers as the beneficiaries of a federal bailout. For the last half year, a group of executives of minority-themed media enterprises have been lobbying Capitol Hill to provide a boost to their money-losing operations. Having natural allies in the black and Hispanic congressional caucuses, they may win additional support from the Obama administration and any number of white lawmakers eager to expand their base of support. As it is, one of its key members already may have coaxed a loan modification from a financial giant.

Is Obama Now a Tea Partier?

Tea Party photoBarack Obama's plan to tax banks to get “our money back” seems to be little more than a political response to the public outrage over his bailout of undeserving banks, hedge funds, automakers, and homebuilders.

For the record, Obama voted for TARP as a Senator. As President, he has implemented other giveaway programs to banks, including near 0% interest rates, taxpayer guarantees of bank deposits and money market funds, the Term Asset Securities Loan Facility, and worst of all, the so-called Public Private Partnership Investment Program. Obama has defended all these actions as necessary to preventing a collapse of the financial system. Now he wants to tax and vilify the same institutions he has been propping up?

Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Bailed Out Again; CEO Pay Set for Huge Boost

Fannie Mae headquartersOne of the more entrenched principles in business is "pay for performance," the rewarding of executives with raises, bonuses and other forms of compensation if they meet or exceed expectations. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, now wards of the federal government, are negations of that principle. The troubled secondary mortgage lending giants, already having received more than $110 billion in federal subsidies since the fall of 2008, are set for another major feed at the public trough. On December 24, the U.S. Treasury Department, facing a December 31 deadline, approved a no-limit hike in the publicly-traded companies' combined $400 billion credit line. Were that not enough, regulators approved an annual compensation package of up to $6 million for each chief executive officer. Welcome to pay for performance, Obama-style - not that the Bush version was a bargain.

Nonunion Delphi Retired Employees Get Shaft in Auto Bailout

Delphi CorporationWhen the Obama administration this past spring forced the bankrupt General Motors and Chrysler Corp. into virtual public receivership, officials justified the action as crucial to the survival of the auto industry and indeed the entire economy. Yet this unprecedented action has had several downsides, one of the less heralded of which has been the sudden vulnerability of current and retired employees who don't belong to a union. Case in point: the roughly 15,000 nonunion retirees of auto parts manufacturer and former GM subsidiary Delphi Corporation on the verge of losing their pension, health insurance and life insurance benefits.

Flaherty: Obama Wants to Limit EVERYONE'S Pay

NLPC President Peter Flaherty and UMass professor Christian Weller debate windfall tax on bankers' bonuses, with CNBC hosts Melissa Francis and Larry Kudlow. Click here to download a 4-page pdf transcript.

Flaherty Says Obama's Government is 'By Financiers, For Financiers'

NLPC President Peter Flaherty discusses Goldman Sachs' bonuses with former Colorado Attorney General Bill Leone and CNBC host Dennis Kneale. Click here to download a 2-page pdf transcript.

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