Free Republic

(snip) I am concerned, however, that a number of the legislative proposals being circulated would significantly reduce the capacity of the Federal Reserve to perform its core functions. Notably, some leading proposals in the Senate would strip the Fed of all its bank regulatory powers. And a House committee recently voted to repeal a 1978 provision that was intended to protect monetary policy from short-term political influence. These measures are very much out of step with the global consensus on the appropriate role of central banks, and they would seriously impair the prospects for economic and financial stability in the...

A deal for General Motors Co. to sell Saab to a specialty carmaker has collapsed, leaving the storied Swedish brand born from jets in 1947 close to extinction. Koenigsegg Group AB, a consortium formed by Swedish luxury sports car maker Koenigsegg Automotive AB, said Tuesday it pulled out of the deal in part because it was unable to agree with investors on how best to move the brand from mass-market to premium. For GM, it was the third time this year that a deal to shed one of its brands fell apart as it tries to recover from a stay...

Republican candidate for Senate in Connecticut Peter Schiff destroys Obama's ideas for "bailing out" the American economy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XipUWfxZ0lk&feature=subtivity

Let us now praise Goldman Sachs, for the sole reason that it and it alone among the major, capital-intensive Wall Street institutions – both recently deceased and still living – actually understands something about risk and risk-taking. By his own admission, Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman’s chief executive, ranks risk management as his number one daily priority, even ahead of doing God’s work. “I’m a risk manager and I’ve been that for a long time, a lot longer than I’ve been CEO,” he said recently at a breakfast in New York sponsored by Fortune magazine. “I live 98 per cent of my...

Have a close look at the screencap. Notice what Norah O'Donnell's holding in her left hand? Those are notes, with factoids from the 2008 presidential campaign. She's reading from them to challenge a Sarah Palin supporter who was waiting in line at the book signing yesterday in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We all remember how back during the '08 campaign, MSM reporters would challenge people attending Obama rallies with uncomfortable truths about their candidate, along the lines "would you still support him if you knew he had the most liberal voting record in the Senate?" Or not. I certainly can't remember...

Echoing comments made by a Democratic lawmaker Wednesday night, two Republican members of the Joint Economic Committee today called for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to resign.

"Too big to fail" meets "Just the right size to steal from the taxpayers." Sounds like a horror movie - and believe me, if you read this piece by Jill Schlessinger at CBS News' Econowatch, you will be sickened by this colossal boondoggle that not only cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars but actually enriched Geithner's Wall Street friends in the process - friends who had just themselves been bailed out by us: OK, so let's get this straight: the financial world is melting down, Uncle Sam had just saved the bankers' butts and now Tim Geithner the President...

So, I'm sure many of us have been getting these letters, see the URL for an example, in the mail from our credit card companies. Since my wife passed away, I've been able to pay off all of them and now have just one card with CitiBank that I use and now pay off each month. I like it because I get airline miles on it and I've had the account for over 20 years. Citibank took $300BILLION of tax payer bail out money and have tried to jack up my rates twice since July. The first time, I called...

Dear Lloyd Blankfein: You know it, don’t you? You know that it doesn’t matter. You can’t win. You could shed tears in an hour-long mea culpa on Oprah! You could pay yourself no more than one dollar for the next ten years. You could pledge $5 billion to a hundred of Barney Frank’s favorite charities. meanstreet And it still wouldn’t matter. The public anger towards Goldman is just too hardened. In an economy full of losers, everyone is fixated on hating the winner. And that kind of hate doesn’t just go away. It takes time to dissipate. And, unfortunately, the...

The government’s watchdog over the bank bailout program is criticizing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s handling of one of the most sensitive moments of last year’s financial meltdown, questioning decisions he made while heading up the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The new report criticizes the New York Fed’s decision in the fall of 2008 to bail out insurance giant AIG by covering its clients’ losses, sending tens of billions in taxpayer dollars to overseas banks.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Goldman Sachs said late Tuesday that it would provide $500 million to support small businesses, hours after its CEO Lloyd Blankfein apologized for the group's role in the global financial crisis. Goldman has faced growing criticism over its likely massive bonus payouts as the U.S. economy remains in turmoil. It has also received, and subsequently paid back, $10 billion of aid from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Lawmakers expect to cap fund to dismantle a big failed bank at $200 billion Legislation mandating broad regulatory reform in the banking industry continued to take shape on Tuesday with lawmakers approving limits on the amount of taxpayer funds that could be used to dismantle "too-big-to-fail" insolvent financial institutions. The House Financial Services Committee made other changes to the bank reform bill, including alterations to the structure of the Federal Reserve. The legislation seeks to amass funds from large financial institutions and hedge funds that would be used to make payments to creditors and counterparties of a large failing financial...

