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Nov. 7, 2009, 10:29 a.m. EST Brown urges global tax to fund bank bailouts By William L. Watts, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Saturday urged finance officials from the world's 20 largest industrialized and developing nations to weigh a global tax on financial transactions that would be used to fund bank bailouts. "I believe we should discuss whether we need a better economic and social contract to reflect the global responsibilities of financial institutions to society," Brown told finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations gathered at St. Andrews in Scotland....

It is not often the case in this crazy time in America that someone like myself would be aligned with a self proclaimed socialist, Bernie Sanders from Vermont. While I find Sanders view on almost everything to be abhorrent, wrong and flat out anti-American, the man has some serious cojones. Specifically the introduction of the bill that he wishes to be called Too big to fail, Too big to exist Act. Actually on the subject of aligning with socialists, Sanders also submitted a version of Ron Paul's House bill to audit the Fed and this would then mark the second...

WATCH VIDEO (1:43)chuckdevore.com - Nobody is really sure what Carly Fiorina really stands for. In the past year she has supported the bailout parts of the stimulus, cap and tax, and other liberal policies proposed by President Obama and Barbara Boxer. Can we really trust Carly on these issues?

Who knew? Ally Bank is running all those TV ads belittling the “fine print” used by other banks. But as the Wall Street Journal detailed on Tuesday, the ads do not disclose that Ally is a unit of troubled GMAC  Financial Services, the former financing arm of GM, now seeking its third multi-billion taxpayer  bailout.Ally had been offering some of the highest CD interest rates in the nation until federal bank regulators pressured Ally to reduce them. Lower rates are one thing but there is another compelling consideration when shopping CD rates. When you deposit your money with Ally, you...

President who gave us Government Motors now wants to give us Government Media Executive Summary A study from the Business & Media Institute The pattern repeats itself – an industry in chaos, companies going bankrupt, thousands of workers losing jobs. It’s time for government intervention. That’s been the Obama administration’s model for Wall Street, insurance giant AIG and the auto industry. Now it could be the same for the American media. Congress, the Federal Trade Commission and the FCC are all looking at ways to “help” journalism. On Sept. 20, President Obama threw his support to the concept by saying:...

Two House Republicans warned that growing losses at the Federal Housing Administration could lead to a taxpayer-funded bailout and have asked the Department of Housing and Urban Development for data backing up the FHA’s assertion that it won’t need to ask Congress for any taxpayer money. “Congress and HUD must take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that this program operates in a manner that does not expose the taxpayer to yet another bailout,” wrote Republicans Darrell Issa of California and Spencer Bachus of Alabama in a letter, dated Monday, to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Continue reading at the WSJ...

The drama unfolds slowly at first. First-term (anti-bailout candidate) Democrat Alan Grayson questions Elizabeth Coleman, Inspector General of the Federal Reserve. The issue is oversight of the Fed's balance sheet, and the potential multi-trillion dollar loss that would be borne by you. If watching the clip sends you into an apoplectic seizure as it does to me, then please help. We need millions of Americans to become aware of the Fed and its abuses. Monetization of the national debt is occurring daily (quantitative easing), as Bernanke simply creates credit and purchases Treasuries. And we haven't even begun to discuss the...

Please FReep this poll.

The Federal Housing Administration will be the next financial disaster to fall on the shoulders of American taxpayers. Created in 1934 to help low income and first time buyers get housing loans, the agency was designed to guarantee a relatively small percentage of mortgages, for instance, two percent in 2005. Since its inception, FHA’s budget and operational infrastructure have followed this low-ratio model, and have been designed to absorb losses without having to ask for money or help from the Federal Government. However, the GAO is now projecting taxpayer funded subsidies for the FHA of half a billion dollars over...

As I walked home recently from a weekend trip to the grocery store, I passed a total of 13 vacant offices with signs saying "for lease" or "for sale." These spaces ranged from approximately 500 to 5,000 square feet according to their signs, and they are stretched along a main, commercial street in the center of Tucson, AZ. There is also an eight-screen movie theater that sits empty as well. These empty commercial spaces ... are empty now, and have been for quite some time. I found it intriguing that both in the central portion of Tucson and also in...

