Posts Tagged TARP
Obama Does Not Begrudge Wall Street Terrorists’ Robbing the National Treasury to make a Profit?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, economy, financial industry on February 10th, 2010
President Obama – you cannot be serious?!?
These Titans of Socialist Capitalism take the money we bailed them out with – including “rigging” the system with the help of Paulson and Geithner so that AIG’s TARP money was re-directed to them – go on to make an enormous profit by trading with that money (which was not the purpose of the bailouts), and you call them savvy businessmen?
Now almost a year ago to the day, you gave the following remarks at the White House:
“This is America. We don’t disparage wealth. We don’t begrudge anybody for achieving success. And we believe that success should be rewarded. But what gets people upset – and rightfully so – are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.”
So are they failures? Or savvy businessmen? Or both?
This author recently pondered your failure to immediately regulate and reign-in Wall Street after your election when they were still on the ropes. Here is the bottom line: They screwed up, then they screwed us, and then you screwed up?
Do you see the problem here, Mr. President. The cognitive dissonance regarding your words and deeds towards Wall Street is deeply disturbing to those who supported you in 2008, especially when you had the perfect combination of opportunity, power, and the political capital to reign in these financial terrorists right after you took an oath to protect the American people. You did nothing, and now it is too late. Was it intentional? Or are you being obtuse?
When political rhetoric collides with inaction, people become dismayed. Maybe the young voters who are stepping to the sidelines are correct?
Disillusionment is too mild a word for such a betrayal if it was just the “same old wine in a brand new bottle“, President Obama.
“Meet the new Boss . . . Same as the Old Boss . . .We Won’t Get Fooled Again!”
Shame on us for ever having the audacity to hope? I hope not.
OK, President Obama, “Where’s The Beef”?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Wall Street, economy on February 6th, 2010
You are making all of this noise about refocusing TARP (bailout) funds towards small business.
President Obama, this blog noted that you said the same thing 100 days ago . . . read it right here.
So Where’s The Beef?
Bank of America’s CEO Ken Lewis Will Play the “But We Made Lots of Money” Card in his Criminal Case?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Crime & Punishment, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, How and Why We Get Screwed, Legal & Justice, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, financial industry on February 5th, 2010
There is plenty of blame to go around in Washington and New York for the financial meltdown and subsequent bailout debacle. These Wall Street financial terrorists – Wizards of Mass Derivatives (WMD’s) – with the assistance of their Washington lackeys, Paulson, Geithner, Bernanke, et al., robbed the national treasury to pay the piper for their incompetence and then left us standing alone on the dance floor. And do not even go there about the fact that they “paid the money back” in their defense.
That dog won’t hunt!
Since our federal prosecutors would not grow some testicles and bring criminal indictments against any of these guys – with President Obama’s U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder leading the “Charge of the Lightweight Brigade” – New York AG Andrew Cuomo has demonstrated that he has big enough balls to make at least a couple of them pay for screwing us.
Ken Lewis, former CEO of Bank of America (BoA), was charged with committing fraud yesterday in a New York state court for his failure to divulge to BoA shareholders the extent of Merrill’s losses, as well as an undisclosed agreement to pay former Lynch executives massive bonuses, and that he intentionally misled the government by threatening to scuttle the deal in order to get another $20 billion in bailouts from the Treasury.
Sources from Lewis’ criminal defense team have indicated that they may subpoena Henry Paulson, former Bush Treasury Secretary, as well as Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the FederalReserve, to testify at Lewis’ trial in an attempt to persuade the jury that Lewis did not mislead the government about the severity of BoA’s financial condition subsequent to the banks merger with Merrill Lynch. They will further argue that the bank made money after the deal, and repaid all of the TARP money it received from the federal government, so the government and shareholders were not harmed – and in fact benefited from his actions (or inactions, as the case may be).
What is so unnerving is the audacity of Lewis to claim that “they made the company lot’s of money” as a defense. Worse yet, the Wall Street Journal comes to their defense, claming among other things that “TARP was a gilded straitjacket that every bank, including BofA, wanted to flee as quickly as possible”.
Really? Let’ review this twisted and misleading logic.
We made some really, really bad bets, and the financial system will collapse if you do not give us unprecedented bailouts to fix the system. Of course we understand that the government is giving us this money to restore the necessary liquidity - a continuous flow of money to keep the economy running – so that businesses can continue to borrow money, and keep people working. Now we are not going to making any promises to that effect, but we will do what we think is right for the financial system . Also, we accept that we have to purchase/merge with some of the other failed financial institutions as a condition of getting our asses saved. But we will not be obligated to deal honestly, nor follow financial regulations, in these business dealings, and if we see an opportunity to squeeze more money out of this mess, we will. Moreover, we will probably accept this unreasonable condition that you may limit our pay structure while we are under the obligation to pay the government back, but once we retire that debt to the government, you have to get off our ass and we can transact business however we like.
