Banks // Current

Shares falling, Citigroup talks to government

In a series of tense meetings and telephone calls, the executives and officials weighed several options, including whether to... more

RubberRims
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FDIC Seizes Three Banks

Has anyone wondered why Congress increased the FDIC'S coverage to $250,000? Could many more bank failures be on the... more

1percent
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ANP: bank eat bank - bailout encourages mergers

Banks are reportedly using their bailout money to buy up smaller banks instead of helping homeowners.

Vierotchka
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Citigroup plunges on uncertainty

Shares in Citigroup, one of the biggest banks in the US, fell sharply on Friday amid continued uncertainty about the... more

sinlung
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Paulson's $140 Billion Surprise

Danny Schechter: While world debated bailout, Treasury snuck bank merger tax break under congress' nose.

While everyone was debating the wisdom of giving $700B over to the US Treasury to divide amongst failing banks in late September, the Treasury Department silently changed the tax code and in doing so opened up an opportunity for banks to save billions when acquiring other banks. The Associated Press reports that, in some cases, banks will actually make money in the act of buying up their competitors. They point to Wells Fargo's effort to acquire Wachovia, a deal that will cost roughly $15B but that, under the new tax code, will save Wells Fargo $20B. Danny Schechter believes that this is a prelude to the type of activities that can be expected from an empowered Treasury Department. He also points out that this is in line with the effect that the bailout bill itself is having, with the bailout money being used to acquire competitors instead of financing the flow of credit.

Meanwhile, Danny says, the Democrats are claiming that the bailout process lacks transparency, after they promised during the bailout debate that they would ensure oversight while pushing the bill through congress. Danny also indicates that all levels of government are stalling on what to do about the quickly sinking auto industry, a problem being made worse by the power vacuum in the White House as there are still two months before Obama takes over as president. At the end of the interview, Danny relays the rumors that Obama is looking to past administrations to fill his empty slot at the recently empowered Treasury Secretary position, with former Clinton Treasury Secretaries Lawrence Summers and former Federal Reserve Chairman under Reagan and Carter, Paul Volcker, being on the reported shortlist of candidates.

Danny Schechter, "The News Dissector," is a former network TV producer, radio newscaster, and edits MediaChannel.org. He has written nine books on media themes. His latest, 'Plunder', was inspired by his latest film, In Debt We Trust: America Before The Bubble Bursts.Danny Schechter: While world debated bailout, Treasury snuck bank merger tax break under congress' nose. While everyone... more

Vierotchka
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3 days ago

Financial Crisis Has Now Cost More Than WWII (Inflation Adjusted)

The rate of spending by the Federal Government (and its surrogate/partner the FED) during the 2008 financial crisis has reached... more

unitedliberty
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3 days ago

Bill Maher: Conspiracy Theorist

A clip from the Nov. 14 episode of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher.

CTC411dotcom
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13 responses

6 days ago

Banks are now justifyably immoral

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7712202.stm See video Seems to me global free trade has to be regulated. Otherwise we... more

RubberRims
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17 days ago

The Five Most Wanted Rip-off Artists from Wall Street and Washington

Our economy didn't melt down, it was taken down the unbridled greed of economic elites, enabled by their political courtesans in Washington.
What the hell's happening here? Why is my bank in the tank? And my house and job? And my retirement money? Even my state's teetering on the brink of broke! Who did this to us?

Fair questions, but we're not getting honest answers. Last year, at the first signs of the global financial slide toward the abyss, we were told that it's just a little hiccup caused by something called subprime mortgages. Not to worry, the Powers That Be declared confidently, for we have the damage contained. And rest assured that "the fundamentals of our economy are sound."

Then, this spring, Bear Stearns cratered, requiring an emergency federal subsidy to cover billions in bad loans. Okay, admitted those in charge, that subprime stuff actually is leveraged on up the financial system, and maybe there's been a bit of greed among a few of the big players, but we really do have the problem contained now, and, hey, "the fundamentals of our economy are sound."