The $2.3 billion in taxpayer money spent to save CIT Group Inc. is likely to be wiped out, as the lender prepares to file for bankruptcy protection in a high-stakes restructuring plan aimed at keeping the firm in business. People familiar with the plan said CIT, a major lender to small businesses, intends to file for bankruptcy-court protection in New York within days, perhaps as early as Sunday or Monday. Financial firms such as CIT have historically been sold off or wound down after a Chapter 11 filing, for fear that customers will draw down lending lines and cause a...

Fed's Massive Secret Wall Street Bailout Still Going Strong Posted Oct 30, 2009 08:53am EDT Henry Blodget Remember last fall, when our government explained that the reason we needed to give $800 billion to Wall Street was so the banks could lend it back to us and shock the economy back to life again? That was a happy story! And we fell for it. What happened, of course, was that the banks took the money, stopped lending, and used it to pay themselves and their shareholders through the nose.[snip]

When the historians finally finish sorting through the appalling decisions that have been made in the past two years, this one will probably be at the top of the heap. Last fall, as AIG began to realize how screwed it was, it started negotiating with the counterparties to all the credit default swaps it had written. One of the AIG's goals was to persuade these counterparties- These sorts of negotiations are exactly what should happen when a company gets in trouble. It goes to its creditors and says, look, we can't pay you everything, so here's your choice: Take something,...

Give 'em an inch... Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg was no fan of the $58 billion federal rescue of General Motors Co., saying he worried taxpayer money would be wasted and the restructuring process would be vulnerable to "political pressure." Now the lawmaker says it's his "patriotic duty" to wade into GM's affairs. And he's a Republican. My problems are rarely ever with the nature of the Democrats' Hype du Jour, they generally have to do with the doomsday caterwauling and that every solution ends with the heavy hand of the federal government shoving its fingers in places I don't want...

It is hardly surprising that GMAC is circling back to the government for a third helping of taxpayer money. GMAC is struggling under the double whammy of bad car loans and the fallout from its misguided foray into mortgage finance at the height of the housing bubble. After the government applied stress tests to the banks last May, it was the only big bank that could not raise the capital it was deemed to need. Still, GMAC’s return to the public trough — where it expects to get up to $5.6 billion on top of the $12.5 billion it has...

Just about everyone has become familiar with America’s foreclosure capitals – metropolitan areas like Las Vegas with the nation’s highest rate of foreclosed properties (1 in 20) or No. 2 Merced, Calif., (1 in 27). But the problem is expanding to new cities. In fact, as the subprime-mortgage crisis eases for some of the top metro areas, like Merced and No. 3 Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., economic pressures are creating new foreclosure capitals. One of them, Reno-Sparks, Nev., broke into the Top 10 foreclosure metros in the third quarter, according to a RealtyTrac report released Thursday. And others are gaining...

GMAC, the former lending arm of General Motors Co., is in talks with the Treasury Department for a third injection of taxpayer aid, a further sign of the U.S. government's entrenchment in the U.S. auto industry. The Treasury Department mandated earlier this year that GMAC Financial Services raise an additional $11.5 billion in capital after undergoing a "stress test" along with 18 other banks. While other banks deemed undercapitalized have been able to raise funds from private investors, GMAC has been forced to go back to the government.

In a stark reminder of how some battered financial firms remain dependent on government lifelines, GMAC Financial Services Inc. and the Treasury Department are in advanced talks to prop up the lender with its third helping of taxpayer money, people familiar with the matter said. The U.S. government is likely to inject $2.8 billion to $5.6 billion of capital into the Detroit company, on top of the $12.5 billion that GMAC has received since December 2008, these people said. The latest infusion would come in the form of preferred stock. The government's 35.4% stake in the company could increase if...

In a stark reminder of how some battered financial firms remain dependent on government lifelines, GMAC Financial Services Inc. and the Treasury Department are in advanced talks to prop up the lender with its third helping of taxpayer money, people familiar with the matter said.

