“I like big bucks and I cannot lie,” they sang at their Kauai, Hawaii retreat. “You mortgage brothers can’t deny.”
Washington Mutual would go on to be the biggest savings bank failure in U.S. history.
As if the lyrics themselves weren’t enough, the bankers’ chorus was apparently accompanied by cheerleaders who moved in time to the music, and wads and wads of flying fake cash.
Read more about these disgusting pigs over at Raw Story!
American Society, Economy, Feature, News, The Banks
As Wallets Open For Haiti, Credit Card Companies Take A Big Cut
Update at 3:13 PM: American Express announced today that processing fees for any donations made to the 65 charities listed on this website between January 12 and the end of February will be rebated back to those charities.
As a massive human tragedy unfolds in Haiti, relief organizations are soliciting credit-card donations through their hotlines and websites. About 97 percent of these donations will actually make it to the designated organizations — but the other 3 percent will be skimmed off by banks and credit card companies to cover their “transaction costs.”
Thanks to this hidden fee, American banks and credit card companies are making huge profits — somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 million a year — off of people’s charitable donations, according to a Huffington Post analysis.
Those profits rise sharply after major disasters, when humanitarian relief organizations such as Oxfam and Operation USA take in more than 85 percent of their donations via credit card — and the credit card providers, with only a few exceptions, refuse to waive their fees.
Credit card companies have only been willing to waive their processing fee for charity once, Richard Walden, the CEO of Operation USA, tells the Huffington Post, and that was for the tsunami disaster of 2004. Source Article
American Society, Government/Politics, Opinion, The Banks, Video
Yeah Bob covered this already I think, but JP Morgan administering food stamps just sounds sleezy. -Shinai.
Congress, Feature, Government/Politics, News, The Banks
Courtesy Washington Post:
Embattled Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd (D) has scheduled a press conference at his home in Connecticut Wednesday at which he is expected to announce he will not seek re-election, according to sources familiar with his plans.
Dodd’s retirement comes after months of speculation about his political future, and amid faltering polling numbers and a growing sense among the Democratic establishment that he could not win a sixth term. It also comes less than 24 hours after Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) announced he would not seek re-election.
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is widely expected to step into the void filled by Dodd and, at least at first blush, should drastically increase Democrats’ chances of holding the seat.
-Article continues @ Source.
Feature, Government/Politics, The Banks
Courtesy Credit InfoCenter:
Chase and Citibank announced via their websites that they are no longer participating in (Federal Deposit Insurance Company) FDIC Transaction Account Guarantee Program. Both banks are still insured under the general FDICprogram, however.
What is the FDIC? It’s the government entity that makes it safer to keep your money in the bank rather than stuff it in a mattress. In the case of a bank failure, your funds deposited in that failed bank are guaranteed and will be returned to you. From the FDIC website:
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is an independent agency of the United States government that protects funds depositors place in banks and savings associations. FDIC insurance is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. Since the FDIC was established in 1933, no depositor has ever lost a single penny of FDIC-insured funds.
What does dropping the Transaction Account Guarantee protection mean to you? Actually, you should be pretty scared. Taking a protection away from your hard earned funds is not a good thing. Nor is it a good sign of the health of these banks. Dropping out of the program means that the banks don’t have to be quite as strict with their banking procedures.
-Article continues @ source.
Congress, Economy, Government/Politics, News, The Banks
The Huffington Post | Ryan McCarthy
First Posted: 12- 9-09 01:30 PM | Updated: 12- 9-09 05:38 PM
British bankers are going bonkers today after the UK government announced that it wouldn’t stand idly by as they showered themselves with obscene bonuses made possible by last year’s massive infusion of government money.
Alistair Darling, the U.K.’s Chancellor of the Exchequer — sort of like a Treasury Secretary, but with more pluck — announced today that he will impose an immediate, one-time 50-percent tax on bonuses of more than 25,000 pounds (about $40,800). That’s on top of regular income taxes.
The New York Times calls it “the most direct attack on bonuses anywhere in the world.”
Across the pond, however — where the Wall Street titans whose companies were saved from dissolution by an infusion of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are about to reward themselves with a good chunk of that money in the form of year-end bonuses — no such action is in the offing. Source Article
Too bad our Congress doesn’t have the balls of the British Parliament . Of course, we all know what our Congress is–the only question is what their price is!
~Susan~
Congress, Economy, Government/Politics, News, The Banks
Ben Bernanke has overseen the greatest expansion of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet in its history, pouring trillions of dollars into Wall Street firms at roughly zero interest rates.
His generosity, however, has a limit.
In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee today, where he’s seeking re-appointment as the Fed’s chairman, Bernanke called for cutbacks in Medicare and Social Security even as unemployment rises and the middle class is endangered.
Citing legendary bank robber Willie Sutton, Bernanke said of the retirement and health care funds that are the legacy of the New Deal: “That’s where the money is.”
Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) sympathized with Bernanke, saying that, because of entitlement spending, “you’re going to be looking at a situation where the Congress will be unable to provide any kind of fiscal discipline because of the mandatory spending. That puts an enormous burden on your plate.”
“Well, Senator, I was about to address entitlements,” Bernanke replied. “I think you can’t tackle the problem in the medium term without doing something about getting entitlements under control and reducing the costs, particularly of health care.”
Bernanke reminded Congress that it has the power to repeal Social Security and Medicare.
“It’s only mandatory until Congress says it’s not mandatory. And we have no option but to address those costs at some point or else we will have an unsustainable situation,” said Bernanke. Source Article
One week after re-paying its TARP bailout loan, Goldman Sachs predicts being able to pay employees record bonuses this year. In fact, they’re predicting their most profitable year ever.
Isn’t this special? Once the Obama administration told these companies getting the TARP money that not only will their salaries be limited, but they could also kiss their bonuses goodbye, that they are now able to pay all of that money back, AND estimate record profits.
Is it just me, or does this stink to high heaven?
Reuters has a short article about it here, as reported by The Guardian.
American Society, Congress, Economy, Government/Politics, The Banks
His proposal would address issues directly related to last fall’s crisis, notably the largely unregulated derivatives markets and rules on how banks turn their investments into complex securities.
By Jim Puzzanghera
June 17, 2009
Reporting from Washington — The financial regulation plan that President Obama will roll out today will impose stricter and broader government oversight of the nation’s banking system — including tough new requirements on companies whose failure would threaten the economy, and creating new agencies to regulate banks and to protect consumers.
The most sweeping overhaul of financial rules since the Great Depression also would grant the Federal Reserve broad new powers to oversee large firms, such as insurance companies, that it does not regulate directly. The Fed would have the authority to seize and dismantle these companies if they are in danger of failing. Source Article
Economy, Labor, The Banks, The Courts
Mon Jun 8, 2009 4:52pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. Supreme Court justice on Monday granted a request to put on hold the sale of bankrupt automaker Chrysler LLC to a group led by Italian carmaker Fiat SpA.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a one-sentence order, said the orders of the bankruptcy judge allowing the sale “are stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the court.”
The Chrysler case could set a precedent for General Motors Corp, which is using a similar quick-sale strategy in its bankruptcy in New York.
Indiana pension funds and consumer groups had asked the Supreme Court on Sunday to stop the sale of Chrysler to Fiat while they challenge the deal. Source Article
If I understand this correctly, these bondholders want their money or they force liquidation. Isn’t that called EXTORTION??
Just asking……
~Susan~
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