But in September--Omigosh!--there went Lehman Brothers, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, WaMu, Wachovia, and others. Well, yes, conceded the now-frazzled financial establishment, but gollies, we're throwing hundreds of billions of your tax dollars into sandbags to contain the problem, and remember: "The fundamentals of our economy are sound."

Let's meet some of the illusionists who are directly responsible for hurling you, me, America, and most of the world into this dark and as-yet unplumbed economic hole.

Phil Gramm

Snide, sour, and sanctimonious, this former senator from Texas is now head lobbyist for the Swiss-based banking giant, UBS, as well as chief economic adviser for his old chum John McCain. A bathed-in-the-blood, footwashing, free-market absolutist, Gramm advocates a virulent brand of antigovernment, market-knows-best, Rambo capitalism.

In 1999, as chair of the Senate Banking Committee, he had the power to implement some of his cockamamie dogmas. First, he pushed through a bill to dissolve the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, a New Deal reform that prohibited banks, investment houses, and insurance companies from combining into one corporation. By keeping these components of our financial system separate, Glass-Steagall made sure that the crash of one of them would not bring down the other two. But a number of Wall Street banks, led by what would become Citigroup, saw a profit windfall for themselves if only they could scuttle the old law and merge banking, investment, and insurance into huge financial conglomerates. The senator was their ideological soul mate, and he was delighted to rig the system for them.Our economy didn't melt down, it was taken down the unbridled greed of economic elites, enabled by their political courtesans... more

pokesmot
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3 responses

20 days ago

HBOS takes 5.2 billion pound hit

Home lender HBOS raised its hit from toxic assets and bad loans to more than 5 billion pounds on Monday, and its takeover partner... more

dirtyemowords
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20 days ago

Multi-million pound bonuses for bank rescued by government

Royal Bank of Scotland, which is being bailed out with £20bn of taxpayers' money, has suggested it will pay bonuses to... more

mischabarrett
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6 responses

22 days ago

Lies and audiotape: Morgan Chase exec brags bailout is for takeovers, restructuring, not lending

"In an internal bank conference call last week, a JP Morgan Chase executive, unaware that his conversation would be heard and published by a reporter, confirmed exactly what Lyndon LaRouche has said about the Hank Paulson bail-out: It has nothing remotely to do with extending lending to the U.S. economy, but is concerned with the Mussolini-like corporatist restructuring of the U.S. banking system, turning over the "smaller banks" to the totally bankrupt big banks, so that they can digest the smaller banks' assets, and survive perhaps a few more weeks.

New York Times reporter Joe Nocera obtained the call-in phone number on which the Oct. 17 Morgan Chase conference call took place, only 4 days after JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon had agreed to take $25 billion in a U.S. government capital injection. In an article in the Oct. 25 Times, entitled "So When Will Banks Give Loans?" Nocera quoted the unnamed JP Morgan Chase executive who gave the conference call, as follows:

"Twenty-five billion dollars is obviously going to help the folks who are struggling more than Chase," he began. "What we do think it will help us do, is perhaps be a little bit more active on the acquisition side, or opportunistic side, for some banks who are still struggling. And I would not assume that we are done on the acquisition side, just because of the Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns mergers. I think there are going to be some great opportunities for us to grow in this environment, and I think we have an opportunity to use that $25 billion in that way. And obviously depending on whether recession turns into depression or what happens in the future, you know, we have that as a backstop." [emphasis added]

Later during the call, the executive showed what a fig-leaf is Paulson's claim that the capital injection part of the bail-out plan would start up lending to the economy. The executive explained "loan dollars are down significantly." He added, "We would think that loan volume will continue to go down as we continue to tighten credit to fully reflect the high cost of pricing on the loan side"." "In an internal bank conference call last week, a JP Morgan Chase executive, unaware that his conversation would be heard and... more