Peter Flaherty

Obama is Exceeding Presidential Authority on Wagoner Firing, Auto Bailout

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

Although Rick Wagoner should have been gone years ago, Barack Obama has exceeded presidential authority in firing the CEO of a major corporation. Of course, the justification is that GM is accepting government money, but Congress has not authorized money for an auto bailout. 

The money has come from the TARP, which was supposed to used to buy the toxic assets of banks. The Constitution is being shredded. This concentration of power in the hands of the President, a small circle of advisors, and financiers is dangerous.

If Obama can take over sick companies, why can’t he take over healthy companies he doesn’t like? After all, he’s not only criticized the auto companies for building certain kinds of cars, but he’s criticized oil companies for their business decisions. Can Obama now tell oil companies to close down their wells and build windmills?

It is government that destroyed the U.S. carmakers … Read More ➡

Another Trillion to Buy Toxic Assets? What Was TARP For?

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

money reducedIf Barack Obama wants another trillion or more for toxic-asset purchases, what was the TARP for?  The burden is on him and Timothy Geithner to explain why another Wall Street bailout will work when the previous ones have not.

This latest plan would have the taxpayer finance the purchase of troubled assets, opening the door for unregulated opaque entities like hedge funds to speculate with taxpayer funds. This “public-private partnership” might also be called the Obama Hedge Fund Bailout.

When TARP was passed by Congress in October, its purported purpose was to buy toxic assets from banks. Instead, the $700 billion has been used to buy preferred stock in banks, bail out the automakers, and now bail out the automakers’ suppliers.  Yet these stock purchases have failed to prevent the deterioration of bank’s capital positions, even as common stock, held by millions of small investors, has been crushed.

Former Treasury … Read More ➡

NLPC Pres. Comments on IBT Ethics Controversy

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

From an op-ed published nationwide, by NLPC president Peter Flaherty…

Organized labor was an undisputed election day loser, but John Kerry’s defeat was a particular blow to Teamsters chief Jim Hoffa. For Hoffa…It was about getting the 1.3 million-member Teamsters out from under federal government oversight, in place since 1989.

 

The stakes for Hoffa were so high because of a burgeoning controversy that exploded with the April 28 resignation of Edwin Stier, the former federal prosecutor hired by the Teamsters to clean up the union. Stier charged that Hoffa had “backed away” and “inexplicably retreated” from anticorruption efforts.

 

…[Now] the Teamsters are refusing to release Stier’s 303-page report on the six locals…Stier asserted that he encountered “active resistance” from Hoffa’s office in investigating these allegations.  In 1999, the Teamsters established an internal reform program and hired Stier.  It was a way of staving off more serious … Read More ➡