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A private equity company led by former Goldman Sachs executives is the likely buyer of IndyMac Bank, according to a report published Friday. The winner of the bidding for the Pasadena-based thrift is New York-based Dune Capital Management, founded in 2004 by ex-Goldman partners Steven Mnuchin and Daniel Niedich, according to the report on the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter Web site.

As recession fears cause the nation to embrace greater state control of the economy and unimaginable federal deficits, one searches in vain for debate worthy of the moment. Where there should be an historic clash of ideas, there is only blind resignation and an amorphous queasiness that we are simply sweeping the slouching beast under the rug.

SEATTLE (AP) -- Amazon.com Inc. said Friday that the 2008 holiday season was the online retailer's "best ever," with more than 6.3 million items ordered and 5.6 million units shipped during its peak day on Dec. 15. Amazon's upbeat take on the holiday season bucked the drumbeat of generally dismal news from retailers. Holiday sales typically account for 30 percent to 50 percent of a retailer's annual total, but rising unemployment, home foreclosures, the stock market decline and other economic worries led many shoppers to slash their shopping budgets this year.

A long-awaited sale of IndyMac Bank may be announced as early as today. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has been looking for a buyer, or buyers, for the Pasadena lender since the government declared it insolvent and seized it in July. Final bids were due by Dec. 12, and the FDIC said it expected to close a deal by the end of the year. The American Banker newspaper reported Tuesday that the announcement could come today.

A senior bank regulator was removed from his job after being accused of helping mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp alter its records so it appeared to be in better shape -- weeks before it was seized by the government. The Office of Thrift Supervision has reassigned its top West Coast official, Darrel Dochow, who was also a controversial figure in the regulatory lapses surrounding the savings-and-loan crisis of the late 1980s. In a letter sent Monday to Sen. Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, the Treasury Department's inspector general wrote that the federal OTS allowed the bank...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - M&T Bank Corp (MTB.N) said on Friday it agreed to buy Provident Bankshares Corp (PBKS.O) in an all-stock deal valued at around $400 million in an effort to expand its branch network in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region. Provident Bankshares, based in Baltimore, is the second major bank in Maryland to agree to sell itself this month. U.S. banks are broadly looking to expand their branch networks to boost their reliance on stable funding from deposits as borrowing in debt markets becomes increasingly expensive and unreliable.

Everywhere you look these days, someone is being rewarded for bad behavior. Wall Street bankers, hedge fund managers, mortgage lenders, even homeowners who knowingly bought homes they couldn't afford -- all have abandoned the moral high ground and are now heading down to bailout town, where the fat cats dine. With bailouts seemingly blowing in the wind, it's hard not to feel like a chump for being fiscally responsible. Does it still pay to play by the rules? Peter Schiff, president and chief global strategist of Connecticut-based brokerage firm Euro Pacific Capital, believes government policies are undermining people who behave...

Seven Republican senators signed a letter sent to President Bush on Tuesday, urging him not to use Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds in a bailout of U.S. automakers. The senators wrote that absent restructuring, they "do not believe any amount of money will succeed in saving these companies." The letter was sent by Senators Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), John Ensign (R-Nevada), Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia).

NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar tumbled versus the euro and the yen on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates more than expected to a record low, further diminishing the appeal of the greenback.

Gov. Mark Sanford, South Carolina Republican, sent a letter to President Bush on Monday asking him not to use money from the $700 billion economic rescue package to help bail out automakers. "This would be a very great mistake," Mr. Sanford said in the letter, which was e-mailed to reporters.

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., says the American economy can best be helped if taxes are not collected for a short time. "In this sagging economy, our nation's taxpayers are really hurting, and this year's marathon of bailouts hurts them more than ever," she said. "I come here today to support the tax holiday legislation because it's time that Washington bail out Americans, not bury them with extraordinary debt." Federal taxes would be suspended in January and February under the bill she co-sponsors. Democrats who control Congress are not expected to back the idea.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Friday a White House suggestion that part of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout now will go to automakers means Washington might be "completely out of control." "I've been a U.S. senator for some time, and I have never seen anything like this," the Oklahoma Republican said. . . . . . "As the Bush administration changes course once again, it is becoming clear to me that Washington, D.C. might be completely out of control," he said. "How have we come to a point that Congress—the institution that represents the will of the...

WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - A small bank in Georgia and another in Texas became the 24th and 25th banks to fail this year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said on Friday. Haven Trust Bank of Duluth, Georgia, had total assets of $572 million and total deposits of $515 million as of Dec. 8, the FDIC said. BB&T Corp (BBT.N) agreed to acquire all of Haven's deposits. Haven's four branches will reopen on Monday as branches of BB&T, the FDIC said. The failure is expected to cost the bank regulator's deposit insurance fund about $200 million. The FDIC's fund has...

It’s official. Washington’s favorite word this year is “bailout.” It’s been overused by Congress’ elite in hopes of rescuing their corporate friends from poor decision-making. It’s been used to pick the pockets of the already hurting taxpayer. It’s become a euphemism for robbing Peter to pay Paul. The last thing a struggling, hard-working family needs is another Washington bailout which forces them further into debt and financial turmoil – especially during these tough times. Past bailouts have thus far failed. Whether it was Bear Stearns or the larger Wall Street bailout, these government handouts have not done what they promised....

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Phoenix) is opposed to the bill passed by the House Wednesday night, a McCain spokeswoman told PolitickerAZ.com Thursday. "The senator is opposed to the bill as it is written," said Leah Geach of McCain's Washington, D.C. office. She said she didn't have any further details to offer at present.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, said Thursday that he opposes the auto bailout plan currently in Congress. Read his full statement: “I oppose the current auto bailout plan. “Simply put, the model Detroit has created will not sustain itself in the global economy. They need to make significant, structural changes before they receive federal assistance and those changes should be made in the private sector. “No one wants to see these companies fail and workers displaced. I feel for the car dealers and their employees who are being hurt by years of bad decisions made by the leadership...

The House passed a $14-billion, stopgap bailout of the automotive industry on Wednesday night. But in the Senate, Republicans have the votes to prevent it. And despite urging from the exiting Bush administration, they appear poised to do so. This is big. Normally, lame-duck congresses concern themselves with far less consequential matters. The addition of seven or eight more Democrats in the next Congress may come weeks too late to prevent the bankruptcy (or, in the worst case, failure) of General Motors. In the hours leading up to the critical votes, NRO spoke with Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), a...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jim Rogers, one of the world's most prominent international investors, on Thursday called most of the largest U.S. banks "totally bankrupt," and said government efforts to fix the sector are wrongheaded. Speaking by teleconference at the Reuters Investment Outlook 2009 Summit, the co-founder with George Soros of the Quantum Fund, said the government's $700 billion rescue package for the sector doesn't address how banks manage their balance sheets, and instead rewards weaker lenders with new capital. Dozens of banks have won infusions from the Troubled Asset Relief Program created in early October, just after the Sept...

Popular opinion assigns blame to greedy capitalists and a market gone wild for the financial crisis. The remedy for those who hold that view is government bailouts, fiscal stimulus and regulation. Even the head of the world’s freest economy, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang, said in his annual policy address, “When the market fails, the government should be prepared to intervene in a timely and decisive manner.” When the history of this crisis is written, it could be a story of the death of market liberalism and the ascent of market socialism. Yet the truth is that the source...

The Federal Reserve is considering issuing its own debt for the first time, a move that would give the central bank additional flexibility as it tries to stabilize rocky financial markets. Government debt issuance is largely the province of the Treasury Department, and the Fed already can print as much money as it wants. But as the credit crisis drags on and the economy suffers from recession, Fed officials are looking broadly for new financial tools. Fed officials have approached Congress about the concept, which could include issuing bills or some other form of debt, according to people familiar with...