Free Republic

Bad Policy, Big Bucks Wed Oct 30,11:58 AM ET By Wayne Barrett - Village Voice Writer Every Gubernatorial poll makes the economy the top issue, every economist knows that one way a governor impacts on jobs is by influencing the price and reliability of power, and every analyst of George Pataki's energy policy, from the right and left, has reached the same sad conclusion: It's a disaster. Yet no one's talking about it. The governor's deregulation scheme went into effect in late 1999, and energy prices in New York City and Rockland and Orange counties spiked 43 percent by the...

Congress' Corporate Probes Go Cold Tue Oct 29, 2:32 PM ET By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Hot television lights beamed on disgraced companies' executives summoned to testify before Congress. They raised their right hands, invoked their Fifth Amendment privileges and, one by one, refused to answer questions in packed hearing rooms. Those who did talk pointed fingers. Responsibility, they said, rested elsewhere. The stock market, meanwhile, dropped like a stone, spooking small investors whose anguish grew as they watched their retirement savings plummet. Congress, mindful that members faced elections in November, moved in the summer to...

Concord Coalition To Honor NYSE Chairman & CEO Dick Grasso With Economic Patriot Award, Wed. Oct. 30 Concord Coalition Leaders Rudman, Kerrey, Peterson, Rubin & Volcker to Join Grasso on Panel Discussing "The New Economic Environment" NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 28, 2002-- The Concord Coalition will present NYSE Chairman & CEO Dick Grasso with its Economic Patriot Award at The Concord Coalition's Ninth Annual Economic Patriots Dinner this Wednesday evening, Oct. 30 at The Pierre Hotel in New York City. In honoring Grasso with this award, The Concord Coalition noted: "Strong leaders show their true mettle in times of crisis, and...

U.S. Wants to Question Ex-Qwest CEO Fri Oct 25, 7:44 PM ET By CATHERINE TSAI, AP Business Writer DENVER (AP) - Congressional investigators plan to interview former Qwest chief executive officer Joe Nacchio again after an interview Friday with company founder Philip Anschutz left unanswered questions about Anschutz's role at Qwest. Qwest is under investigation by regulators and lawmakers over its accounting practices. Anschutz, a Qwest director, told House Energy and Commerce Committee staff last month and again Friday he was largely uninvolved in day-to-day operations. Nacchio has told the committee he spoke to Anschutz regularly. Anschutz did say he...

Citigroup unveils Salomon shake-up Thursday October 24, 6:01 am ET By Joshua Chaffin in New York FT.com Citigroup is shuffling the senior management in the research department of its embattled Salomon Smith Barney investment banking arm. The company announced on Wednesday the resignation of the head of the department, John Hoffman, and the reassignment of another top executive, Kevin McCaffrey. Both men were mentioned in embarrassing e-mails and internal memos that were released by Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney-general, in a recent lawsuit that he filed against several Salomon customers. The communications depicted a department riddled with conflicts of...

Citi's Weill Denies He May Face Charge Wed Oct 23, 3:01 AM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) chief Sanford Weill on Wednesday denied a newspaper report saying that state prosecutors informed Citigroup that the interests of Weill and Citigroup have diverged and that Weill could face separate legal action. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the New York attorney general's office will question Weill, Citigroup's chairman and chief executive, after gathering new evidence in its investigation of the company's research practices. The Journal said in its online edition that...

Labor Moves to Protect 401(k) Plans Mon Oct 21, 4:50 PM ET By LEIGH STROPE, AP Labor Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Starting next year, workers participating in employer-sponsored 401(k) plans must receive 30 days notice before they are blocked from accessing their retirement savings accounts while administrative changes are being made. That's according to a Labor Department regulation issued Monday, which takes effect Jan. 26. A corporate accountability law, inspired by last year's Enron scandal and passed by Congress this summer, required the department to issue the rule. Congress has failed to pass legislation aimed strictly at 401(k) plans to...

WASHINGTON TODAY: Democratic presidential hopefuls have hard time getting respect Sun Oct 20,12:10 AM ET By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidates had hoped to use the November election spotlight to propel their White House aspirations. Instead, President Bush's popularity is keeping them in the shadows. While Bush steers voters' attention to homeland security and a potential war with Iraq, Democratic leaders have failed thus far to convince Americans that Bush is to blame for the sagging economy. Indeed, Democrats lack the ingredient cherished by presidential hopefuls in past midterm elections: a unifying theme. "There is...

Enron Anniversary No Cause for Celebration Sat Oct 19, 7:25 AM ET By Paul Thomasch and Carolyn Koo NEW YORK (Reuters) - Enron Corp.'s bombshell decision a year ago to cut its equity by $1.2 billion initially got a singular response from the financial community: Silence. By and large, analysts and reporters missed the energy trader's Oct. 16, 2001 statement that it would write down equity to account for dubious partnerships -- partnerships that would drive it into a then-record bankruptcy and cast doubt on the whole power industry. Granted, Enron's write-down was easily overlooked. It was not mentioned in...

