Elizabeth Dole Robin Hayes By Lisa Zagaroli, McClatchy Newspapers
Some N.C. members of Congress have more than a typical stake in the health of the financial services industry.
Most notable are Rep. Robin Hayes, a Concord Republican, and Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., who have substantial personal investments in American International Group, the insurance giant that was rescued by a federal loan.
Hayes had between $2.8 million and $11.5 million of his personal fortune invested in AIG, according to his 2007 personal financial disclosure forms. That was more than any other member of Congress, the Center for Responsive Politics said.
Dole had between $1.1 million and $5.3 million invested in the company's stock. Lawmakers are required to report each asset in ranges, such as $500,000 to $1 million, rather than specific amounts.
Lawmakers may be asked in coming days to vote on a major bailout of the industry, with price tags as high as $700 billion for the White House's initial proposal.
“At the same time members of Congress are sorting out what the cost of this is to taxpayers, there's also a cost and a potential benefit to some of them personally,” said Massie Ritsch, a spokesman for the Center Responsive Politics, a nonprofit watchdog group that examines money in politics. More Posted by Economic analyst at 9:21 PM 0 comments Chief Doubts Chrysler Would Survive Bankruptcy
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Chrysler’s chairman cast doubt Monday on whether the struggling automaker could survive a government-sponsored bankruptcy reorganization.
“I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t have a lot of confidence in today’s environment that we can emerge from bankruptcy,” the company’s chief executive and chairman, Robert L. Nardelli, said in an interview.
Chrysler is asking the federal government for $5 billion in loans in addition to $4 billion it had already received. The company says it is in danger of running out of money without more federal aid.
President Obama’s auto task force is considering a variety of options to rescue both Chrysler and General Motors, which is seeking up to $16.6 billion on top of $13.4 billion it has gotten since the end of last year.
Members of the task force, including the former investment bankers Steven A. Rattner and Ron Bloom, met last week with Mr. Nardelli, toured a Chrysler truck plant and reviewed the company’s product plans.
In Chrysler’s restructuring plans, submitted to the Treasury Department on Feb. 17, the automaker estimated that it would require up to $25 billion in government assistance if it were to file for bankruptcy protection.
“Why would the government want to spend $20 to $25 billion, when you can spend $5 billion?” Mr. Nardelli said.
In bankruptcy, a judge could void Chrysler’s labor and supplier contracts and restructure its debt. But Mr. Nardelli said he feared consumers would shun Chrysler’s cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles if the company sought court protection. More Posted by Economic analyst at 4:55 PM 0 comments IMF poised to print billions of dollars in 'global quantitative easing'
Note: All the more reason to BUY GOLD/SILVER for the coming hyperinflation! The International Monetary Fund is poised to embark on what analysts have described as "global quantitative easing" by printing billions of dollars worth of a global "super-currency" in an unprecedented new effort to address the economic crisis.
By Edmund Conway Last Updated: 9:07AM GMT 16 Mar 2009
Alistair Darling and senior figures in the US Treasury have been encouraging the Fund to issue hundreds of billions of dollars worth of so-called Special Drawing Rights in the coming months as part of its campaign to prevent the recession from turning into a global depression. Should the move, which is up for discussion by the summit of G20 finance ministers this weekend, be adopted, it will represent a global equivalent of the Bank of England's plan to pump extra cash into the UK economy.
World now in grip of 'Great Recession' warns IMF However, economists warned that the scheme could cause a major swell of inflation around the world as the newly-created money filters through the system. The idea has been suggested by a number of key figures, including billionaire investor George Soros and US Treasury adviser Ted Truman. Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the IMF, said: "The principle behind it is that everyone would get bonus dollars and instead of the Federal Reserve having to print them, everyone gets them. "The objective is to create a windfall of cash. However if everybody goes out and spends the money it could be very inflationary." link Posted by Economic analyst at 10:50 AM 2 comments Sunday, March 15, 2009 Financial System Far worse than 1929 Depression THIS ECONOMIC CRISIS doesn't have to be a second Great Depression - if government does nearly everything right, and soon. But if government doesn't do more, and fast, this could be worse than the 1930s. Why? Three big reasons:
Finance: A Doomsday Machine. The financial system is in far worse shape than it was when the stock market crashed in October 1929. In the 1920s, there was a stock market bubble, mainly because people could play the market "on margin," borrowing to invest in stocks. There were also scams like the original Mr. Ponzi's. Like in the present decade, the Federal Reserve helped to enable the game, with low interest rates and few rules.
