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By Ellen E. Schultz
By Moshe Adler
$16.47
$23
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Pat Bagley, Cagle Cartoons, Salt Lake Tribune —
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Adam Zyglis, Cagle Cartoons, The Buffalo News —
Posted on Oct 8, 2010
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By Joe Conason — The disaffection and demoralization of Democrats have created a dangerous political vacuum that is being filled with misleading data, urban legends and outright lies.
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Flickr / Philippe Put (CC-BY-ND)
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You know how financial institutions have a way of wielding fine print like a weapon? Well it turns out that when it comes to foreclosures, many of the nation’s lenders are either willfully ignoring procedure or are woefully incompetent at paperwork. Take your pick.
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This week on “Left, Right & Center,” the gang chats about the shakeup in Obama’s economic team, the GOP’s alleged new ideas, the Democrats’ spine on taxes, and the ever important but little-discussed issue of schools. Tune in to find out more.
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cop.senate.gov
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Opinions are divided over the news that Elizabeth Warren, progressives’ pick to head the new consumer protection agency, will be appointed to get said agency off the ground but (in all likelihood) not be its first director.
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Flickr / John Lewis (CC-BY)
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JPMorgan Chase is America’s second biggest bank, further fattened from gobbling up the carcasses of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, so it stands to reason that millions of Americans have been inconvenienced by the inexplicable meltdown of the company’s website.
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You know you have it made when a $550 million settlement with the SEC boosts your stock by $3 billion. Goldman Sachs’ penalty for selling a fancy investment it secretly bet against was about half what was expected, amounting to just 14 days of earnings. You might say they got away with it.
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Photo illustration
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Scott Brown of Massachusetts has decided to support the anemic financial reform bill because, as The Washington Post reports, “he got nearly everything he wanted.” The bill is now expected to pass with the support of at least two other Republicans, including Maine’s Olympia Snowe.
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Flickr / chatswoodfp
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While the rest of us patiently await the signs of economic recovery, corporate America has apparently skipped to the front of the line: Major companies are expecting to announce some of their highest profits in years.
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Photo illustration from White House photo by Pete Souza
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A devastating report in The New York Times documents how Timothy Geithner’s New York Fed worked tirelessly to make sure that AIG was forced to pay banks such as Goldman Sachs 100 percent on dubious contracts that might otherwise have been slashed or subjected to lawsuits. (continued)
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AP / Richard Drew
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Bank stocks had a surprisingly good day Friday, outperforming the rest of the market after it became clear that financial reform legislation hammered out in Congress would not meddle with precious bank profits.
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AP / Richard Drew
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After a marathon final negotiating session, Congress has cobbled together a historic overhaul of financial regulations for Wall Street. The bill is expected to win final approval next week and land on President Obama’s desk.
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Flickr / soathevy
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The beleaguered banking industry suffered yet another blow Thursday evening after the Senate voted to impose price controls on debit transactions, a move that follows years of begging by retailers for governmental limits on the high charges demanded by banks every time a consumer swipes a debit card. The amendment is in a bill that still must win Senate approval.
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By Joe Conason — Discredited as the financial powers are, their wealth alone continues to provide them with wildly disproportionate influence over the political process.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — For the first time in Obama’s presidency, Republicans are uncertain as to whether resolute opposition to a Democratic idea is in their political interest.
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Flickr / The Photique
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A hacker using the alias “Neo” has attained almost cult status in Latvia after releasing through Twitter the confidential financial data of allegedly corrupt banks and state-owned companies that profited from the global recession.
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Rainer Hachfeld, Neues Deutschland, Germany —
Posted on Feb 26, 2010
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Wikimedia Commons / United States Federal Reserve
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The Federal Reserve announced Thursday it would increase the interest rate for temporary bank loans. The New York Times reports that many on Wall Street see this as signaling an end to big bank profits. But some economists say the move was purely technical, with no real effect on how much money is made.
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AP / Petros Giannakouris
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By Robert Scheer — “What is this Goldman Sachs and why has it caused us so much grief?” is a question they must be asking in even the most remote of Greek villages, as they are throughout much of this economically troubled world.
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By Robert Reich — It has been more than a year since all hell broke loose on Wall Street, and even after the State of the Union, almost nothing has been done to prevent all hell from breaking loose again.
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WheresOurMoney.org’s Harvey Rosenfield on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearings chaired by Phil Angelides: “If symbolism is what this is all about, I say we’ve moved beyond the ‘apology’ stage. How about sending some of these people to jail for twenty years?”
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Flickr / respres
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By Paul Kiel, ProPublica —
The administration set a goal of helping up to 4 million homeowners through the $75 billion mortgage modification program, but banks appear to have created unnecessary hurdles that, in some instances, violate the loan program’s rules.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — If you held a contest to pick the worst thing a politician could be called at this moment, my nominee would be Wall Street Liberal—which is why President Obama’s new fees on the biggest banks comes just in time.
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Martin Berg from Where’s Our Money writes: “The bankers, beleaguered as they may like to appear, have little to fear if the questioning continues as it began. So far, this is no Pecora Commission, the Depression-era investigation into the cause of the financial crash that led to landmark reforms. ...”
Posted on Jan 13, 2010
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AP / Richard Drew
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By Chris Hedges — When the bailout trillions run out, Wall Street’s maladjusted gamblers will come back for more until our currency becomes junk. Not that any of these people, who exhibit the same traits as psychopaths, have thought this through.
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The total price tag for each American for the financial bailout is about $10,000. Could be worse: Brits are paying more than $47,000 apiece. The unemployed bear the brunt of the meltdown, but we all carry a debt for saving Citi, AIG and the rest.
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Flickr / saebaryo
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McClatchy reporters have been digging into the shady offshore dealings of Goldman Sachs and what they found in the records of the financial-meltdown villain is as maddening as you’d expect. (continued)
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The filmmaker who gave us “Why We Fight” has crafted this powerful call to action out of scenes from “It’s a Wonderful Life” and documentary footage.
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Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi walks through Barack Obama’s banking sellout, beginning with the president’s transition team. According to Taibbi, Obama’s transformation from populist to Wall Street’s best friend started on day one.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By Stanley Kutler — We have a “regulation czar,” but no new regulations. It seems we can expect little from those with a track record of enabling bad policies.
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By William Pfaff — It seems plausible that payback time has arrived for the international financial community. The principal obstacle here is, at the moment, the Obama administration.
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Wall Street profits are an obscene affront to Scripture, as Robert Scheer details in an interview with Amy Goodman on “Democracy Now!”
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Flickr / eflon
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Those financial institutions that viewed last year’s bailout as an object lesson that they can carry on as they wish so long as they’re “too big to fail” may have to adopt another approach. At least, that was the message Monday from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, if he makes good on words of warning to big banks.
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stltoday.com
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Thank the regulatory heavens. The Federal Reserve is moving to prohibit banks from charging overdraft fees on ATM and debit card transactions unless the customer has opted into a program agreeing to pay the extra charges. Banks raked in $37 billion in fees last year, largely through unexplained programs and extraordinarily high levies.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By David Sirota — The former financial executives inside the Obama administration have labeled their bill the “Financial Stability Improvement Act,” but it’s more like the 9/11 of bailouts.
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White House / Pete Souza
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That Timothy Geithner must love the big banks he spends all day talking to. Back when he was in charge of things, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York forced AIG to pay off Wall Street tycoons for all those toxic bets, even though the mega-insurer was busy trying to negotiate a better deal.
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about.com
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The government-run TARP program is preparing to shift its focus from large banks—such as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America—to smaller banks, noting that small businesses are still struggling to get access to credit.
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By Eugene Robinson — Slashing bonuses at bailed-out companies is like arresting jaywalkers while ignoring the bank robbery that’s happening in broad daylight down the block.
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blogspot.com
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In a move to quell public outrage, President Obama has ordered the government’s “pay czar” to cut by 90 percent the multimillion-dollar salaries that executives of seven bank and auto companies are receiving, citing the fact that these firms are entirely dependent on U.S. taxpayer money for financial survival.
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By David Sirota — Zombies have made a pop culture comeback. It might have something to do with all the undead banks and the bankers whose careers live on after the economic apocalypse they caused.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By Joe Conason — If the president and Congress don’t come to the aid of workers, the political consequences will be severe, and deservedly so.
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By Eugene Robinson — I’m as pleased as anyone else to see a rising Dow, but somebody needs to slap the incipient grin off Wall Street’s face.
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Flickr / respres
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John Dunbar of the Center for Public Integrity has analyzed the Obama administration’s home loan modification program, which aims to keep troubled borrowers in their homes, and finds it “highly problematic.”
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Flickr / respres
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John Dunbar of the Center for Public Integrity has analyzed the Obama administration’s home loan modification program, which aims to keep troubled borrowers in their homes, and finds it “highly problematic.”
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By Amy Goodman — It looked like it was business as usual for President Barack Obama on the first day of his vacation, as he spent five hours golfing with a top executive from UBS, a bank that sheltered wealthy tax dodgers while hardworking U.S. taxpayers were bailing it out.
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