Bailout

Maiden Lane LLCs: The Backdoor Bailout

Posted on January 24, 2010
In late 2008, the New York Fed, then headed by now Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, created a special entities, Maiden Lane II and Maiden Lane II LLCs, to funnel $70 billion to 16 big U.S. and European banks whose failed “hedge trades”  would otherwise have prevented a single bonus from being paid...

Looming Meltdown of Mortgage-Backed Securities Foreseen by Bear Stearns Own Analysts

Posted on June 22, 2009
Long before their respective employers ceased to exist as independent companies, former Merrill Lynch Top North American Economist David A. Rosenberg and former Bear Stearns Chief Equities Investment Strategist Francois Trahan published research reports with explicit warnings about asset and credit bubbles in the U...

Fed Issues First Monthly Transparency Report

Posted on June 12, 2009
In an effort to increase transparency about the $1 Trillion (of $2.1 Trillion) it has added to it’s balance sheet since last September, the Fed committed to issuing a balance sheet performance report on the second Wednesday of each month. In the first reports, the Fed indicated it netted $2...

RecessionWire: Severance Advice

Posted on May 15, 2009
RECESSIONWIRE May 14, 2009: ?So? how big is your package?? It?s a question that used to be taboo, something only discussed between intimates. But these days, virtually no one is too shy to ask about the dimensions of someone else?s severance deal. In fact many people can?t help but compare what they received against the packages [...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Remembering Bear Stearns 13 Months Later: Has CEO James Cayne Taken Blame?

Posted on April 30, 2009
In August 2007, Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne wrote to Bear investors.  Cayne’s mission that August was critically important, and he knew it.  In the wake of the shocking failure of two huge Bear Stearns hedge funds with heavy ties to the subprime mortgage market, the CEO needed to convey his confidence in the future [...

Is Treasury Acting like a Chicken with it?s Head Cut-off?

Posted on April 14, 2009
Are federal bailout programs like a roulette wheel? From the makers of South Park.

Insider Loans Dwarf Bank Bonuses

Posted on March 22, 2009
Add to the list of questionable obligations assumed by the nation’s banks in the routine course of business, $41 Billion worth of loans to directors, top executives, employees, and other insiders.  These insider loans, generally made to high net worth individuals, most of whom have suffered significant declines in their net worth due to investment portfolio losses, could [...

Are AIG Bonuses a Smokescreen?

Posted on March 18, 2009
Is the furor over AIG bonuses justified or political grandstanding?  Does a 0.01% investment in salaries for the staff overseeing the wind-down of a $1.6 Trillion portfolio justify harikari as Senator Grassley suggested? Does it take 73 millionaires to wind-down a toxic investment portfolio? What about the bonuses paid to other Wall Street firms?  Last week [...

Nationalized Citibank Television Commercial Parody

Posted on March 09, 2009
More on this topic (What's this?) An Amazingly Disingenuous Piece by Alan Blinder on Bank Nationalization (naked capitalism, 3/7/09) Deep Thoughts From Vikram Pandit (Zero Hedge, 3/6/09) US to Convert Preferred Shares in Citi to Common at 32% Premium to Market Price (naked capitalism, 2/27/09) Read more on Nationalization, Citigroup at Wikinvest

February TARP Recipients

Posted on March 08, 2009
The US Treasury Department provided $1,415,882,000 ($1.4 Billion) to banking institutions under the Troubled Asset Relief Program’s (TARP) Capital Infusion Program during the month of February in the form of preferred stock with warrants.  Banks receiving TARP funds in February, 2009 are: Bank Amount ($) Date 1st Enterprise Bank Los Angeles CA $4,400,000 02/13/2009 Alaska Pacific Bancshares, Inc...

Geithner Lays out AIG?s Feed Plan to Bernanke

Posted on March 05, 2009
On the same day the federal government announced an additional $30 Billion of aid for insurance giant AIG, the Fed Chariman and Treasury Secretary had this to say about the company in seperate Congressional hearings: “AIG exploited a huge gap in the regulatory system, there was no oversight of the financial- products division, this was a [...

Obama Close to Buying Citibank to Preserve Great American Pastime

Posted on February 24, 2009
Rumors continue to circulate that Citibank Chairman Dick Parsons is huddling with Treasury officials at the White House complex to negotiate a significant increase in the government’s ownership of Citibank equity in otder to forestall the takeover that many feel will ultimately be necessary...

Bank of United States: Calls for Nationalization of US Banks Increase

Posted on February 21, 2009
What does “bank nationalization” mean?  What would it mean for the US government to nationalize banks? Though anathema to classic capitalist principals and our national psyche, it may become impossible to continue hiding the negative balance sheets of US banks much longer, requiring a more assertive intervention by the government than has been contemplated to date...