Should banks pay back the bailout money before they lobby? Vote Thousands of protesters have gathered outside a banking conference in Chicago today - the final day of a three-day rally for financial reform - to call for an end to lobbying against proposed financial regulation by banks that pocketed taxpayer bailouts last year.

Congressman wants pay cut for colleagues who allowed bailouts Lawmakers who have demanded cuts to compensation packages on Wall Street should take a pay cut themselves, one Republican lawmaker demanded Tuesday. Freshman Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) suggested that members of Congress who enabled bailouts and allowed top financial executives' salaries to rise uncontrollably should volunteer to have their own salaries cut."I think we need to set the pace, and, by example, we need to cut the salary for Congress for the people who allowed this thing to happen and even pushed this thing to happen," Posey said during an interview...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a7T5HaOgYHpE

Figures released yesterday showed that newspaper circulation is still in a freefall with no end in sight. From the New York Times The two-decade erosion in newspaper circulation is looking more like an avalanche, with figures released Monday showing weekday sales down more than 10 percent since last year, depressed by rising Internet readership, price increases, the recession and papers intentionally shedding unprofitable circulation.

Some struggling homeowners are turning to the courts in a bid to force mortgage servicers to consider them for the Obama administration's foreclosure-rescue program, arguing they are eligible for help but haven't received it. The suits are the latest sign of difficulties some borrowers are having with the program, which has helped more than 500,000 people begin trial loan modifications since it was announced in February.

Over the past few weeks, Max has been on France 24 warning that these big banks will announce new and huge losses . . . but only AFTER their Christmas bonus checks have been cashed. Get ready for second round of trillion dollar bailouts sometime in January/February.

Congress put American taxpayers on the hook for $700 billion last year when it approved the massive bailout to paper over the imprudent lending decisions of nine Wall Street giants: Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, State Street and the Bank of NY Mellon. The bailout was essential to save the nation from a complete economic meltdown. Or so insisted President George W. Bush, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. One year later, however, a little-noted report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office...

Congress put American taxpayers on the hook for $700 billion last year when it approved the massive bailout to paper over the imprudent lending decisions of nine Wall Street giants: Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, State Street and the Bank of NY Mellon. The bailout was essential to save the nation from a complete economic meltdown. Or so insisted President George W. Bush, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Uncovering the bull under the TARP bailoutOne year later, however, a little-noted report...

The guest, who seems to agree in a roundabout sort of way, is Elizabeth Warren, Chair of Congressional Oversight Panel (which oversees TARP). Here’s the video…Video Link

Dispatch from the Department of Pot-Meet-Kettle . . . Katie Couric has demanded "humility" from Wall Streeters making seven-figure incomes. This from a woman pulling down . . . eight figures [an estimated $15 million/year] from CBS while cementing the Evening News' caboose status. Couric made her hypocritical plea in her "Notebook" segment yesterday, commenting on Pres. Obama's pay czar's plan to cut compensation for employees of financial firms that have received bail-out bucks [emphasis added]:

Obama's New Pay Rules Could Cause a Brain Drain NEW YORK -- The Obama administration's decision to cut the pay of top executives at companies on taxpayer life support will help quiet the popular outrage over excessive compensation. But it introduces a new concern: brain drain. The 175 executives targeted by "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg are not only the highest-paid but also considered among the most talented and productive. And competitors outside the restrictions are likely to woo them, recruiters and compensation expects say. Losses like that could be devastating to the very companies the government spent so much money...

The Federal Reserve may end up taking no losses on the emergency programs it put in place to fight the crisis, New York Fed president William Dudley said on Thursday, a view that was shared by Fed vice chairman Donald Kohn. "The Fed may ultimately avoid any losses on any of the programs," Dudley said in brief opening remarks before moderating a panel at the Boston Fed's annual conference. Dudley said the emergency facilities were shrinking naturally. "Things have gone pretty well," he said of the exit of some of the liquidity facilities. Fed vice chair Donald Kohn mirrored that...

