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$700 billion bailout bill fails in House.

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    Posted: September 29 2008 at 11:18am
reaking News
$700 billion bailout bill fails in House. Dow down by nearly 600 points.Get Breaking News by e-mail
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Albert Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 29 2008 at 12:06pm
I don't know how they can ever pass a bill like this either way.   Apparently part of the bill is about how the government is not going to foreclose on their loans, so people would be able to keep their houses even if they don't pay.   That is not too fair to the people who don't have Federal loans and who have to make their mtg payment on time. Even if they lower interest rates on all of their loans to decrease the monthly payment for the home owners, that is still not too fair for anyone who has a regular loan payment to make.  This is still a Bailout for the CEOs and for the home owners who cheated the system and who put themselves in this spot.
 
What the government needs to do is to create a bill that makes available emergency "loan" packages to Wall Street, and let the CEO's "borrow" the money for their Bailout and to stay afloat.  Why buy the receivables when we can just loan them the money instead?  Keep the government out, and then the economy can fix itself.  If the problem with the economy is about the huge credit decrease in lending money, then the government should start giving "loans" itself.   How tough can this be?
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Evergreen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 29 2008 at 12:33pm
Yippee. For once I agree with the R's. I spent the whole weekend watching House session on CSPAN to hear the debates and press conferences. (beats the heck out of listening to a newscaster putting their own spin on what i'm hearing) Anyway, this issue should not be done over a weekend, in the dead of night with NO access to "JoE public" about what the discussions are. As a matter of fact, to even further prevent "leaks", Blackberries were collected from staff, so (God forbid) we might actually know what is being said and by whom. This issue should be totally transparent and take time to deliberate the enormity of the proposal. With over 80% of Americans weighing in AGAINST this action, what kind of audacity does it take for the House to proceed. Executive compensation is still on the table. D
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NOTE: SEE PARAGRAPH 9 ABOUT EXECUTIVE GOLDEN PARASHUTES. D

FACTBOX: Key elements of Congress' bailout plan
Mon Sep 29, 2008 2:33pm EDT

(Reuters) - Leaders in the Congress have agreed to the underpinnings of a deal that will allow the Treasury Department to buy up to $700 billion in troubled securities to soothe global credit markets.

Congressional negotiators amended the Treasury Department's original proposal to add new oversight powers and conditions that would protect taxpayers.

The full House of Representatives and Senate must both approve the legislation, with a vote expected in the House on Monday. Key elements of the plan follow:

- The $700 billion in buying power would be doled out by Congress in stages. After the first $250 billion is authorized, the President could request another $100 billion. The final $350 billion could be cleared by a further act of Congress.

- Eligible assets include residential or commercial mortgages and related instruments which were originated or issued on or before March 14, 2008. Other financial instruments can be included in consultation with the Federal Reserve if Congress is notified.

- Treasury secretary given broad discretion to determine the methods for buying assets.

- Foreign central banks, or institutions owned by a foreign government, cannot take part.

- The government will take a stake in companies that tap federal aid so that taxpayers can share in the profits if those companies get back on their feet. An exception applies to financial firms that offload less than $100 million of soured investments.

- If a company receives aid but fails, the government will be one of the last investors to see a loss.

- A new congressional panel would have oversight power and the Treasury secretary would report regularly to lawmakers in two elements of a multi-level oversight apparatus.

- If the Treasury takes a stake in a company, the top five executives would be subject to limits on their compensation.

- Executives hired after a financial company offloads more than $300 million in assets via auction to the government will not be eligible for "golden parachutes."

- Would permit the Federal Reserve to begin paying interest on bank reserves from October 1, giving it another tool for easing credit strains.

- Mandates a study on the impact of mark-to-market accounting standards, that critics blame for a downward spiral in the valuation of assets on corporate balance sheets.

- The federal government may stall foreclosure proceedings on home loans purchased under the plan.

- Alongside the plan to buy securities outright, the Treasury Department will conceive an alternative insurance program that would underwrite troubled loans and would be paid for by participating companies.

- If the government has taken losses five years into the program, the Treasury Department will draft a plan to tax the companies that took part to recoup taxpayer losses.

(Reporting by Patrick Rucker; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)


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Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Albert Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 30 2008 at 7:19am
People know that President Bush has a history of taking care of the wealthy.  Now that he wants to rush through another 700 billion for Wall Street exec's, no wonder congress is torn on the issue.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote quietprepr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 30 2008 at 7:23am
The market drop scared them though...I hope that doesnt make them push it through today.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Albert Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 01 2008 at 8:06pm
I'm not sure I'm buying into the whole Bailout idea, and there could be a lot of backlash from it when it goes through.   The reason why the Senate wants to Bailout Wall Street with so much urgency is because ALL of them were probably playing the market (and heavily vested in it) and they're tired of losing. I'm sure many members of the Senate have lost a lot of money by "gambling" on the DOW, which is most likely the real reason why they want it fixed.  I'm not sure I even buy into  Bush's big "Credit Freeze" scare as well.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote LaRo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 01 2008 at 9:06pm
I don't believe any of it.  This is a nightmare, such a waste of money and , watch it, it'll all be gone in a week.  then no one will know what happened and they need more.
r we there yet?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MelodyAtHome Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 01 2008 at 10:38pm
LaRo that is what I'm afraid of...this will pass and we still are in trouble and they will want MORE $$$....then what?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ParanoidMom Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2008 at 4:58am
I can't remember where I read it, but the writer believed that even if this bill passes it will only buy 4-6 weeks before it starts all over.  I can believe it too.  Six weeks ago Fanny Mae was doing just fine as far as anyone knew.  If you look over how fast all of this is happening it makes you wonder what isn't being published until the bill passes.  I think it's a huge waste of money for a very small amount of gain.  And the only ones gaining anything are the ones that caused the problem in the first place. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote coyote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2008 at 5:12am
So the $700 billion measure is shot down by the House last Friday,
but an even more expensive ($800 billion) will pass the House this
Friday? I wonder how many weeks it will take to get the money
into the hands of the institutions that need it? By then, this
bill may be too little too late.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Albert Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2008 at 6:41am
This whole thing is rather sickening.  Did you know that Paulson used to be the CEO of Goldman Sachs, which is the primary Beneficiary of the 700 Billion?  
 
 
Bailing out the DOW is like the rich Bailing out their favorite casino.  Like I said , the DOW is nothing but a gambling hall.  Fixing the DOW will do nothing to help anyone. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote coyote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2008 at 6:51am
Exactly! What a mess.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote LaRo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2008 at 7:59am
This money will never reach the credit markets that need it.  It will all be absorbed by wall street.  Look for Bailout #2, coming to a congress near you.
r we there yet?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Albert Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2008 at 8:57am
Bailing out these failing sub prime mtg lenders is a mistake altogether.  These mtg companies are in financial trouble because ater they foreclose on a property, if they don't get at least 70% to 80% of the value during the auction, then the banks are choosing not to sell the properties at all.  This is clogging the system because the banks are keeping the housing market over-inflated and are not budging on their prices. Comes down to more bad business decisions if you ask me.    The mtg lenders, don't need a bailout, they either need to become more flexible on the selling of their foreclosures (to get their cash flow moving), or they need to fold-up because they are just plain too greedy. 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DANNYKELLEY Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2008 at 4:00pm
AGREED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT TO DO????
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Albert Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2008 at 5:07pm
What I personally don't like is that if "The People" are against this Bailout, and if the Bill passes anyway, that would mean that the Senate & House are acting on their own independently and they would be no longer truly representing their respective states.  
This Bill could  be a big blow to people's trust in the government.  
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chloess Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 03 2008 at 1:57pm
Well, We The People apparently no longer have representationThumbs%20Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 03 2008 at 8:24pm
nothing but a gambling hall.
.................................................

right on...
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from Chloess -View%20Drop%20Down

Well, We The People apparently no longer have representationThumbs%20Down
.........................................................................................................



Ms Warren on the Harvard panel understands the plight of the middle class....she said... it was like beating up someone who is already sick....

to foreclose on people who are getting a lousy second mortgage to get some cash out on the equity in their home just to pay bills...medical or help kids with college or put on another room for an elderly parent.

The Greenspans of the world have no clue.  Let the regulations be damned...
I'm on my way to being a Hedge Fund Adviser.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Albert Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 03 2008 at 10:19pm
It's hard to believe that over the course of the last 90 days, the government has almost nationalized the insurance industry as well as the mortgage industry.  
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Evergreen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2008 at 11:05am
I saw this and posted it in discussion thread. This is the text. D

A Look At Wall Street's Shadow Market

Oct. 5, 2008
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBS) On Friday Congress finally passed - and President Bush signed into law - a financial rescue package in which the taxpayers will buy up Wall Street's bad investments.

The numbers are staggering, but they don't begin to explain the greed and incompetence that created this mess.

It began with a terrible bet that was magnified by reckless borrowing, complex securities, and a vast, unregulated shadow market worth nearly $60 trillion that hid the risks until it was too late to do anything about them.

And as correspondent Steve Kroft reports, it's far from being over.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

It started out 16 months ago as a mortgage crisis, and then slowly evolved into a credit crisis. Now it's something entirely different and much more serious.

What kind of crisis it is today?

"This is a full-blown financial storm and one that comes around perhaps once every 50 or 100 years. This is the real thing," says Jim Grant, the editor of "Grant's Interest Rate Observer."

Grant is one of the country’s foremost experts on credit markets. He says it didn't have to happen, that this disaster was created entirely by Wall Street itself, during a time of relative prosperity. And they did it by placing a trillion dollar bet, with mostly borrowed money, that the riskiest mortgages in the country could be turned into gold-plated investments.

"If you look at how this started with the subprime crisis, it doesn't seem to be a good bet to put your money behind the idea that people with the lowest income and the poorest credit ratings are gonna be able to pay off their mortgages," Kroft points out.

"The idea that you could lend money to someone who couldn't pay it back is not an inherently attractive idea to the layman, right. However, it seemed to fly with people who were making $10 million a year," Grant says.

With its clients clamoring for safe investments with above average return, the big Wall Street investment houses bought up millions of the least dependable mortgages, chopped them up into tiny bits and pieces, and repackaged them as exotic investment securities that hardly anyone could understand.

60 Minutes looked at one of the selling documents of such a security with Frank Partnoy, a former derivatives broker and corporate securities attorney, who now teaches law at the University of San Diego.

"It's hundreds and hundreds of pages of very small print, a lot of detail here," Partnoy explains.

Asked if he thinks anyone ever reads all this fine-print, Partnoy says, "I doubt many people read it."

These complex financial instruments were actually designed by mathematicians and physicists, who used algorithms and computer models to reconstitute the unreliable loans in a way that was supposed to eliminate most of the risk.

"Obviously they turned out to be wrong," Partnoy says.

Asked why, he says, "Because you can't model human behavior with math."

"How much of this catastrophe had to do with the instruments that Wall Street created and chose to buy…and sell?" Kroft asks Jim Grant.

"The instruments themselves are at the heart of this mess," Grant says. "They are complex, in effect, mortgage science projects devised by these Nobel-tracked physicists who came to work on Wall Street for the very purpose of creating complex instruments with all manner of detailed protocols, and who gets paid when and how much. And the complexity of the structures is at the very center of the crisis of credit today."

"People don't know what they're made up of, how they're gonna behave," Kroft remarks.

"Right," Grant replies.

But it didn't stop ratings agencies, like Standard & Poor's and Moody's, from certifying the dodgy securities investment grade, and it didn't stop Wall Street from making billions of dollars selling them to banks, pension funds, and other institutional investors all over the world. But that was just the beginning of the crisis.

What most people outside of Wall Street and Washington don't know is that a lot of people who bought these risky mortgage securities also went out and bought even more arcane investments that Wall Street was peddling called "credit default swaps." And they have turned out to be a much bigger problem.

They are private and largely undisclosed contracts that mortgage investors entered into to protect themselves against losses if the investments went bad. And they are part of a huge unregulated market that has already helped bring down three of the largest firms on Wall Street, and still threaten the ones that are left.

Before your eyes glaze over, Michael Greenberger, a law professor at the University of Maryland and a former director of trading and markets for the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, says they are much simpler than they sound. "A credit default swap is a contract between two people, one of whom is giving insurance to the other that he will be paid in the event that a financial institution, or a financial instrument, fails," he explains.

"It is an insurance contract, but they've been very careful not to call it that because if it were insurance, it would be regulated. So they use a magic substitute word called a 'swap,' which by virtue of federal law is deregulated," Greenberger adds.

"So anybody who was nervous about buying these mortgage-backed securities, these CDOs, they would be sold a credit default swap as sort of an insurance policy?" Kroft asks.

"A credit default swap was available to them, marketed to them as a risk-saving device for buying a risky financial instrument," Greenberger says.

But he says there was a big problem. "The problem was that if it were insurance, or called what it really is, the person who sold the policy would have to have capital reserves to be able to pay in the case the insurance was called upon or triggered. But because it was a swap, and not insurance, there was no requirement that adequate capital reserves be put to the side."

"Now, who was selling these credit default swaps?" Kroft asks.

"Bear Sterns was selling them, Lehman Brothers was selling them, AIG was selling them. You know, the names we hear that are in trouble, Citigroup was selling them," Greenberger says.

"These investment banks were not only selling the securities that turned out to be terrible investments, they were selling insurance on them?" Kroft asks.

"Well, it made it easier to sell the terrible investments if you could convince the buyer that not only were they gonna get the investment, but insurance," Greenberger explains.

But when homeowners began defaulting on their mortgages, and Wall Street's high-risk mortgage backed securities also began to fail, the big investment houses and insurance companies who sold the credit default swaps hadn't set aside the money they needed to pay off their obligations.

Bear Stearns was the first to go under, selling itself to J.P. Morgan for pennies on the dollar. Then, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. And when AIG, the nation's largest insurer, couldn't cover its bad debts, the government stepped in with an $85 billion rescue.

Asked what role the credit default swaps play in this financial disaster, Frank Partnoy tells Kroft, "They were the centerpiece, really. That's why the banks lost all the money. They lost all the money based on those side bets, based on the mortgages."

How big is the market for credit default swaps?

Says Partnoy, "Well, we really don't know. There's this voluntary survey that claims that the market is in the range of 50 to 60 or so trillion dollars. It's sort of alarming that, in a market that big, we don't even know how big it is to within, say, $10 trillion."

"Sixty trillion dollars. I know it seems incredible. It's four times the size of the U.S. debt. But that's the size of the market according to these voluntary reports," says Partnoy.

He says this market is almost entirely unregulated.

The result is a huge shadow market that may control our financial destiny, and yet the details of these private insurance contracts are hidden from the public, from stockholders and federal regulators. No one knows what they cover, who owns them, and whether or not they have the money to pay them off.

One of the few sources of information is the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), a trade organization made up the largest financial institutions in the world. Many of them are the very same companies that created the vast shadow market, lobbied to keep it unregulated, and are now drowning because of unanticipated risks.

ISDA's CEO, Robert Pickel, says there is nothing wrong with credit default swaps, and that the problem was with underlying mortgage securities.

"Well, there's clearly something wrong with the system if all of these leveraged bets, hidden leveraged bets, caused a collapse in the financial system," Kroft remarks.

"It is something that we all need to look at and learn lessons from. And we all need to work together to understand that and design a structure in the future that works more effectively," Pickel says.

"My point is, the people that made these mistakes are the people you represent in your organization. And many of them sit on the board. I mean, if they didn't get it right, who would?" Kroft asks.

"These people understand the nature of these products. They understand the risks," Pickel replies.

"Well…they didn't or they wouldn't have bought them. They wouldn't have used them," Kroft says.

"These are very useful transactions. And the people do understand the nature of the risk that they're entering into…but I'm not sure that…," Pickel says.

"Useful?" Kroft interrupts. "How come they brought down the financial system?"

"Because, perhaps they didn't understand the underlying risk, and nobody really saw the effects that were going to flow through from the subprime lending situation," Pickel says.

That chapter is not over, and there is much suspense and fear on Wall Street that there are other big losses out there that have yet to be disclosed

They already dwarf what has been lost on those original risky mortgages. As bad as the mortgage crisis has been, 94 percent of all Americans are still paying off their loans. The problem is Wall Street placed its huge bets and side bets with all of those fancy securities on the 6 percent who are not.

"We wouldn't be in any of this trouble right now if we had just had underlying investments in mortgages. We wouldn't be in any trouble right now," says Partnoy.

He says it’s the side bets.

"You got Wall Street firms, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers. You got insurance companies like AIG. Merrill lost a ton of money on this," Kroft says. "Everybody's lost a ton of money. They're supposed to be the smartest investors in the world. And they did it themselves."

"They did it all on their own," Partnoy agrees. "That's the most incredible thing about this crisis is that they pushed the button themselves. They blew themselves up."

Asked how much of this was incompetence on the part of Wall Street and the people who ran it, Jim Grant tells Kroft, "The truth is that on Wall Street, a lot of people just weren't very good at their jobs. It's as simple as that."

"These people were being paid $50 to $100 million a year. Some of them, the guys that were running the places," Kroft remarks.

"There is no defending," Grant replies. "A trainee making 45,000 a year would have had the common sense not to bet the firm on mortgage contraptions that no one in the firm actually understood. That is not a deep point to comprehend. Somehow, through, I will call it a criminal neglect and incompetence, the people at the top of these firms chose to look away, to take more risk, to enrich themselves and to put the shareholders and, indeed, the country, itself, ultimately, the country's economy at risk. And it is truly not only a shame, it's a crime."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

60 Minutes requested interviews with top executives at Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch , Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and AIG. They all declined.


Produced by L. Franklin Devine
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2008 at 6:19pm
Reality is it wasn't a $700 billion bailout - it was $750 + 150 billion of pork and a hidden hundred or so making the actual bailout almost a trillion dollars. The Fmay was another trillion and they will need an addition trillion in a year. The cleanup actually will cost from 4-5 trillion dollars.

Printing money will hyperdrive inflation and the items porked on the legislation should really result in  a simple a bill should basically contain the subject and funding that the bill is written for. Not arrows for Indians (with all due respect since I am 25% Cherokee) - the original citizens of the this continent - native Americans.

Was talking to a loan broker today and we weren't hit as badly in West Virginia.

Be assured the average person is going to feel this absolute mismanagement of the economy and the fleeing CEOs with their golden parachuttes.

First they leak a scare tactic that the whole economy will die if we didn't pass it.

Actually if they let the companies responsible clean up their own mess and have to clean it up, they would be more careful in the future not to loan money and have the governments financial finger in a quasi-socialist emerging country.

Have they managed to avoid the bullet of non-election because of voting for a ten to one unpopular bill. Probably.

2009 is not going to be a fun year. Look for a lot of serious foreign activity right after the election.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Albert Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 07 2008 at 4:42pm

After Bailout, AIG Executives Head to Resort

UPDATED: 11:31 a.m.

Washington Post

Less than a week after the federal government offered an $85 billion bailout to insurance giant AIG, the company held a week-long retreat for its executives at the luxury St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., running up a tab of $440,000, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said today at the the opening of a House committee hearing about the near-failure of the insurance giant.

Showing a photograph of the resort, Waxman said the executives spent $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 for the spa.

"Less than a week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation," Waxman said. "We will ask whether any of this makes sense. "

The committee will ask the company's executives about their multimillion-dollar pay packages -- some of which they continue to receive -- as well as who bears responsibility for the company's high-risk investment portfolio, which led to its near collapse just weeks ago.

"They were getting their manicures, their pedicures, massages, their facials while the American people were paying their bills," thundered Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), of the executive retreat at the Monarch Resort.

The House committee, which took on executive compensation at bankrupt Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers yesterday, has received "tens of thousands" of pages of documents from AIG, Waxman said.

Those documents show that as the company's risky investments began to implode, the company altered its generous executive pay plan to pay out regardless of such losses.
AIG lost over $5 billion in the last quarter of 2007 due its risky financial products division, Waxman said. Yet in March 2008, when the company's compensation committee met to award bonuses, Chief Executive Martin Sullivan urged the committee to ignore those losses, which should have slashed bonuses.

But the board agreed to ignore the losses from the financial products division and gave Sullivan a cash bonus of over $5 million. The board also approved a new compensation contract for Sullivan that gave him a golden parachute of $15 million, Waxman said.

Joseph Cassano, the executive in charge of the company's troubled financial products division, received more than $280 million over the last eight years, Waxman said. Even after he was terminated in February as his investments turned sour, the company allowed him to keep up to $34 million in unvested bonuses and put him on a $1 million-a-month retainer. He continues to receive $1 million a month, Waxman said.

Waxman also looked skeptically at the executives' defense that the troubles in the business had to do with larger economic forces and not their own bad decisions.
When a former AIG auditor, Joseph St. Denis, expressed concerns, Cassano told him "I have deliberately excluded you from the valuation ... because I was concerned that you would pollute the process," according to Waxman.

St. Denis resigned in protest.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, AIG's auditor, told the company in March 2008 that the "root cause" of AIG's problems was that people assessing risk did not have enough access to the financial products division, where the risky investments originated.
Waxman further suggested that Sullivan had deliberately misled investors.

On Dec. 5, 2007, Sullivan expressed confidence to investors. But a week before, PricewaterhouseCoopers warned Sullivan that the company "could have a material weakness relating to these area," committee members said.


-- Peter Whoriskey

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 07 2008 at 4:46pm
I put on my fuzzy slippers...I'm taking my hot cider in to watch , Over The Hedge, I need a laugh after reading that.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 07 2008 at 4:53pm

Just to give you an idea of the Posh we paid for...



"They were getting their manicures, their pedicures, massages, their facials while the American people were paying their bills," thundered Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), of the executive retreat at the Monarch Resort.

St. Regis Monarch Bay Resort



source
http://heatherbullard.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/13/str1.jpg
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 07 2008 at 5:16pm

US Federal Reserve announces $85 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG

By Bill Van Auken
17 September 2008

excerpt-    

Following emergency consultations between the Federal Reserve, the US Treasury and the Democratic leaders of both houses of Congress, the Federal Reserve on Tuesday night announced a bailout of the Wall Street insurance giant American International Group (AIG).

According to reports posted by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, under the emergency plan the Fed will provide the failing firm with an $85 billion loan in exchange for 80 percent of its assets.

The reported bailout is a reversal of the policy adopted by the federal government just last weekend, when it failed to intervene to stop the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the country’s fourth largest investment bank. According to the Journal, government officials believed “it would be ‘catastrophic’ to allow AIG to fail.”

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the newspaper said, “concluded that federal assistance would be necessary to avert an AIG bankruptcy, which they feared would have disastrous repercussions throughout the financial markets.”



please read article here-

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/sep2008/econ-s17.shtml
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