All Money can be Created Equally: Lincoln?s Birthday Address

Posted on February 16, 2009
Flags of the Confederacy displayed at movie house playing Gone with the Wind! on Lincoln’s birthday in 1940 Winchester, Virginia.  (Depression Era photographs made current by humorist and financial professional Cathleen Rittereiser.)

Can 1,073 Pages Save One?

Posted on February 13, 2009
The final draft of the $789 Billion economic stimulus bill passed a one-sided 246 to 183 House vote at 1,073 unread pages. Without a single House Republican and only three Republican Senators, the President and Democrat party are pinning their hopes for an economic recovery on 496 pages of appropriations and 577 pages of [...

Hard Lesson for Wall Street on Executive Compensation

Posted on February 09, 2009
As the stimulus debate has picked up speed, Tom Friedman has aptly summed up the challenge we face in responding to the multifront economic crisis by saying, “We’re going to need a bigger boat,” paraphrasing a favorite line of mine from the movie jaws...

Bernie Madoff Thinks his Adding Machine Lies Too

Posted on February 07, 2009
Enjoy this new Bailout Report feature.  Depression Era WPA photographs made current by humorist and financial professional Cathleen Rittereiser.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan

Posted on January 25, 2009
President Obama shared even more details of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan he is urging Congress to pass into law. The Plan aims to fill the employment gap created by the anticipated loss in demand for $1 Trillion dollars of the economy’s productive potential...

FDR?s Inaugural Advice for President Obama

Posted on January 20, 2009
Remember the good old days when we had nothing to fear by fear itself? Captions by Cathleen Rittereiser.

Roads and Bridges aren?t the most Pressing Need for Stimulus

Posted on January 16, 2009

American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan

Posted on January 04, 2009
President-in-waiting Barack Obama has revised upward the goals of the stimulus plan he has committed to have Congress send for his signature as the first act of his presidency.  While as recently as a few weeks ago he was promsing two million new jobs, in his last Saturday radio address (sic YouTube broadcast) from his Chicago transition [...

IOUSA: Indebted Film Illustrates Bailout?s Effect on National Debt

Posted on December 15, 2008
MTV takes on the national debt.

Mayors and Highway Geeks Get on Line

Posted on December 08, 2008
Once the automobile manufacturers can continue making cars, the country will need improved roads to drive them on. In the past two days, two municipal advocacy groups started making their case for federal bail out dollars. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) The directors of state transportation departments promoted over 5,000 shovel-ready highway projects [...

States Hurting

Posted on December 05, 2008
US States currently expect budget gaps of $32 Billion for the remainder of this fiscal year and an additional $65 Billion for the following year. These estimates, of course, are likely to get worse if trends in other economi statistics are any indicator...

Daily Bailout Report

Posted on December 02, 2008
Bailout Monitor Sees Lack of a Coherent Plan The head of a new Congressional panel set up to monitor the federal bailout says the government still does not seem to have a coherent strategy for easing the crisis. History of U.S. Gov’t Bailouts Fourteen government bailouts and the results...

US Banks Need a Bigger Lifeboat

Posted on November 26, 2008
Ben Bernacke’s must have been to Blockbuster this weekend to catch up on his classic American cinema. First AIG received $85 Billion in September. That later swelled to more than $150 billion earlier this month. Then Citigroup received $25 Billion in cash from the TARP last month...

Could the Economic Crisis Be Sowing Seeds of Discontent?

Posted on November 25, 2008
First, the National Intelligence Council releases a report describing how US influence is declining. Now the Russian propagandists are piling on the US’s own critical self-reflection by predicting the collapse and breakup of the United States into as many as six parts...

Market Bottom or are we being Charlie Browned?

Posted on November 24, 2008
Is the Bear Market like Lucy? Inspired by a the Economist.

Is Another $300+ Billion Enough to Save Citi?

Posted on November 24, 2008
Staying true to the commitment Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke have reiterated over the last two months, they committed over $300 Billion during private talks over the weekend to save Citigroup, more money than was publicly and gut-wrenchingly extracted from Congress during the several week battle over the bailout bill in September...

Our Favorite Gold Bear Speaks: Peter Schiff Continues his Warning Ways

Posted on November 20, 2008
Peter Schiff, among the few economic commentators who publicly called the collapse of the housing bubble well before the subprime crisis emerged, is making the rounds to taut gold. On Bloomberg Television Part two of Bloomberg Interview. On Thestreet...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.