Realtors to push for more credit to commercial property Industry group's agenda shifts from home-buyer tax credits to lending issues By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch SAN DIEGO (MarketWatch) -- After successfully lobbying for an extended and expanded home-buyer tax credit, the National Association of Realtors will focus its policy agenda in the months ahead on relief from a credit crunch in commercial real estate, among other issues. "The commercial area is something that is going to be in the news more and more, as loans are rolled over and need to be refinanced," NAR senior vice president and chief lobbyist Jerry...

DETROIT -- General Motors Co. on Monday reported a $1.15 billion loss on an unaudited basis for the period from July 10 to Sept. 30, providing the first evidence of the auto maker's improvement since emerging from bankruptcy protection.

Link only, per FR copyright rules

The Federal Housing Administration's capital reserves have fallen to razor-thin levels, increasing the likelihood the agency will eventually require a taxpayer bailout, and adding fuel to the debate about how much support the U.S. should provide to the mortgage market. The FHA has said for months that its reserves for unexpected loan losses would fall short of the required 2% level by this fall. But an audit of the FHA released Thursday showed that reserves have been depleted much faster than the agency and analysts had expected. The FHA's capital-reserve fund fell to $3.6 billion as of Sept. 30, down...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Leading U.S. bank regulator Sheila Bair said on Friday that the government's capital injections into the largest banks was "probably not a good thing." Bair, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, said the billions of dollars of capital infusions last year had a terrible impact on public perception of the financial industry and government regulators. "I think at the time it sounded like the right thing to do and, again, it was part of an international effort, but I just see all the problems it's created," Bair said during an interview with PBS NewsHour. "I...

Hard to believe, but as a number of banks, plus two auto companies have been bailed out,look for newspapers to BEG to be bailed out also. Even as I read this article, I sat here stunned. But as I calmed myself, I realized, I should not be surprised. Banks, investment houses, automobile companies, and now … newspapers. The state of New Hampshire last week agreed to guarantee 75 percent of a $250,000 loan from an Upper Valley bank to the new owner of the Eagle Times, an unusual deal because it involves a daily newspaper and the government it covers....

Here is video of former President George W. Bush today in a speech he gave at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, admitting that he went "against" his "free market instincts" when he decided to move forward with the Wall Street Bailouts in the Fall of 2008. But Bush warned: "History shows that the greater threat to prosperity is not too little government involvement, but too much."That's exactly right. He should have stuck to his principles and instincts. Obama is sticking to his principles and instincts in trying to ratchet up government involvement in everything to the greatest extent possible. Bush...

Within the last year and a half, the federal government has provided hundreds of billions of dollars to prop up otherwise failing corporations and financial intermediaries. This mating of economics and politics, inevitably steeped in favoritism, justifiably has earned denunciations from many sources, including National Legal and Policy Center. Labor unions also have been among the critics. Yet their leaders habitually put high principle aside when their own hides need bailing out. Case in point: a bill introduced in late October by Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D. (see photo), the Preserve Benefits and Jobs Act of 2009 (H.R. 3936). This legislation...

IF THIS DOESN'T HACK YOU OFF, NOTHING WILL!!! Take your blood pressure meds, a Prozac and click on the link. It was described thus by an earlier critic of the madness we're now living through: “By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method, they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many (THAT'D BE MOST OF US), it actually enriches some.” (THAT'D BE GOLDDMAN-SACHS!) John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of The Peace, 1920 Obozo and Bawney Fwank are...

Claremont – The state of New Hampshire last week agreed to guarantee 75 percent of a $250,000 loan from an Upper Valley bank to the new owner of the Eagle Times, an unusual deal because it involves a daily newspaper and the government it covers. The Executive Council on Wednesday unanimously approved without debate the “working capital loan guarantee,” which would be administered by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority. Under the deal, the BFA and the state would be liable to pay up to $187,500 to Connecticut River Bank if Eagle Printing & Publishing LLC defaulted on the $250,000...

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