Pay Czar Feinberg, Not Obama, Behind Decision to Slash Executive Pay White House pay czar Kenneth Feinberg did not seek President Obama's approval to order steep pay cuts from bailed-out executives. Thursday, October 22, 2009 White House pay czar Kenneth Feinberg was the driving force behind the move to order steep pay cuts from bailed-out executives, and did not even seek the president's approval before making his decision. The Treasury Department is expected to formally announce in the next few days a plan to slash annual salaries by about 90 percent from last year for the 25 highest-paid executives at...

Poll asks if Obama should be able to tell companies that took bailout money how much to pay executives. Link only due to copyright.

Rattner defends rescue of automakers, says some money is gone But ex-official believes most of GM investment can be recouped By Peter Whoriskey Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, October 22, 2009 The U.S. government's stake in General Motors is currently worth about $25 billion, or about half the amount it poured into the ailing automaker, the former chief of the Obama administration's task force on the auto industry said Wednesday. But in his most extensive remarks since leaving the post in July, Steven Rattner defended the Obama administration's decision to rescue U.S. automakers. Rattner said there's "a good chance" the...

White House pay czar Kenneth Feinberg was the driving force behind the move to order steep pay cuts from bailed-out executives, and did not even seek the president's approval before making his decision. The Treasury Department is expected to formally announce in the next few days a plan to slash annual salaries by about 90 percent from last year for the 25 highest-paid executives at the seven companies that received the most from the Wall Street bailout. Total compensation for the top executives at the firms would decline, on average, by about 50 percent. The sweeping decision, though, came from...

Heeding the public backlash against corporate bailouts, the Treasury's executive paymaster Kenneth Feinberg is preparing to slash by half the pay of top executives at the seven biggest beneficiaries of government aid. The cash pay of the top 25 executives at Citigroup, Bank of America, American International Group, General Motors, Chrysler and their financial subsidiaries will be slashed by 90 percent on average

Frank wants to use bailout money to stop foreclosuresBY JIM HAND SUN CHRONICLE STAFF Wednesday, October 14, 2009 2:09 AM EDT U.S. Rep. Barney Frank will push to redirect some repaid bank bailout money toward unemployed workers in danger of losing their homes. Frank, D-Newton, is sponsoring legislation that would make low-interest loans available to the unemployed so they can make their mortgage payments and prevent foreclosure. His bill envisions using $2 billion that bank have repaid the government from bailouts they received under the Troubled Assets Relief Program. Frank said the federal help would not go to people who...

Pay Czar ordering deep cuts in exec comp for those in companies receiving "exceptional assistance" from govt. Feinberg -- officially called "Special Master" -- will be slashing the salaries of the top 25 execs at those cos by an avg of 90%. yep: 90%.

LANDOVER, Md. – President Barack Obama unveiled plans to refocus spending of the government's $700 billion financial bailout away from Wall Street's big financial institutions and toward small businesses on Main Street. Speaking in a small business near Washington, Obama said the initiatives would make it easier for smaller community banks to provide credit to small businesses, which have been hard-hit by the financial crisis. The president's plan also includes a request that Congress increase caps for existing Small Business Administration loans. "Over the past decade and a half, America's small businesses have created 65 percent of all new jobs...

WASHINGTON — The man who watches over the $700 billion in government money given to banks and other institutions to avert a financial collapse said Wednesday he thinks it's too early to say how much will be repaid to the taxpayers. Just as the Obama administration prepares to announce a new TARP-like program for small community banks, Inspector General Neil Barofsky said he believes that "it's unrealistic to think we're going to get all of that money back." The Treasury Department has spent more than $454 billion through TARP programs. Forty-seven recipients have paid back nearly $73 billion. That means...

Deserted Shopping Mall Bleak Symbol Of Fed Bailout Wed Oct 21, 2009 8:00am EDT By Alister Bull OKLAHOMA CITY, Oct 21 (Reuters) - A $29 billion trail from the Federal Reserve's bailout of Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns ends in a partially deserted shopping center on a bleak spot on the south side of Oklahoma City. The Fed now owns the Crossroads Mall, a sprawling shopping complex at the junction of Interstate highways 244 and 35, complete with an oil well pumping crude in the car park -- except the Fed does not own the mineral rights. The Fed...