But today, thanks to "securitization" of loans and the ability of insiders to create exotic and unfathomable financial instruments, the speculative system makes buying stocks on margin look like child's play. In the aftermath of the crash of 2008, the process of sorting it all out and getting banks functioning again is something that markets simply cannot do.
We are not even clear who owns what. The wise guys on Wall Street invented a doomsday machine from which there is no market escape.
In 1929 when the stock market crashed, the banking system was relatively healthy. Bank customers played these speculative games and took the losses, not banks. This time, the banks drank their own Kool- aid.
It took until the awful winter of 1932-'33 for the general depression to fully infect the banking system, and cause over 7,000 banks to fail. But Roosevelt's cure - deposit insurance and a temporary bank holiday to sort out good banks from bad - quickly got the financial system up and running again. Today, the banking mess is still dragging down the real economy, with no effective cure in sight.
Wealth, Deficits, and Demand. The economy now bears all the hallmarks of a depression. Between the housing collapse and the stock market crash, American households are out several trillion dollars (in the 1920s, there were no 401(k) plans and less than 2 percent of Americans owned stock). More Posted by Economic analyst at 9:54 PM 5 comments Think recession's bad? Try a CATACLYSM! World finances shaken to roots within a year.
Note: Above is an economist stating that if ALL DEBTS were cancelled we would begin a recovery-Listen. There is a growing list of educated people predicting the trillions of dollars spent by governments around the world to stimulate a moribund economy will not work.
There's already Peter Schiff, head of Euro Pacific Capital in Connecticut, and Peter Morici, professor at University of Maryland and former chief economist of the U.S. International Trade Commission. And you can add the name of Allan Brennan, manager of economic analysis and forecasting with the Alberta government's Department of Infrastructure and Transportation.
"Stimulus packages will not help the economy at all," Brennan said in a presentation with Dundee Private Investors branch manager Trevor Hamon. "A lot of money is going to banks, but unless you get that money to consumers, things will not improve." Brennan said that within a year, we will face a cataclysmic event that will shake world finances to the roots, leading to a major period of either deflation or hyperinflation, either of which will rock the global economy. Just what that event will be, he's not sure. It could be the failure of eastern European countries, or the collapse of the American dollar. If it causes hyperinflation, investors can prosper by letting stock prices plummet for a couple of months, and then invest in commodities, with copper leading the rebound. Hamon warned that banks have lured people into home-equity lines of credit, and they are now retiring while still in debt.
"In the next couple of years, the art of investing will be not losing your principal," Brennan said. "The way out of this, in the long term, is for people to start saving."
He said the nationalization of banks is inevitable, but it will be done "under the table." He sees the British pound disappearing as an independent currency, the U.S. dollar in peril as the reserve currency, and the euro perhaps splitting into a strong Nordic and weak Latin one. More Posted by Economic analyst at 10:53 AM 10 comments Saturday, March 14, 2009 Its getting MUCH WORSE! Global Trade COLLAPSING. Worse than GREAT DEPRESSION
Global trade collapsing Commentary: U.S. exports falling at 49% pace as customers fade away
By MarketWatch Last update: 12:37 p.m. EDT March 13, 2009Comments: 21 WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- For a while, some analysts held out hope that the rest of the world would be spared the devastation of the collapse of the great American credit bubble. The global economy had de-coupled, they said. America's problems were her own. No one is saying that any more. In fact, the latest evidence shows that global trade flows are plunging at an alarming rate. The Commerce Department reported that the volume of U.S. imports from abroad fell 4.6% in January while exports declined 8.6%, the most since the monthly trade figures were first collected in 1992. See full story.More Over the past five months since the credit
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Discussion subject changed to "DIRTY SCUMBAG KERRY & PIGLOSI HAVE MILLIONS INVESTED IN AIG, NO WONDER ALL THE BAILOUTS, STRING UP THESE BASTARDS!!!!!!!!" by One Big Ass Mistake America
WIRE: Pelosi, Kerry big $$ Losers... as AIG Stakes Evaporate
Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The market storm that brought down Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., American International Group Inc. and other pillars of U.S. finance may have also blown holes in the portfolios of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator John Kerry and more than 50 other members of Congress.
Pelosi, in her most recent financial disclosure form, reported that her husband owned between $250,000 and $500,000 of stock in AIG, which ceded majority control to the U.S. government this week in exchange for $85 billion of loans.
Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, disclosed that his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had more than $2 million of AIG stock at the end of 2007, when shares were worth $58.30. AIG has fallen 85 percent this week to close yesterday at $2.69. The lawmakers' aides didn't respond to calls seeking comment.
Altogether, 56 senators and representatives had stakes in AIG, Lehman, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns Cos. or IndyMac Bancorp Inc. -- some of the biggest casualties of the market bloodbath -- according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The most recent annual disclosure filings list investments as of Dec. 31, 2007, and reveal the size of holdings only within a range of values. Lawmakers may have sold shares since then.
``Lawmakers, like everyone else in America who has any kind of retirement portfolio or stock holdings, are going to be suffering,'' said Gary Kalman, a lobbyist for the Boston-based U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a consumer-advocacy organization. ``This is a serious issue. We need to have a serious response.''
Market Plunges
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index plunged 7.6 percent during the first three days of this week on news that Lehman and Merrill Lynch & Co. -- which survived two world wars and the Great Depression -- were finished as independent investment banks.
Lehman filed history's biggest bankruptcy case on Sept. 15 and Merrill sold itself to Bank of America Corp. Even after rallying yesterday, the S&P 500 is down almost 25 percent from its October 2007 peak.
Lehman shares, which traded for as much as $67.73 last November, closed yesterday at 5 cents. Merrill's shareholders are in better shape. To avoid Lehman's fate, Merrill agreed to be acquired in a stock-swap worth $26.28 per share at yesterday's closing prices. In better days, Merrill soared to as much as $98.68 in January 2007.
Bear Stearns was the first Wall Street titan to fall as home-loan defaults battered the market for mortgage-backed securities and started a chain reaction that devastated credit markets. JPMorgan Chase & Co. bought Bear Stearns in March.
Government Takeover
Earlier this month, the government took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together accounted for almost half of the U.S. home-loan market. Fannie Mae shares had already plummeted more than 80 percent this year, to $7.04 from $39.98, before the government's Sept. 7 takeover was announced. Shares dropped to 73 cents when trading resumed the next day. Freddie Mac fell to 88 cents, after starting the year at $34.07.
Representative Robin Hayes, a South Carolina Republican, had Congress's biggest AIG stake, according to the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics. Hayes's AIG stock was worth between $2.8 million and $11.5 million.
John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, avoided potential losses. Because of the Arizona senator's run for the White House, his wife, Cindy, last year liquidated a blind trust that had contained stock in AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Lehman. The amounts of stock she had owned weren't disclosed.
Representative Jane Harman, a California Democrat, owned between $50,000 and $100,000 of Lehman shares, according to her disclosure form. Calls to offices of Hayes and Harman weren't returned.
Pasadena, California-based IndyMac's bank was seized by U.S. regulators in July, in the third-biggest U.S. bank failure. IndyMac stock closed yesterday at 6 cents, after trading earlier this year for as much as $11.32.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@
> WIRE: Pelosi, Kerry big $$ Losers... as AIG Stakes Evaporate
> Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The market storm that brought down Lehman Brothers > Holdings Inc., American International Group Inc. and other pillars of U.S. > finance may have also blown holes in the portfolios of House Speaker Nancy > Pelosi, Senator John Kerry and more than 50 other members of Congress.