Corporate scandals cost more than $200 billion, report says Thu Oct 17, 6:32 PM ET By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer WASHINGTON - Recent corporate scandals have cost Americans more than $200 billion in lost investment savings, jobs, pension losses and tax revenue, according to a report released Thursday. The report issued by the "No More Enrons" coalition, partially funded by consumer groups and labor unions, said losses from 401(k) investment accounts alone totaled $175 billion and public pension funds nationwide lost at least $6.4 billion as the stock market plummeted amid a crisis of investor confidence. It estimated that...

Global Creditors May Seek Winnick's Cash Thu Oct 17, 6:07 AM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Global Crossing Ltd. (GBLXQ.PK) creditors' group asked longtime Chairman Gary Winnick on Wednesday to resign from the telecommunications company he founded and said it may try to tap the billionaire philanthropist's personal fortune to recoup corporate funds, The Los Angeles Times said. The request, made by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court committee of unsecured creditors, marks the first time that anyone has formally sought the ousting of Winnick from Global Crossing, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January after incurring billions of dollars of...

Ten Things Your Politician Won't Tell You Tuesday October 15, 5:26 pm ET By Roben Farzad SmartMoney.com 1. "Cooked books? Forget Enron. Look what we're up to." With investors steaming over fraud-related market losses, Congress has declared open season on corporate executives for reckless accounting. But the bookkeeping at agencies under congressional purview is open to skewering too. The General Accounting Office recently revealed that many federal agencies can't prepare a basic financial statement that clearly assesses the value of their assets and expenses. Worse yet, an Office of Management and Budget report charges that numerous agencies are rife with...

Citigroup Denies Loans to Ebbers Were Improper Mon Oct 14,11:12 PM ET By Jonathan Weil, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) denied allegations made in a lawsuit by New York State Comptroller H. Carl McCall that the financial-services company acted improperly by having its Travelers insurance units lend millions of dollars to a closely held company controlled by Bernard Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom Inc. In a statement, Citigroup said the suit inaccurately described details of the loans, including their size. Citigroup also said the loans were secured by timber properties that Mr. Ebbers'...

Dutch Bank Shuns Probe of Enron Fri Oct 11, 5:04 PM ET AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Rabobank has refused to hand over internal documents to a New York court that could provide insight into deals related to the collapsed energy trading giant Enron Corp., a spokesman for the Dutch bank said Friday. Rabobank has documents relating to loans granted to Enron, which it allegedly booked as sales. Rabobank holds these documents because it took over an Enron loan of $517 million, previously held by Royal Bank of Canada. Rabobank spokesman Roel van Veghel said the bank won't hand over documents...

Report: Ex-Salomon Analyst Helps Probe Thu Oct 10, 9:30 AM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former star Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) telecommunications analyst Jack Grubman is allying with investigators to show his ex-employer prompted him to keep a positive view on telecommunications stocks for fear of losing banking business, the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, among other items, is looking at an apology letter Grubman wrote allegedly at the demand of Citigroup Chief Executive Sanford "Sandy" Weill after the analyst didn't include AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T) -- a prize banking client of Citigroup's Salomon Smith...

Democrats: Fire SEC Chairman Pitt Wed Oct 9, 7:47 PM ET By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic leaders on Wednesday asked President Bush to remove Harvey Pitt, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, whom they accuse of opposing a tough candidate to head a new oversight board at the accounting industry's behest. The White House called the accusations politically motivated. The call for Pitt's resignation came from Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., at a news conference on Social Security in which they tried to switch the dominant...

Pitt Under Fire From Democrats Wed Oct 9, 4:36 AM ET By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt is under fire again from Democratic lawmakers, accusing him this time of bending to pressure from the accounting industry and withdrawing support from a candidate to head a new oversight board. Pitt, who previously represented Wall Street's big players and all Big Five auditing firms as a private securities lawyer, is back in the hot seat in a year of corporate accounting scandals that started with the collapse of Enron Corp. He was...

Qwest Exec Sought by Probers Again Mon Oct 7, 6:28 PM ET By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional investigators plan to interview Qwest Communications founder and director Philip Anschutz a second time about his role in the company's day-to-day affairs, a congressional spokesman said Monday. The renewed interest in Anschutz arose from public testimony last week from former Qwest chairman and CEO Joseph Nacchio, who said he talked to Anschutz about all major decisions, said Ken Johnson, spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee. At several points during Nacchio's testimony, he described Anschutz as a...

Report: Watchdog System Failed Enron Mon Oct 7, 1:58 AM ET By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Securities and Exchange Commission and Wall Street's system of informally policing big corporations failed in their duty to detect the impending accounting failure at Enron, a Senate panel finds in a new report. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which has investigated the role of government and industry watchdogs in Enron's stunning collapse since early this summer, said the oversight system must be tighter. It said the oversight failures included financial analysts, credit-rating agencies and auditors as well as the...

Chairmen Take to Pleading Ignorance Sat Oct 5, 2:56 AM ET By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Two of the largest corporate collapses have at least one thing in common: company chairmen who took their creations to great heights, reaped millions from stock sales — and said they knew nothing of problems until it was too late. Kenneth Lay's defense after Enron Corp.'s spectacular downfall was that he was largely uninformed of how the energy-trading company's finances worked. In congressional testimony this week, Global Crossing Ltd. Chairman Gary Winnick could not remember receiving a single warning about potential problems at...