An energy analyst is outraged that taxpayer dollars are being used for a bailout of the bus industry that's comparable to the now defunct "cash for clunkers" program. National Journal reports the Transportation Department's Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) program has spent nearly half its $100-million grant budget to replace diesel buses with hybrid-electric and fully electric models. The "TIGGER" grants are part of President Obama's $787 billion stimulus program and are designed to serve two purposes: stimulate the economy and clean the environment.

Uncle Sam's gift to the prudent saver: Less money By Allan Sloan Tuesday, October 20, 2009 This is a quiz. What do the record-high Wall Street bonuses have in common with the record-low yields for savers? Answer: They show yet another way that prudent people, especially those living on fixed incomes, are being cheated by the government's bailout of the imprudent. Here's the deal. The government is spending trillions to keep interest rates down to support the economy and prop up housing prices, and those low rates have inflicted collateral damage on savers' incomes. "It's a direct wealth transfer from...

Journalism is at risk and American society must act to preserve it, according to a report co-authored by The Washington Post's former executive editor. In a paper commissioned by the Columbia University Journalism School, the ex-Post editor, Len Downie, and Michael Schudson, a Columbia professor, argue the government, universities and nonprofit foundations should step in as newspapers suffer financially. The authors recommend that the Internal Revenue Service or Congress ensure the tax code allows local news outlets to operate as nonprofits. Downie and Schudson also urge philanthropic organizations to support local reporting. They suggest the Federal Communications Commission establish a...

Last week, Goldman Sachs released its second-best set of quarterly earnings ever, putting the firm on track to paying its highest bonuses ever. Reacting to suggestions that this was somehow wrong, Goldman Sachs Chief Financial Officer David Viniar said, "We are focused on the economic climate. We are focused on what is going on with other people." He held back what most people at Goldman are thinking: "We really just don't care." Why should they? The government, with its massive bailout and subsidization of Wall Street, has sent the message that public money will c over private losses if you...

Bailout Helps Fuel a New Era of Wall Street Wealth By GRAHAM BOWLEY Even as the economy continues to struggle, much of Wall Street is minting money — and looking forward again to hefty bonuses. Many Americans wonder how this can possibly be. How can some banks be prospering so soon after a financial collapse, even as legions of people worry about losing their jobs and their homes? It may come as a surprise that one of the most powerful forces driving the resurgence on Wall Street is not the banks but Washington. Many of the steps that policy makers...

<p>On Tuesday, March 11th, 2008, somebody — nobody knows who — made one of the craziest bets Wall Street has ever seen. The mystery figure spent $1.7 million on a series of options, gambling that shares in the venerable investment bank Bear Stearns would lose more than half their value in nine days or less. It was madness — "like buying 1.7 million lottery tickets," according to one financial analyst.</p>

Even as the economy continues to struggle, much of Wall Street is minting money — and looking forward again to hefty bonuses. Many Americans wonder how this can possibly be. How can some banks be prospering so soon after a financial collapse, even as legions of people worry about losing their jobs and their homes? It may come as a surprise that one of the most powerful forces driving the resurgence on Wall Street is not the banks but Washington. Many of the steps that policy makers took last year to stabilize the financial system — reducing interest rates to...

Describing it as a developing story, Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier just reported that President Barack Obama was briefed today about “the next big financial shoe to drop” — commercial real estate. It dovetails perfectly with what I reported nine months ago in a post, Trendwatcher: ‘Crash of ‘09? Will Be Worst Ever", and portends of more radical financial shenanigans — bailouts, stimulus packages, etc. — coming out of Washington, D.C.

There were over 900,000 foreclosures in the third quarter as Foreclosures rise 5 percent from summer to fall. The number of households caught up in the foreclosure crisis rose more than 5 percent from summer to fall as a federal effort to assist struggling borrowers was overwhelmed by a flood of defaults among people who lost their jobs. The foreclosure crisis affected nearly 938,000 properties in the July-September quarter, compared with about 890,000 in the prior three months, according to a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac Inc. That puts foreclosure-related filings on a pace to hit about 3.5 million this...