Obama to Banks: It’s Payback Time

Staff / Truthdig Dec 15, 2009 On Monday at the White House, President Barack Obama reminded a group of big banking honchos (or "fat cats," as he called them Sunday) about last year's bailout and advised them to get busy helping the taxpayers who helped with their recovery. Well, good luck with that one. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

No Year-End Bonuses for Goldman Sachs Execs

Staff / Truthdig Dec 11, 2009 Goldman Sachs has had a record year in terms of employee earnings -- The Wall Street Journal says Goldman's 31,000 worker bees brought in an average of more than $700,000 each in 2009 -- and that would be better news for the firm if it hadn't been on the receiving end of major federal funding from last year's bailout. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Geithner Gives TARP an Extension

Staff / Truthdig Dec 10, 2009 The Troubled Asset Relief Program, otherwise known as TARP, was scheduled to expire at the end of this year, but Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress on Wednesday that it'll stick around until October 2010, partly as a precautionary measure in case of economic emergency and partly to help struggling homeowners, banks and small businesses. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Put Your Money Where Your Jobs Aren’t

Staff / Truthdig Dec 4, 2009 The president is so desperate for ways to fight unemployment he issued a call Thursday for "fresh perspectives and new ideas." Well, Nancy Pelosi has some. The House speaker wants to spend some of that hot, hot TARP money on job creation. (continued) Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Bank of America Set to Repay TARP Debt

Staff / Truthdig Dec 3, 2009 Bank of America has been cleared by the U.S. government to repay the $45 billion in TARP funds it received last year at the height of the banking crisis, and BofA may be preparing to do so before 2009 comes to a close. That said, it's not a foregone conclusion that the transaction will take place this month, even though the company has some built-in motivation to quickly make good on its payback promise. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

‘Left, Right & Center’: The Geithner-Summers Backlash; Is Palin Dangerous?

Staff / Truthdig Nov 21, 2009 At long last, it seems that members of Congress, of left- and right-leaning persuasions alike, are harboring serious doubts about a couple of key players on President Barack Obama's economic task force. The right-leaning Tony Blankley thinks that this signals the cyclical, and helpful, breakdown of hyper-partisanship on Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, Robert Scheer thinks Sarah Palin is still scary. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

TARP on Steroids

David Sirota / Truthdig Oct 30, 2009 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.The former financial executives inside the Obama administration call it the "Financial Stability Improvement Act," but it's more like the 9/11 of bailouts. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

TARP Turns Its Attention to Small Banks

Staff / Truthdig Oct 23, 2009 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. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Obama Orders Salary Cuts

Staff / Truthdig Oct 22, 2009 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. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Zooming In on the Year’s Biggest Hoax

Robert Scheer / Truthdig Oct 21, 2009 Who are these people? I am not referring to the pathetic parents of “Balloon Boy,” whose fake drama I have been unable to escape while on the treadmill this week, thanks to my gym’s insistence on tuning its flat-screen TVs to Wolf Blitzer’s nonstop self-parody. Now if we could get one of the banking lobbyists to float a duct-taped flying saucer balloon, Wolf Blitzer might cover the real hoax. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Federal Deficit Hits Record $1.42 trillion

Staff / Truthdig Oct 17, 2009 If you thought last year's federal budget deficit was pretty big, you were right -- and it's three times as big now! Thanks to the magic of the recession, as well as the government's attempts to rescue various sectors of the economy (and throw money at others, or so it appeared), the deficit for the 12 months ending last month was a whopping $1.42 trillion. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Pox Americana: The Real Cost of Bailing Out Wall Street

Staff / Truthdig Oct 5, 2009 In the 20th century, smallpox killed more people than all of that bloody century's wars combined. It cost $300 million to eradicate the disease. What might have been achieved with the $4 trillion we gave Wall Street? Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )