[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GoK0539Gl4[/youtube]As Congress builds its target list with any wage earner who makes over $250,000 and is even slightly tied to a company recieving TARP funds, let’s not forget who modified the $800 billion stimulus bill to formally recognize these bonuses in the first place. And this from Larry Kudlow: What it really shows is how the government has completely bungled the AIG takeover. Blame the Bush administration and the Obama administration. It also shows, once again, why the government shouldn’t run anything, because it cannot run anything. AIG should have …
In what some observers are calling a reshaping of Wall Street, two of the world’s largest investment banks, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, are set to disappear. Lehman has announced it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and Merrill Lynch was bought by Bank of America. For all the complicated financial instruments and relationships involved in the current financial turmoil, the underlying cause is still relatively simple: the bursting of the housing bubble. One market strategist told The New York Times: “We are in the grip of a vicious …
This weekend Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced that mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will be placed in a government conservatorship that closely resembles a bankruptcy reorganization. The move puts U.S. taxpayers on the hook for $5.4 trillion in outstanding mortgage debt and commits the government to provide as much as $100 billion to each company in capital commitments. Two months ago, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the ultimate cost to taxpayers of such a move would be $25 billion. But bankers hired by the Treasury Department now …
Our friends at FreedomWorks are keeping the pressure on Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) for his sweetheart deal with Countrywide Financial and the housing bailout he negotiated to benefit the company. During a recent trip to Capitol Hill, the FreedomWorks team brought its Pander-bear to Union Station to shine the spotlight on the cronyism. Check out AngryRenter.com for more information. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsoM1chZElk[/youtube]
Today the Senate is scheduled to vote on the housing bailout bill that has been circulating on Capitol Hill for so long its title today is simply “a bill to provide needed housing reform and for other purposes.” When a bill’s title includes the phrase “and for other purposes,” you know the American taxpayer is about to get a raw deal. This bill is such terrible public policy in so many different ways that it’s hard to pick which one is the worst. But we’ll try. Bails out the banks most …
Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) may not know what interest rates currently are, but the Wall Street Journal has crunched the numbers and estimates that the discount loan Countrywide Financial gave him will save him $75,000 in mortgage payments. The WSJ also looked into how much of the $300 billion Dodd hopes to give away to banks as part of his housing bailout bill will go to Countrywide: “If borrowers and lenders take full advantage of this new federal program, and Countrywide loans go south at roughly the …
As the sponsor of a $300 billion housing bailout, you’d think liberal Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) would disclose his ties to the mortgage industry. Guess again. As coverage of Dodd’s sweetheart deal has intensified, so too have the senator’s critics. In a new video outside Dodd’s Washington, D.C., townhouse, our friends at AngryRenter.com raise some serious questions about his panda-ring to Countrywide and other lenders who would benefit greatly from the bailout. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGzrr3HlnyQ[/youtube]
Yesterday Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.) became the first member of Congress to call for an investigation into the relationship between Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) $300 billion bailout of Wall Street lenders like Countrywide Financial, and the below-market rate loans Dodd received from Countrywide. Hensarling may be the first member of Congress to step up efforts to protect taxpayers from this egregious bailout, but there are already plenty of non-partisan voices calling for an investigation including: The New Haven Register: “Ethics probe needed of Dodd’s loans – Senator charged with oversight …
Late yesterday Portfolio.com reported that a bunch of powerful Washington politicians were given below market loans by Countrywide Financial. Among those receiving “special” loans that saved them thousands of dollars were former HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson and Senate Banking chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT). Rounding up the morning’s news for his readers, online left leader Matt Stoller summarized the Portfolio story and then blithely comments: “Go free market!” Go free market?!? This story has nothing to do with the free market and everything to do with the inevitable rent seeking behavior …
Jim Johnson, the man recently chosen by Sen. Barack Obama to search for a VP candidate, is under fire for receiving millions of dollars in below-market loans from Countrywide Financial Corp. chief executive Angelo Mozilo. Private entities like Countrywide are free to give generous loan agreements to whomever they want, so there is nothing technically illegal about what Johnson did. Just like there is nothing technically illegal about the $21 million that the government-sponsored entity Fannie Mae paid Johnson for his work as CEO of Fannie in 1998. However, the …