> Pelosi, in her most recent financial disclosure form, reported that her > husband owned between $250,000 and $500,000 of stock in AIG, which ceded > majority control to the U.S. government this week in exchange for $85 > billion of loans.
> Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, disclosed that his wife, > Teresa Heinz Kerry, had more than $2 million of AIG stock at the end of > 2007, when shares were worth $58.30. AIG has fallen 85 percent this week > to close yesterday at $2.69. The lawmakers' aides didn't respond to calls > seeking comment.
> Altogether, 56 senators and representatives had stakes in AIG, Lehman, > Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns Cos. or IndyMac Bancorp Inc. -- some > of the biggest casualties of the market bloodbath -- according to the > Center for Responsive Politics. The most recent annual disclosure filings > list investments as of Dec. 31, 2007, and reveal the size of holdings only > within a range of values. Lawmakers may have sold shares since then.
> ``Lawmakers, like everyone else in America who has any kind of retirement > portfolio or stock holdings, are going to be suffering,'' said Gary > Kalman, a lobbyist for the Boston-based U.S. Public Interest Research > Group, a consumer-advocacy organization. ``This is a serious issue. We > need to have a serious response.''
> Market Plunges
> The Standard & Poor's 500 Index plunged 7.6 percent during the first three > days of this week on news that Lehman and Merrill Lynch & Co. -- which > survived two world wars and the Great Depression -- were finished as > independent investment banks.
> Lehman filed history's biggest bankruptcy case on Sept. 15 and Merrill > sold itself to Bank of America Corp. Even after rallying yesterday, the > S&P 500 is down almost 25 percent from its October 2007 peak.
> Lehman shares, which traded for as much as $67.73 last November, closed > yesterday at 5 cents. Merrill's shareholders are in better shape. To avoid > Lehman's fate, Merrill agreed to be acquired in a stock-swap worth $26.28 > per share at yesterday's closing prices. In better days, Merrill soared to > as much as $98.68 in January 2007.
> Bear Stearns was the first Wall Street titan to fall as home-loan defaults > battered the market for mortgage-backed securities and started a chain > reaction that devastated credit markets. JPMorgan Chase & Co. bought Bear > Stearns in March.
> Government Takeover
> Earlier this month, the government took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie > Mac, which together accounted for almost half of the U.S. home-loan > market. Fannie Mae shares had already plummeted more than 80 percent this > year, to $7.04 from $39.98, before the government's Sept. 7 takeover was > announced. Shares dropped to 73 cents when trading resumed the next day. > Freddie Mac fell to 88 cents, after starting the year at $34.07.
> Representative Robin Hayes, a South Carolina Republican, had Congress's > biggest AIG stake, according to the Washington-based Center for Responsive > Politics. Hayes's AIG stock was worth between $2.8 million and $11.5 > million.
> John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, avoided potential > losses. Because of the Arizona senator's run for the White House, his > wife, Cindy, last year liquidated a blind trust that had contained stock > in AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Lehman. The amounts of stock she had > owned weren't disclosed.
> Representative Jane Harman, a California Democrat, owned between $50,000 > and $100,000 of Lehman shares, according to her disclosure form. Calls to > offices of Hayes and Harman weren't returned.
> Pasadena, California-based IndyMac's bank was seized by U.S. regulators in > July, in the third-biggest U.S. bank failure. IndyMac stock closed > yesterday at 6 cents, after trading earlier this year for as much as > $11.32.
> To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at > jsalant@
Blaming anyone but Bush/Cheney and the GOP for the economy is insane and 99% of America knows it.
Discussion subject changed to "DIRTY SCUMBAG REPUBLICANS HAVE MILLIONS INVESTED IN AIG, NO WONDER ALL THE BAILOUTS, STRING UP THESE BASTARDS!!!!!!!!" by Tater Gumfries
Discussion subject changed to "DIRTY SCUMBAG KERRY & PIGLOSI HAVE MILLIONS INVESTED IN AIG, NO WONDER ALL THE BAILOUTS, STRING UP THESE BASTARDS!!!!!!!!" by One Big Ass Mistake America
Amid AIG Furor, Dodd Tries to Undo Bonus Protections He Put In
Rich Edson
FOXBusiness
Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group (AIG: 0.9513, 0.1712, 21.95%) bonus recipients so the government could recoup the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. Within hours, the idea spread to both houses of Congress, with lawmakers proposing an AIG bonus tax.
While the Senate constructed the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd unexpectedly added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an "exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009," which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are seeking to tax. The amendment is in the final version and is law.
Also, Sen. Dodd was AIG's largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.
Dodd's office did not immediately return a request for comment.
One of AIG Financial Products' largest offices is based in Connecticut.
Dodd Amendment Rules
a.. Crack down on bonuses, retention awards and incentive compensation: Bonuses can only be paid in the form of long-term restricted stock, equal to no greater than 1/3 of total annual compensation, and will vest only when taxpayer funds are repaid. There is an exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009. b.. For institutions that received assistance totaling less than $25 million, the bonus restriction applies to the highest compensated employee; $25 million to $250 million, applies to the top five employees; $250 million to $500 million, applies to the senior executive officers and the next top 10 employees; and more than $500 million applies to the senior executive officers and the next top 20 employees (or such higher number as the Secretary determines is in the public interest).
Amid AIG Furor, Dodd Tries to Undo Bonus Protections He Put In
Rich Edson
FOXBusiness
Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group (AIG: 0.9513, 0.1712, 21.95%) bonus recipients so the government could recoup the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. Within hours, the idea spread to both houses of Congress, with lawmakers proposing an AIG bonus tax.
While the Senate constructed the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd unexpectedly added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009,” which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are seeking to tax. The amendment is in the final version and is law.
Also, Sen. Dodd was AIG’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.
Dodd’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
One of AIG Financial Products’ largest offices is based in Connecticut.
Dodd Amendment Rules
a.. Crack down on bonuses, retention awards and incentive compensation: Bonuses can only be paid in the form of long-term restricted stock, equal to no greater than 1/3 of total annual compensation, and will vest only when taxpayer funds are repaid. There is an exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009. b.. For institutions that received assistance totaling less than $25 million, the bonus restriction applies to the highest compensated employee; $25 million to $250 million, applies to the top five employees; $250 million to $500 million, applies to the senior executive officers and the next top 10 employees; and more than $500 million applies to the senior executive officers and the next top 20 employees (or such higher number as the Secretary determines is in the public interest).
Discussion subject changed to "DIRTY SCUMBAG KERRY & PIGLOSI HAVE MILLIONS INVESTED IN AIG, NO WONDER ALL THE BAILOUTS, STRING UP THESE BASTARDS!!!!!!!!" by Reverend Billy Bobby
Amid AIG Furor, Dodd Tries to Undo Bonus Protections He Put In
Rich Edson
FOXBusiness
Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group (AIG: 0.9513, 0.1712, 21.95%) bonus recipients so the government could recoup the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. Within hours, the idea spread to both houses of Congress, with lawmakers proposing an AIG bonus tax.
While the Senate constructed the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd unexpectedly added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an "exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009," which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are seeking to tax. The amendment is in the final version and is law.
Also, Sen. Dodd was AIG's largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.
Dodd's office did not immediately return a request for comment.
One of AIG Financial Products' largest offices is based in Connecticut.
Dodd Amendment Rules
a.. Crack down on bonuses, retention awards and incentive compensation: Bonuses can only be paid in the form of long-term restricted stock, equal to no greater than 1/3 of total annual compensation, and will vest only when taxpayer funds are repaid. There is an exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009. b.. For institutions that received assistance totaling less than $25 million, the bonus restriction applies to the highest compensated employee; $25 million to $250 million, applies to the top five employees; $250 million to $500 million, applies to the senior executive officers and the next top 10 employees; and more than $500 million applies to the senior executive officers and the next top 20 employees (or such higher number as the Secretary determines is in the public interest).
