Tag: Bailouts

Late Night Video — The Speechless Banker

Filed in International by on March 1, 2012 2 Comments

A few days ago, there was a press opportunity with ECB representatives, where Irish journalist Vincent Browne wanted to know specifically why the people of Ireland are being asked to live with the debt burden of a defunct bank. This is the kind of questioning many of us would like to see our own journalists perform when standing in front of folks who are taking crazy decisions on our behalf. These questions are fierce, fearless and utterly just. And the banker has nothing to say.

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Ungrateful

Filed in National by on June 9, 2011 4 Comments

They got an extraordinary bailout funded and guaranteed by the taxpayers of the United States of America — they still are — and yet Jamie Dimon of Citibank Chase is whining about regulations from Dodd-Frank:

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Americans Are More Like Obama Than Jim DeMint

Filed in National by on May 25, 2010 21 Comments

A new Pew Poll shows Americans prefer candidates who are willing to compromise (44% more likely, 22% less likely, 29% no difference) and who voted yes on health care reform (39% more likely, 35% less likely, 22% no difference). Americans also hate the bank bailouts, 49% are less likely to vote for candidates that supported bailouts with 14% more likely and 32% no difference.

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The Blame Obama Brigade

Filed in National by on December 14, 2009 116 Comments

This weekend seemed to be filled with lots of discussion all over the internet re: Matt Taibbi’s piece giving President Obama’s economic team a not undeserved beat down. I like Taibbi’s writing a lot and the fact that he doesn’t do conventional “objective” reporting doesn’t bother me (but the repetition of bad data does bother me, like the so-called “cost” of all of the bailouts being 23.7 trillion), but I still find it hugely remarkable that there are plenty of people on the left who are very comfortable blaming Obama for not being liberal or progressive enough – as if that is all it would take to get major legislation through Congress.

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GM and Chrysler Not Viable?

Filed in National by on March 30, 2009 14 Comments

McClatchy is reporting that President Obama will announce today that he will not approve additional bailout funds for either car company, saying that they have not yet gone far enough to ensure their long term viability. GM will get 60 days of operating capital to go back to the drawing board and Chrysler will get […]

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GM Prez to Step Down on Eve of Auto Bailout Plan

Filed in National by on March 29, 2009 4 Comments

The questions are already out there as to whether there was an understanding between the Obama Administration and GM that more bailout $$’s were contingent on Wagoner’s resignation: The move comes on the eve of President Obama unveiling his plan to reinvigorate the U.S. auto industry. Obama and other administration officials have said they would […]

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Bailout Companies Owe Federal Taxes

Filed in National by on March 19, 2009 3 Comments

This is choice: Some top recipients of U.S. bailout money owe the federal government more than $220 million in unpaid taxes, a U.S. lawmaker said on Thursday. Representative John Lewis, a Democrat who heads the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, said 13 bailed-out companies owe the federal government taxes. Two of […]

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Chris Dodd As Fall Guy?

Filed in National by on March 19, 2009 8 Comments

Over the weekend, the story began to bubble up that Chris Dodd may have neutered the Stimulus Bill language restricting the bonus payouts of firms getting bailout funds. I gather that this is the thing on cable news this week, though it wasn’t much on NPR this evening. I was pretty pissed at this when […]

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Preferred Stocks

Filed in National by on March 11, 2009 2 Comments
Preferred Stocks

(From The Atlanta Journal Constitution)

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Nationalized Citibank

Filed in National by on March 8, 2009 7 Comments

(Video NSFW people! Turn down your speakers or use earbuds.) The New F***ing Citibank – watch more funny videos Funny thing is that I had accounts with these people back in the day, and their operation wasn’t too different from this…..

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Geithner Gone by June?

Filed in National by on March 7, 2009 2 Comments

That is the prediction from Chris Whalen talking to The Street.com. So caution is advised. Whalen is a principal of this place and his newsletter has been full of bailout discussions. What interests me here are two things: 1) that resolving AIG and Lehman rids the system of CDS and 2) Lehman is the model […]

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The Stickup Note

Filed in National by on March 2, 2009 19 Comments

On Friday, NPR aired a longish segment (almost 8 minutes) of reporting on bank bailouts via a research note set out by a Deutsche Bank economist: A single piece of paper may just be one of the most surprising and illuminating documents of the whole banking crisis. It’s a one-page research note from an economist […]

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Bailout 2.0 Reactions

Filed in National by on February 11, 2009 1 Comment

Read them at your leisure: Paul Krugman isn’t sure what this says, but he’s working on some optimism. He also recycles a joke that I haven’t heard since the annual Deconstruction Wars at a bookgroup I was addicted to: What do you get when you cross a Godfather with a deconstructionist? Someone who makes you […]

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