Free Republic

In the summer of 2008, two months before Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, Richard S. Fuld Jr., the firm's chairman, was continuing his desperate efforts to find a lifeline. They had begun in March, shortly after the demise of Bear Stearns, when Mr. Fuld called the legendary investor Warren E. Buffett seeking a capital infusion, to no avail. Lehman had raised money elsewhere, but that didn't help for long, and its condition again was worsening.Adapted from "Too Big to Fail: How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System — And Themselves." The book, being published Tuesday by...

Days after Lehman Brothers' stunning collapse last Sept. 15, then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson placed an urgent call to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and asked the banking veteran to buy rival Morgan Stanley to save it from suffering a similar fate, according to an upcoming book. Dimon, who had come to be seen as the banker of last resort after acquiring Bear Stearns in a government-sponsored takeover the previous March, had misgivings on such a move, though, and passed on the opportunity. The reason, according to the book, was that it would be too difficult to integrate the two similarly...

n prepared remarks for a Congressional hearing obtained today by ABC News, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson admits telling Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis that the Federal Reserve could remove the bank's board members if they backed out of their proposed merger with Merrill Lynch last December. In prepared remarks for a Congressional hearing obtained Wednesday by ABC News, former Treasury... (AP Graphics) On Thursday morning, Paulson will defend his actions before the House Oversight Committee in the last of three hearings that the panel has conducted on the controversial merger. When Bank of America considered scuttling the merger...

Earlier this evening as I headed back to my hotel, I passed through the mall area of the Prudential Center in Boston. At one point, there was a kiosk in front of me that contained Russian Matryoshka dolls. I noticed a guy hitting on the sales clerk at the doll kiosk. As I passed by, in total amazement, I heard the guy say to the girl, "Even the central banker of Italy used to work for Goldman Sachs." Whether they know it or not, Goldman has a PR problem. When you have a guy hitting on a girl by displaying...

There is a whiff of Fascism emanating from the Obama White House. Reports say that the head of GM is quitting under duress from the Obama administration:

The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution

It was springtime in the US.  The most recent unemployment number was 5.0%, a slight tic down from the previous month and in line with the previous 12-month, fairly low, average of 4.8%.  We were in a quarter of positive real economic growth, a 2.8% annual rate, following a previous quarter of positive growth.  On May 19, the S&P 500 hit 1427, the highest point since January 3 and essentially where it ended the previous year. On the foreign front, the surge in Iraq was clearly bearing fruit.  The number of US military deaths in Iraq in May was the...

The bailout of Citigroup has made people in New York angrier than they were about any of the other government rescues of financial institutions this year. In a random sample of people inside the Port Authority, the world's busiest bus terminal, only one man backed the government decision to prop up the New York-based bank, even though it is a huge employer in the region. All the rest are angry -- even on the day before Thanksgiving . "They were bailed out before, this is the second bailout, so what's going on? Are they going to ask for another bailout...

Main Street continues to suffer without help, while Wall Street continues to get billions of dollars of money thrown at it. Citigroup is the latest corporation in line for a bailout. While its always said we don't have money for social security, medicare, schools, infrastructure repair, health care, we have plenty for Citigroup (and others) it seems. According to MSNBC, late Sunday, the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp announced the bailout jointly. The U.S. government will take a $20 billion stake in the company, as well as guaranteeing as much as $306 billion of...

Watching Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s erratic behavior administering the federal “Troubled Asset Relief Program” (TARP) is a dizzying, if not sickening, proposition for consumers, taxpayers, and investors alike. -- In a press conference last Wednesday, Hank Paulson announced a change in the TARP, saying that the plan would now center around capital injections into banks rather than the purchase of distressed assets (bad mortgages or securities which the market is pricing below a “fair” value), which was the fundamental purpose of the TARP at its creation. -- On October 27, White House Spokesman Dana Perino said, “It's possible that some...

My syndicated column this week rips Hapless Hank Paulson and his flock of sheeple in Washington. The latest headlines suggest that the auto bailout is in trouble. But don’t get your hopes up too high. Politicians will cave. And no matter what euphemism they use, you will pay for it. ******************* Hank Paulson, naked emperorby Michelle MalkinCreators SyndicateCopyright 2008 Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson finally confirmed what lonely bailout opponents tried to tell the American public all along: The man doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. Paulson held a bazooka to taxpayers’ heads. He groveled on his knees in front...

For the Pritzker family of Chicago, the 2001 collapse of subprime-mortgage lender Superior Bank was an embarrassing failure in a corner of their giant business empire. Billionaire Penny Pritzker helped run Hinsdale, Ill.-based Superior, overseeing her family's 50% ownership stake. She now serves as Barack Obama's national campaign-finance chairwoman, which means her banking past could prove to be an embarrassment to her -- and perhaps to the campaign. Superior was seized in 2001 and later closed by federal regulators. Government investigators and consumer advocates have contended that Superior engaged in unsound financial activities and predatory lending practices. Ms. Pritzker, a...

The Emperor has no clothes. If you want to know why American capitalism is on the brink of disaster, but also want to understand what will save it, then log on to the C-Span congressional website and watch the interrogations of Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, by the Senate and House banking committees. Until last week, I was in a minority of one in arguing that Mr Paulson was personally responsible for suddenly turning the painful but manageable credit crunch that had been grinding away 18 months in the background of the US economy into a global catastrophe. Mr...

Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

May 13, 2007 -- First he helped Al Gore fight George W. Bush. Now, he's helping Michael Moore do the same thing. High-powered attorney David Boies - chief counsel in Gore's recount battle against Bush in the 2000 presidential election - has been hired to help the filmmaker fight a federal probe into his new film "Sicko," according to The Weinstein Company. Moore landed in hot water when he took ailing 9/11 responders to Cuba seeking health care as part of the documentary, which highlights problems with the American health care system and HMOs.

For anyone who has seen The Manchurian Candidate, the recent nomination of Hank Paulson for Treasury Secretary should be a big scare. In the film, private interests brainwash a candidate for the presidency. By using psychological triggers, the private (or I suppose we could call them “special”) interest manipulates the unknowing candidate as a puppet to do their bidding.  On Tuesday President Bush announced his nomination of Henry “Hank” Paulson for Treasury Secretary. Paulson, currently the CEO of financial giant Goldman Sachs, is generally well-regarded by his peers on Wall Street. During his tenure, Goldman has seen some of the...

The Senate should reject President Bush’s nomination of Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson for Treasury secretary. Under Paulson’s leadership, Goldman Sachs participated in ethically, and perhaps legally, questionable business practices. Paulson also supports the economy-killing Kyoto Protocol and has demonstrated little respect for private property rights. On the ethical front, Paulson has refused to answer questions about his apparent use of Goldman Sachs’ corporate assets to advance his personal interests. In 2002, Paulson used at least $35 million of shareholder money to help environmental groups stop a “sustainable forestry� project in Tierra del Fuego, Chile. Environmental groups had delayed the...