How dare them now have the arrogance to say they made money as a result of some uncanny business acumen. As I have stated previously in this blog – give me $15 or $20 Billion, I can make a Billion or so investing in some very conservative financial instruments over the course of a year, pay you back, give myself an obscene bonus – and then tell you to go FxxK youself!!
Moreover, REMEMBER THIS: they did NOT have to accept the money. Furthermore, they were supposed to lend the money, not hold it in reserve while waiting for the markets to turn North, and then invest it in order to make a quick killing so they could line their fat pockets, all the while leaving many Americans and businesses hung out to swing in the cold, harsh winds of their utter malfeasance. How utterly disingenuous of both Wall Street and the Wall Street Journal.
This author has previously commented several times about the criminal malfeasance of BoA in this blog – in this entry and in this entry - and questioned the refusal of federal prosecutors to bring charges in this matter. A Federal District Court Judge was appalled by BoA’s behavior, and was obviously disgusted that the U.S. government – specifically the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – was not doing more. If we have to wait for a New York Attorney General to act, this begs the question as to how deep in bed people at the top of this government are with Wall Street?
President Obama – you took money from Wall Street, and now you say you want them to be accountable? Prove it!
P.S. This same picture was used in a previous entry – it is the finest representative illustration of the BoA bailout I have seen on the Internet. Illustration by graphic artist David Dees of DeesIllustration.com
Obama Meeting With Fat Cat Bankers Elicits Call for Guaranteed Loans?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Credit Card Industry, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Lobbyists & Lobbying, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, financial industry on December 16th, 2009
So President Obama chides the bankers on CBS’s 60 Minutes Sunday night, referring to them as “fat cats”. On Monday morning he meets with them – at least the ones who showed up – to tell them they need to step-up their lending. What was their response?
Some of those in attendance said the government should “cut the red tape” in lending requirements for Small Business Administration (SBA) loans.
WTF?
We just gave these guys trillions of dollars interest-free in March of this year to lend back to Americans in order to prop up the economy. Then they hoard the money, investing it in everything from bonds (very conservative returns), to credit card holders (then turned around and raised interest rates to all-time highs), to high-risk derivatives – you know, those insane and arcane financial instruments that broke the casino the last go around. Thereafter, they paid themselves handsome bonuses for their genius (listen, give me a boatload of $$$ interest free and I can make a profit on it investing in high-grade bonds – the “spread” of 2% interest is a no-brainer; let’s see, 2% of $35 Billion – wow, nice freakin’ bonus, Lance; you are such a genius).
Now when pressed to lend the money, they have the audacity to suggest that the government-backed SBA loans are the way to go about fixing this mess. Let’s see. I will loan the money you just gave me interest free to small businesses. You guarantee 80% of the loan. I get the borrower to pledge his business as an asset to back up the remaining 20%, of course, making sure that the appraised fire-sale value of the “hard assets” – real estate, equipment, etc, far exceeds the other 20% of the total loan. Even if the deal goes South, the government pays me 80% of the money back (which they gave to me interest free, anyway), and I sell the business for 20 cents on the dollar and recover the other 20%.
What a deal! I take NO risk, and get all of the rewards. Isn’t Capitalism great?
Mr. President. Wake up!!! These guys are sandbagging us. Good will has left the building. The last remnants of Capitalism are gone, buried along side Adam Smith, who is rolling over in his grave as I speak.
P.S. For those not familiar with Adam Smith, he was the author of Wealth of Nations – the book written in 1776 where he first forwarded the economic theory of Capitalism.
Bank Of America’s Criminal Deception of U.S. Treasury on Bailout
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Capitalism, Congress, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Uncategorized, United States, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich on November 16th, 2009
Illustration from Deesillustration.com
The Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Congressman Edopholus Towns (D -Brooklyn, N.Y.) is leading the investigation into whether executives for Bank of America made misrepresentations based on false claims to the government in December 2008 regarding it’s agreed takeover of Merrill Lynch in order to receive significant taxpayer bailouts.
The committee has acquired thousands of documents that included handwritten notes from lawyers representing BoA in it’s takeover of Merrill Lynch that indicated the bank’s claim of a “Material Adverse Change” in circumstances regarding the takeover was unfounded. Nonetheless, it appears executives for the bank used this legal clause as a veiled threat to withdraw from the takeover in order to to persuade the U.S. Treasury and then Secretary Hank Paulson to give them more bailout money. If true, this would be tantamount to extortion – which is a criminal offense – let alone fraudulent misrepresentation.
BofA spokesman Larry Di Rita said that BoA’s actions “were based on our desire to make the best decision for our shareholders . . .”
This self-serving statement is utterly laughable in light of U.S. District Court Judge Jed A. Rakoff’s take on BoA’s behavior in the suit brought by the SEC against the bank. BoA screwed it’s shareholders by intentionally withholding information regarding the Merrill Lynch bonuses and then blaming their lawyers. Now we learn the high likelihood that these same executives ignored the advice of their lawyers and wilfully mislead the U.S. Treasury when they looked to the government for financial bailouts. Why BoA is allowed to perpetuate this ongoing charade defies logic and reason.
These men are financial terrorists!
When will they be made to answer for their crimes against the American people?
Do Wall Street Vampires Really Need H1N1 Vaccinations?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Campaign Finance Reform, Campaigns, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Health & Diet, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Tea Party, Uncategorized, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich on November 9th, 2009
It is a fair assumption that people without hearts and souls are immortal, and not subject to the vicissitudes of Mother Nature’s nasty flu viruses that she visits on us annually. So why does Wall Street get first crack at these vaccinations?
I guess women, children, and the elderly are dispensable in comparison. Now that is real evidence of rationing health care and Death Panels - - just not quite in the form that the Tea Baggers envisioned. And it only cost Wall Street $5 Billion in campaign contributions over the past decade to the Washington politicians in order to buy protection from their own malfeasance, and the random cruelty of Mother Nature.
As well as unjustifiably obscene bonuses, to wit.
What a bargain.
Small Business Finally Gets the Attention It Deserves
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Campaigns, Capitalism, Congress, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Lobbyists & Lobbying, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Uncategorized, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich on October 22nd, 2009
The sector of our economy that is treated like a step-child in comparison to Big Business is finally getting it’s just due. Small businesses in America generate over 65% of the jobs in an economy that has recently been hit with an unemployment rate of 10%. President Obama announced today that the bailout will be “refocused” on this segment of the U.S. economy.
One question Mr. President? What took you so long? Guess Tim Geithner and Larry Summers first had to take care of their old buddies at Goldman Sachs, et. al., just like Henry Paulson and Alan Greenspan did with the Bush Administration during the global economic collapse these greedy animals created. Meanwhile, the real heroes of the American economy who are still in business keep on shoveling coal down in the engine room, while those businesses that could not go on quietly close their doors in the vacuum of unavailable lending capital being horded by the rapacious bankers.
Makes one wonder how many of those unemployed people Goldman Sachs is going to hire after announcing this week its record-breaking $16 Billion employee compensation package for the first nine months of 2009? It is a safe bet that any money the Mammoth Financial Institutions are going to “put back into the economy” is going straight into the campaign coffers of the Democrats and Republicans who are currently sitting on the House and Senate sub-committees that will protect them from proposed regulatory legislation.
You can take that bet straight to the bank – just don’t deposit your winnings, because they will piss it all away.
Too bad we cannot “refocus” that money towards small businesses in America. The impact of even that ”modest” amount of capital directed towards a few thousand struggling small business would truly have a stimulative impact on our economy, and specifically abate the rising unemployment in this country.
But, remember.
“It’s all about Wall Street, Stupid.”
Greed is Good!
Posted by Lance Haley in Uncategorized on October 22nd, 2009
![Greed is Good [1]](http://screwedus.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Greed-is-Good-1-222x300.jpg "Greed is Good [1]")
Remember the mantra ”Greed is Good” ?
Thank you Brian Griffiths for resurrecting the ghost of Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas) from the movie Wallstreet.
Mr. Griffiths is an international advisor for Goldman Sachs (at least he is as of this moment – tomorrow is another story). He spoke at an economic conference held in London yesterday where the topic of discussion was . . . oh this is really good . . .
“What is the place of morality in the marketplace?”
From there, it gets even more surreal.
Mr. Griffiths defended this weeks report coming out of Goldman Sachs that record compensation packages of $16.7 billion were being paid out to the company’s employees for the first nine months of 2009, an increase of 46 percent from a year earlier. If you think that obscene information just made your blood pressure go through the proverbial ceiling, his comment justifying these compensation figures will absolutely cause you to ”blow a gasket”.
“We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”
Yes! That is how he rationalized this unconscionable decision from a financial institution that the U.S. taxpayer just bailed out.
But Mr. Griffiths is not done. He concedes that “[i]t was the failed moral compass of bankers which was primarily responsible for why we had this crisis. The question is: what can we do in the culture of institutions to make them behave in a more socially responsible way?”
Ahhhhhhh . . . Give them more money???? Yea, that’s the ticket! That should stop this ever-escalating climb into the stratosphere of economic insanity. Right?
But he ends on a very positive note, telling the audience that “To whom much is given much is expected,” he said. “There is a sense that if you make money you are expected to give.”
Yes. That’s what they will do. Engage in an ignoble and altruistic charitable act in order to wash away the sins of avarice, greed, and excess so that one can tolerate the inequality of his lifestyle compared to those less fortunate so as to inspire prosperity and opportunity in them, that they might become like him and do the same for others in a long cycle of never-ending prosperity and go on tolerating this inequitable way of living so that even more will prosper, all in the hopes that someday we will all be equally filthy rich and working ever harder each day to make more money to show the opportunities that await others who aspire to our level of greed and avarice.
I like it. I think I can handle the job. Let me check . . . no pulse, no heart, ice in my veins and in my glass of 20 year old scotch, no conscience, not a moral fiber in my body. Please hand me a cigar. When can I start?
PopuCon Teabaggers Give Whole New Meaning to Getting Teabagged
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Congress, Conservatives, Financial Crisis, Government, Healthcare Reform, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Tea Party, Uncategorized, Wall Street, taxes on October 21st, 2009
There is an interesting disconnect between what the current populist-conservative Tea Party movement pretends to represent, and certain historical facts that undermine their agenda. The idea for this nascent PopuCon (Populist-Conservative) phenomenon which first appeared in Spring of 2009 is modeled after the Boston Tea Party, which was a protest against a tax levied on tea imported from England’s East India Tea Company to the American colonies.
Just one problem . . .
There have been no new taxes levied on Americans since the very day that President Obama was inaugurated.
Moreover, according to the group’s newest YouTube video promoting their Tea Party Express II tour, they are also protesting bailouts, out-of-control spending, and government-run health care.
Hey Teabaggers, did you also know . . .
1) that the bailouts (TARP funds) were approved, and the first $375 Billion were dispersed by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, when George Bush was President and the Republicans controlled Congress?
2) that George Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress took power in January 2001, outgoing President Bill Clinton had left them with a balanced-budget – which they subsequently decimated in six years, running up over $500 Billion in deficit spending (not including the $750 Billion allocated and spent on the Iraq War – which is borrowed from the Chinese government)?
3) Medicare, a government-run health care program for the American elderly, has been in existence for approximately 45 years, and some of your members would have no health care if not for this United States government-run agency.
I am still having a difficult time finding any pictures of protests regarding these very important facts (at least, according to your agenda) back in October, 2008. Can anyone help me?
This cup of tea is rather tepid and awfully watered-down.
Mean-spirited to Take Away Bank of America CEO’s Salary?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Uncategorized, Wall Street on October 20th, 2009
![banker [umbrella]](http://screwedus.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/banker-umbrella-183x300.jpg "banker [umbrella]")
Do you know the definition of a banker? It is a person who will lend you an umbrella on a sunny day, and then ask for it back when the rain starts falling.
Ken Lewis is retiring as CEO of Bank of America after overseeing the rapid implosion of one of the largest financial institutions in the country.
As the global financial collapse was getting started last year, he decided to purchase both Country Wide Mortgage and Merrill Lynch so that he could really become a player in the global financial casino. When BoA teetered on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of “biting off more than it could chew”, the government bailed his bank out, while Lewis engineered the payout of huge financial bonuses for former Merrill Lynch employees behind every one’s back.
Later, when it was discovered that BoA had failed to disclose this fact in SEC filings, the SEC brought civil charges against the bank, wherein an agreement that was reached that would have resulted in the bank paying a record $33 Million fine – which meant shareholders, not the executives, would ultimately be the one’s who would suffer the consequences. The federal judge overseeing that matter angrily denied to sign off on the settlement, openly stating that was incensed over the fact that no one was taking responsibility and that the government had not brought criminal charges (the civil case is now set for trial in February 2010).
In the wake of all of this, BoA shareholders then demanded that Lewis voluntarily resign. Furthermore, as a result of this unprecedented business debacle, Kenneth Feinberg, the government pay czar overseeing executive compensation of financial institutions that received TARP (government bailout) funds, recommended that Lewis relinquish his 2009 salary and bonus. Rather than fight the issue, Lewis has agreed to take no compensation for 2009, and pay back the $1 million dollars in salary that he has already received for the year.
OK, so you are saying to yourself, “Finally, one of these guys will not get paid for screwing up!”
Well, not everyone is in agreement with you. Greg Donaldson, chairman of Donaldson Capital Management in Evansville, Ind., responded to the news of Lewis’ not being paid his salary for 2009, by saying, “[i]t’s punitive and it’s mean-spirited, and it’s an attitude that will send shivers through every person who does business with the government or is regulated by the government.”
After a comment like Mr. Donaldson’s, I just hope bankers never have the audacity to come asking for an umbrella from the U.S. taxpayers one more time. It will be a cold day in Hell when we ever quietly acquiesce to our government bailing them out again.