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Wall Street executives expect the Securities and Exchange Commission to extend the temporary limits it has placed on short-selling and expand them to cover additional stocks beyond the 19 financial companies it targeted two weeks ago. The limits are set to expire Tuesday, and executives, lobbyists and hedge-fund representatives of the Managed Funds Association, the biggest hedge-fund industry group, have been talking throughout the weekend, trying to come up with possible approaches to asking the SEC to reconsider expanding the rules, according to people familiar with the talks. A call with regulators on Friday gave the funds group "a fair...

Sweetheart mortgages given by Countrywide Financial, the nation’s biggest mortgage lender, to elected officials and government bureaucrats seem tailor-made for an ethics inquiry by Congress, especially as the country is seeing a rising tide of voter anger in this presidential election year due to the massive $300 bn bailout of the housing industry at taxpayers’ expense. The mortgages at issue were allegedly given to Congressional members and staffers championing this record bailout, a bailout that now surpasses the taxpayer cost of the S&L crisis in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. But Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Rep. Mark Souder...

Looks like Sen. Christopher Dodd needs to re-recast his story about his dealings with Countrywide Financial. In June, portfolio.com revealed he and other bigwigs got discounted loans from Countrywide under the "Friends of Angelo" program, named for and run by CEO Angelo Mozilo. Sen. Dodd initially denied getting the VIP treatment when he and his wife refinanced two mortgages in 2003. But he later changed his lie, admitting Countrywide had extended them VIP loans, not because he was on the Senate Banking Committee, but because they browbeat a flunky loan officer into lowering the rates. But that lie doesn't jibe...

Add another quote to the litany of idiocy issued by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., over the years. "To suggest somehow that (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) are in trouble is simply not accurate," Sen. Dodd said during CNN's "Late Edition" Sunday. "The facts are that Fannie and Freddie are in sound situations. They have more that adequate capital, in fact more than the law requires." Recall the scene in the film "Animal House," in which the character played by Kevin Bacon attempts to block a stampede of panicked citizens by crying, "All is well!" Sen. Dodd performs a credible...

As financial storm signals appeared the past 18 months, some Bush officials urged drastic reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But, according to internal government sources, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson objected because it would look "too political." The Republican administration kept its hands off the government-backed mortgage companies that are closely connected to the Democratic establishment. Paulson is a Republican, but as head of the Goldman Sachs investment bank he had close ties with Democratic-dominated Fannie Mae.

U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) has remained largely unhurt by the controversy over his “sweetheart” deal with mortgage lender Countrywide. But CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla finally bucked the media trend of ignoring the scandal and brought the loan up in an interview with the former Democratic presidential hopeful July 14. Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in the wake of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s July 13 announcement that the federal government would take actions to prevent the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) from failing. “Squawk Box” co-host Quintanilla asked Dodd...

The Talk Shows Sunday, July 13th, 2008 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Tribute to Tony Snow with guests including Vice President Dick Cheney and commentator Rush Limbaugh.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Carly Fiorina, adviser to John McCain; Sen. Claire Mccaskill, D-Mo.; Republican strategist Mike Murphy; Harold Ford Jr., chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Israeli Ambassador Sallai Meridor; Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind. THIS WEEK (ABC): Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn.; Govs. Mark...

Chris Dodd is trying desperately to change the subject, but it isn't working. After a year on the presidential campaign trail, he returned to his Senate duties this year only to find his approval rating had fallen to 51 percent. So he did something uncharacteristic: He made several appearance in the state so the soiled masses might get close, but not too close, to him again. Confident he was back in their good graces, he returned to the Capitol to close the sale of his office to subprime lenders. After ignoring the mortgage meltdown for months, he filed legislation to...

WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama received a discounted home loan in 2005, along similar lines to that received by a former adviser to his campaign who was forced to resign after it became public, The Washington Post revealed yesterday. Former Fannie Mae chief executive James Johnson resigned abruptly as head of Senator Obama's vice-presidential search committee last month after The Wall Street Journal reported he had received favourable terms for a jumbo home loan with help from the CEO of Countrywide Financial - a major actor in the sub-prime mortgage mess. Senator Obama had previously spoken out against Countrywide's...

Presidential nominee Barack Obama joins the list of several other high-profile Democratic Party members who received highly favorable home loans. Obama, D-Ill., reportedly purchased a $1.65 million mansion in Chicago through a “super, super jumbo” loan he received from Northern Trust Bank in Illinois, the Washington Post reports. The portion of the money financed through the lender ($1.32 million) was offered to the Obamas at an unusually low discount interest rate locked in at 5.625 percent over the life of the 30-year fixed-rate loan, which was below the average of what a typical Chicagoan pursuing a similar low loan rate...

