Earlier this week, the inspector general for the Troubled Asset
Relief Program, a k a, the bank bailout fund, released his report on
the 2008 rescue of the American International Group, the insurer. The
gist of the report is that government officials made no serious attempt
to extract concessions from bankers, even though these bankers received
huge benefits from the rescue. And more than money was lost. By making
what was in effect a multibillion-dollar gift to Wall Street, policy
makers undermined their own credibility - and put the broader economy
at risk.
LONDON -- The British government announced Tuesday that it will break up parts of major financial institutions bailed out by taxpayers, highlighting a growing divide across the Atlantic over how to deal with the massive banks that were partially nationalized during the height of the financial crisis.
Most people would have
little difficulty getting by on $200,000 a year. Most people who had badly messed up on their job and put their employer in bankruptcy would be absolutely delighted to find themselves still earning $200,000 a year.
Friends,
It's the #1 question I'm constantly asked after people see my movie: "OK -- so NOW what can I DO?!"
You want something to do? Well, you've come to the right place!
'Cause I got 15 things you and I can do right now to fight back and try
to fix this very broken system.
Here they are:
FIVE THINGS WE DEMAND THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DO IMMEDIATELY:
Months ago, a former chief economist at the IMF called it mind control. Talking to Simon Johnson of the Atlantic Monthly, he explained that one of the most alarming truths laid bare by the economic crash was that the finance industry had effectively captured the thinking of government.
“That’s going too far,” said reasonable people. “This is no Banana Republic run by crony cartels.”
That was before we read Tim Geithner’s phone records.
There are many possible responses to
the news that we have committed more than four trillion public dollars to Wall Street.
Mine is a roar of admiration.
Four trillion dollars! Holy hell! I didn't even know that was possible!
U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
One year after the global banking system collapsed the Institute for
Policy Studies (IPS) 16th Annual Executive Excess report --
"America's Bailout Barons" -- shows that the perverse system of executive compensation which
contributed to the financial meltdown is still thriving for top bailout recipients.
The fractured U.S. healthcare debate, replete with wild distortions of Canada's medicare, must seem incomprehensible to many north of our border.
News images of fabricated "death panels" or traumatized seniors on U.S. Medicare -- a government-funded program -- urging legislators to keep the government's hands "off my Medicare" must seem especially hard to fathom.
Equally puzzling, no doubt, has been the reaction of the administration and many of its allies in Congress whose response to the attacks is to move further away from comprehensive reform.
The good judge smelled a rat.
“Was there some sort of ghost that performed these actions?” New York federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff demanded to know Monday in rejecting a deal that would let Bank of America off the hook in yet another banker bonus scandal. The Securities and Exchange Commission had charged the bank with covering up for outrageous bonuses given out at Merrill Lynch as the bank acquired the failed stockbrokerage, and now it was letting the bank off the hook with a chicken-feed fine.
WASHINGTON — Although hundreds of well-trained eyes are watching
over the $700 billion that Congress last year decided to spend bailing
out the nation's financial sector, it's still difficult to answer some
of the most basic questions about where the money went.
