seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Ukraine
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Russia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Russia
seen from Uruguay
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
Fiscal 2009, when the previous record in federal spending was set, began in October 2008 in the midst of the last recession. That fiscal year, President George W. Bush signed the Troubled Asset Relief Program into law to bailout insolvent banks and President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as a “stimulus” aimed at spurring the economy.
And hid it in the Caymans?
Over a decade ago, we started a database to track TARP, the 2008 bailout of the financial system. It turns out bailouts are forever, and we’re still updating the damn thing. So, recently, we decided to give it a makeover.
Our bailout database laid it all out as clearly as we could understand it. But it got harder. The Obama administration transformed the TARP into a mind-numbing array of acronyms, and we did our best to tell a PPIP from a AIFP (you don’t want to know). As the years went on and billions continued to flow back and forth, we remained vigilant. And, well, it turns out that bailouts are forever. We’re still updating the damn thing. So, recently, we decided to give it a makeover.
....
...
...
Overall, the TARP remains in the black, though just barely. The Treasury realized large profits on its investments in the country’s largest banks and AIG, and those have balanced out the losses and subsidies. As of today, we show a narrow profit of about $1 billion for the TARP (though it should be noted these figures haven’t been adjusted for inflation).
The bailout of Fannie and Freddie, however, is a different story. After the government essentially took over the companies to stabilize the housing market in 2008, the Treasury pumped in nearly $200 billion over the following years. While the companies haven’t yet repaid any of the principal, they have been making sizeable dividend payments every quarter. Those now total $306 billion.
For years, Washington has tied itself in knots over the question of how to resolve the takeover of Fannie and Freddie. For now, the companies continue sending a few billion to the Treasury every quarter, which at least has the happy result of reducing the country’s now $1 trillion annual budget deficit a little bit.
So, go ahead, take a look at what your old friends have been up to. The financial crisis is long over, but the response might never be.
Another one on Warren’s background
E*Trade Silences Skeptics On Earnings As Stock Surges 2.45%
E*Trade Silences Skeptics On Earnings As Stock Surges 2.45%
E*Trade is the story that keeps on giving and giving. The question was missing earnings expectations, but E*Trade gave a 3rd Quarter Earnings Report to surprise if not shock the followers and analysts of E*Trade. Earnings jumped 83% in the 3rd Quarter 2014 over same period reporting in 2013. Reutersgave a good analysis of the company’s performance in the article enclosed below.…
View On WordPress
“The suspicions that the system is rigged in favor of the largest banks and their elites, so they play by their own set of rules to the disfavor of the taxpayers who funded their bailout, are true,” Mr. [Neil] Barofsky said in an interview last week. “It really happened. These suspicions are valid.”
Neil Barofsky. Remember him? The guy who was supposed to watch over the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program? He wrote a book called “Bailout”. The New York Times is calling it a "must read".
Imagine blowing up the world, and getting paid to do it
Before:
The government pumped $68 billion into AIG from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, and invested $50 billion in GM and $17 billion in Ally Financial to save them from collapse during the 2007-2009 crisis.
After:
The top executive at AIG will receive total direct compensation, which includes cash, stock and future stock options worth $10.5 million, while Ally Financial's leader will get $9.5 million and GM's chief executive $9 million, according to documents distributed by the Treasury.
Reuters
$17 billion of the $25 billion Settlement goes to borrower assistance. Below are some key quotes from the story illustrating the bank scam going on:
…more than half of [the Settlement’s borrowers’ assistance] money can be used in ways that will not stop foreclosures, including some activities that are already standard bank practices.
“The $17 billion is supposed to be the teeth of this settlement,” said Neil M. Barofsky, the former inspector general for the Treasury’s bank bailout fund known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. “And yet they are getting all this credit for practices that they do every day.”
But the problem, say some academics and former regulators, is that the settlement has less bite than advertised...“It accomplishes remarkably little in the form of real relief for homeowners because it gives the banks credit for far too much,” said Adam J. Levitin, a law professor at Georgetown.
The credits over all…“are a pretty sweet deal for banks since it gives them a pat on the back for what they are already doing,” [said William K. Black, a law professor at University of Missouri and former senior deputy chief counsel at the Office of Thrift Supervision].
The five banks in the settlement declined to comment.