'I would never take 'trust me' for an answer, not even in the best of times. Not even from a president on Mount Rushmore." So declared Sen. Christopher J. Dodd last week on the floor of the U.S. Senate during a debate on government surveillance. Dodd declared he will not trust our leaders unless he gets to see certain national security documents. Dodd insists, however, that we trust him when he says he didn't know he received special treatment when he borrowed nearly $800,000 from Countrywide Financial Corp. in 2003. Dodd continues to refuse to release the standard documents (commitment...

Add "Porker of the Month" to the trophies on Sen. Christopher J. Dodd's mantle. Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Sen. Dodd its June porker for his "blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers," and for his "monstrous mortgage bailout bill that will dump ($300 billion) worth of risky mortgages onto the backs of taxpayers while lending a helping hand to his corporate benefactor." He saved $75,000 under VIP mortgages he got from Countrywide Financial in 2003. Now his bailout package seeks to reward the most unscrupulous subprime lenders and the most irresponsible borrowers at the expense of homeowners...

Sen. Barack Obama's shifting position on the FISA bill -- on Friday he released a statement saying that he supported the bill, and on Saturday announced that he would seek to strip out the section providing retroactive immunity to communications companies -- is being directed by aides to Sen. Chris Dodd, who also opposes the compromise legislation. Dodd and senior Obama campaign and Senate staff have been speaking for close to a week on strategy to kill the bill as it became increasingly apparent that negotiations on the bill were coming to a successful end. "Dodd is taking his marching...

NOW YOU KNOWWhen cornered, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd maintains an ambiguous relationship with the truth. His clumsy and contradictory explanations of the favorable mortgage deals he received from Countrywide Financial continue to shred his credibility. Dodd would spew righteous venom over anyone who offered the Senate testimony as convoluted as what Dodd has served us in the past 10 days. "Outrageous," he thundered in a press release on Friday the 13th. How dare anyone suggest he would derive a personal benefit from his public trust? With that, he skedaddled out of Washington, officially traveling and unavailable in the communications age....

The Washington Examiner has obtained a “confidential and proprietary” document produced by Bank of America and titled “FHA Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act of 2008.” The “Discussion Document” dated March 11, 2008, closely resembles the housing bailout bill drafted by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) that the Senate is set to vote on within days. Senate staffers have told the Examiner’s Tim Carney, “the bailout section is exactly what Bank of America and Countrywide wanted. Its obvious they got what they asked for.”

I'm not even sure where to start with this. National Review Online has broken a story in which they state: "National Review Online has obtained an internal Bank of America "discussion document" (pdf here ) on the subject of the FHA Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act of 2008, a.k.a. the Dodd-Shelby mortgage-lender bailout bill . Yesterday, Tim Carney reported that the prevailing sentiment on Capitol Hill is that the Dodd-Shelby bill "is exactly what Bank of America and Countrywide wanted." BofA is in the process of acquiring Countrywide. Countrywide is currently embroiled in a scandal over its V.I.P. program,...

The Countrywide sixBy John Bender web posted June 16, 2008The news that former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson was one of the sleaze bags who enriched themselves with sweat heart deals on mortgages from Countrywide Financial makes it a bipartisan scandal and eliminates the slim possibility that any of them will be brought to justice.  The ruling political class doesn't like to bring its members to justice. But if one political party can gain political advantage by going after a few members of the political class who happen to be in the other party, they will grab...

<p>National Review Online has obtained an internal Bank of America "discussion document" (pdf here) on the subject of the FHA Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act of 2008, a.k.a. the Dodd-Shelby mortgage-lender bailout bill.</p> <p>Yesterday, Tim Carney reported that the prevailing sentiment on Capitol Hill is that the Dodd-Shelby bill "is exactly what Bank of America and Countrywide wanted." BofA is in the process of acquiring Countrywide. Countrywide is currently embroiled in a scandal over its V.I.P. program, under which several powerful politicians, including Sen. Chris Dodd, got preferential loan rates.</p>

June 19, 2008 Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government Broad, invasive provision touches nearly every aspect of American commerce. Contact:  Adam Brandon Phone:   (202) 942-7698 Email: abrandon@freedomworks.org Washington, D.C. -  Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Thursday said Congress should examine Countrywide Financial Corp's mortgage loans to Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad. "My view is that these allegations should be considered by the appropriate bodies, and I understand that the Senate Ethics Committee has already begun to look into the matter," Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement.