The Treasury secretary has made 174 purchases of banks’ preferred shares that include certificates to buy stock at a later date. He invested $10 billion in Goldman Sachs in October, twice as much as Buffett did the month before, yet gained warrants worth one-fourth as much as the billionaire, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Goldman Sachs terms were repeated in most of the other bank bailouts.
The U.S. Treasury is considering taking stakes in insurers, as it prepares a new round of capital injections targeted at regional banks and other financial companies, a person briefed on the plan said
Some life insurers have asked the government to make the participation of life companies mandatory because firms don't want to identify themselves as needing funds
Mandatory to get taxpayer funds simply because they do not want to identify themselves?
Additional details are how the Treasury didn't anticipant the drop in the markets. Right, they scream Fire in the Theater and are now surprised?
New York Times is reporting $250 billion for investing in large and small banks.
The FDIC will give unlimited insurance on non-interest bearing bank deposits.
Now check out the New York Times graph of who gets the most, already decided. That is $125 billion already doled out to our fab 8 which means there is only half left for anyone else.
At least they are getting preferred stock for the deal.
Supposedly the program was not voluntary and supposedly they will have reduced executive compensation so far ill defined.
Hank getting tough with his buddies? Not too sure since he just handed over billions.
The minute I hear the word Protectionism being denounced, odds are policy for the American people is being fought against by Corporate lobbyists.
Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is now pronouncing the evils of any international regulation or anything geared to reduce the United States trade deficit:
Although we in the United States are taking many extraordinary measures to ease the crisis, we are not pursuing policies that would limit the flow of goods, services or capital, as such measures would only intensify the risks of a prolonged crisis
The Washington Post reports that Kashkari is a former vice president at Goldman Sachs, where he led the firm's security investment banking practice. Apparently, Kashkari was still a student at Wharton in February, 2002, when the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on his participation in a leadership class exercise. That would put him at no more than six years out of school.
In 2006, Neel Tushar Kashkari of Stow Ohio was reported to be selected as one of the regional finalists for the White House Fellows Program. A final listing of the actual recipients for 2006-2007 does not include Kashkari.
That's only 5 years of experience and most in IT related areas!
A 35 year old recent MBA graduate with no expertise in the S&L crisis or any other....is going to run the bail out!
Due to the prophetic pontificatin', perks, pork and persuasion....
House Passes Paulson's Bail Out Plan
Now the question is will it do anything beyond hand over taxpayer money to Wall Street, delay the inevitable, exacerbate the real problems and dump this entire mess on the next administration. Personally I am just horrified how our Congress shoves this down the throat of the American people claiming it's for main street. Such a lie.
This is a must-read New York Times article describing how the panic in the financial system after Lehman's bankruptcy on Monday Sept. 15 spiraled out of control, causing Paulson and Bernanke to go to Congress Thursday Sept. 18 warning that the "economy might not exist" by the next Monday.
Naked Capitalism has quite the story on how Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson Gave a Conference Call to a select fewInterested Parties, but a mistake was made and the public got in on the call. Oh what they are reporting!:
This is simply scandalous. To have a group of interested parties get a privileged briefing by government officials on a matter of keen public interest flies in the face of what a democracy is supposed to be about. The proper method would either be a published FAQ on the Treasury website or a briefing with the media included. But why should I be surprised? Favoritism has been a staple of the Bush Administration.
The call confirms what many who can read legislation are saying:
Supposedly Democrats have the gall to ask that these bastards leveraging their companies 40:1 and pocketing the cash not have their multi-million dollar golden parachutes and that is the sticking point.
Here is what Democrats want, which appear to be the shares and unless I'm reading this wrong, nothing about paying good money for worthless debt.
Limitation on Authority
1. In General
The Secretary may not purchase, or make any commitment to purchase, any troubled asset unless the Secretary receives contingent shares in the financial institution from which such assets are to be purchased equal in value to the purchase price of the assets to be purchased.
Recent comments