In May, Congress will begin debate on our nation’s debt limit. The debt limit is an alarm bell built into our nation’s laws, which forces members of Congress to confront out-of-control spending when our debt reaches a certain level. Five times in the last four years, we have ignored this alarm bell. This time must be different. It would irresponsible and reckless for them to even consider raising the limit without also enacting spending cuts and reform. The nation’s credit worthiness is directly tied to our fiscal stewardship, not our …
It’s official: U.S. taxpayers did not get a good deal when they bailed out AIG last year. That was the conclusion of a report released yesterday by Neil Barofsky, the federal government’s special inspector general for TARP. The conclusion is no surprise: no one holds up the $170 billion bailout of the insurance giant as an example of government at its best. But, the Inspector General’s report puts new teeth on the charge, and pins much of the blame on Timothy Geithner, then president of the New York Fed. The …
One year and a week after Congress enacted legislation creating the $700 billion “Troubled Asset Relief Program,” the Treasury Department next week is expected to launch its first initiative to buy, well, troubled assets. Odd as it may be, in the year since its creation TARP has been used for just about everything but the original purpose of buying troubled, or “toxic,” mortgages and other securities from financial institutions. Now comes word that a long-planned Treasury program to acquire assets will be ready to begin. That’s bad news. Not only …
In his statement yesterday announcing that 10 banks would be repaying $68 billion in TARP bailout funds, President Obama proudly asserted that the step would reduce the national debt: “And as this money is returned, we’ll see our national debt lessened by $68 billion — billions of dollars that this generation will not have to borrow and future generations will not have to repay.” But apparently, he didn’t check with his treasury secretary first. In an op-ed in the New York Times last month, Timothy Geithner said that the returned …
In the weeks leading up to last week’s release of “stress test” results, there was quite a bit of talk about more bailout money for troubled banks — how much they would need, and how much Washington would force them to take. (Yes, force.) How things have changed. Not only did almost half of the examined banks get a clean bill of health coming out of the tests, but most others came within striking distance of officially-determined stability. Since then, there has been a virtual prison break by TARP-indebted banks …
The Obama Administration tried to portray the plan as no big deal, akin to simply filling in a loophole. The idea was to provide the FDIC with authority to seize failing “non–banK” financial institutions such as holding companies, insurance firms and hedge funds, similar to the powers they already have to take over failing banks. Such power, it argued, is necessary to avoid disruptive failures of huge institutions, which could threaten the financial institution as a whole. In particular, the Administration pointed to the AIG debacle, saying that the proposed …
This Saturday a bus filled with about 40 people pulled into a cul-de-sac in Fairfield County, Connecticut where a pastor and a steelworker disembarked and made their way to the front door of one of the large homes in the neighborhood. The protestors did not make it to the door however, as they were met by a security guard working to protect the home’s owner: AIG executive Doug Poling. The identities of most current and former AIG employees remain private, for now, but for those executives whose names are known, …
