Wall Street bailout

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Banker Blew $381K in Bailout Cash on Posh Condo

Pleads guilty, will face a year in prison—at most

(Newser) - Your daily blood boil: A former bank executive has pleaded guilty to using bailout money to buy a waterfront condo. In 2009, Darryl Layne Woods bought the luxury digs with some $381,000 of the $1 million given to Mainstreet Bank in Ashland, Mo., where he was the chairman at...

AIG Mulls Suing the Feds ... for Bailing It Out

Firm may join shareholder lawsuit over bailout terms

(Newser) - AIG has been running "Thank you America" ads after paying off its $182 billion bailout, but it's also considering suing the very government that kept it afloat, reports the New York Times . The insurance giant's board will meet tomorrow to debate joining a shareholder lawsuit that claims...

Bankers Giving Banking a Bad Name
 Bankers Giving 
 Banking a 
 Bad Name 
Nicholas Kristof
Jan 19, 2012 1:29 PM CST

Bankers Giving Banking a Bad Name

Nicholas Kristof hopes young idealists can save American capitalism

(Newser) - Nicholas Kristof was dumbfounded when, during a recent college lecture, a student asked him if banking jobs were immoral. "I've been sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street movement, but look, finance is not evil," he writes in the New York Times . It's an essential force, allocating...

Ex-Banker: Yeah, Collapse Was Our Fault
Ex-Banker: Yeah, Collapse Was Our Fault
Nicholas Kristof
Dec 1, 2011 10:08 AM CST

Ex-Banker: Yeah, Collapse Was Our Fault

So why haven't homeowners been bailed out?

(Newser) - If you were trying to get a loan in southern Florida in 2007, bankers like James Theckston were there to help. "If you had some old bag lady walking down the street and she had a decent credit score, she got a loan," Chase's then-regional VP of...

More Than 2 Years Later, Secrets of Bailout Emerge

Banks took in billions of dollars, even as they claimed to be healthy

(Newser) - For more than two years, the Fed and the banks it bailed out during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis have kept many of the details of the massive, multi-trillion-dollar bailout a secret. But, thanks to Freedom of Information Act requests, 29,000 pages of bailout details are pouring out...

10 Fannie, Freddie Execs Rake in $13M in Bonuses

Meanwhile, Fannie employees suspended amidst federal probe

(Newser) - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac execs banked Wall Street-esque paychecks this year for meeting what Politico terms “modest performance targets” in modifying troubled mortgages. Ten top executives at the two firms received a combined $12.79 million in bonuses, agency records show, and that’s not counting a second...

Perry Gave Huge Tax Grants to Subprime Lenders

Countrywide, WaMu got $35M as they upped risky loans

(Newser) - Rick Perry handed mortgage lenders millions to draw them to Texas—right when their risky lending practices surged. The governor gave Countrywide $20 million and Washington Mutual $15 million in what he called an exemplary job-creation move; in effect, that $35 million subsidized dangerous subprime lending, an AP analysis of...

What Occupy Wall Street Should Demand
 What Occupy Wall Street 
 Should Demand 
NICHOLAS KRISTOF
Oct 2, 2011 6:41 AM CDT

What Occupy Wall Street Should Demand

Movement needs clear demands to fix financial system

(Newser) - The biggest problem with the Occupy Wall Street movement is its demands: "It doesn’t really have any," writes Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times . While he's not anti-market like many of the protesters, Kristof does think America's financial institutions have grown out of control—...

Even Loser Execs Still Getting Mammoth Exit Pay

'Pay for failure' bleeding troubled firms dry, say critics

(Newser) - Remember the furious demands in the wake of the Wall Street crisis that exorbitant executive exit pay be cut? Not happening. Even big-time loser executives are still reaping incredible windfalls. Take Léo Apotheker, bounced from the top of Hewlett-Packard after a year that saw company stock plummet. His punishment...

Fed Handed Wall Street $1.2T in Loans

Bloomberg reveals peak amount for the first time

(Newser) - In 2006, their best year ever, the 10 biggest US banks and brokerage firms made $104 billion in profits. By 2008, they had taken more than six times that amount—$669 billion—in emergency Federal Reserve loans. That amount, as well as amount loaned by the Fed to all its...

Bachmann Tax Day Rally Flops

Tea Party favorite says she 'can't wait to go up against President Obama'

(Newser) - South Carolina didn't exactly roll out the red carpet for devout Tea Partier and possible GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann on Monday. Only around 300 people—including political operatives and members of the media—turned up at a Tax Day rally in Columbia, about a tenth of the number...

Nuns Rap Goldman Sachs Fatcats for Pay

After Lloyd Blankfein's compensation almost doubles to $19M

(Newser) - Lloyd Blankfein’s salary nearly doubled in 2010 to a total of around $19 million—and the Catholic church isn’t happy about it. Four orders of nuns that invest with Goldman Sachs have all signed on to a proposal demanding the bank review its compensation policy, the Guardian reports....

Supreme Court to the Fed: Release Dirt on '08 Crisis Loans

Banks sought to block details from media

(Newser) - The Federal Reserve will release information on several emergency loans it made to prominent banks when the financial crisis struck in 2008, CNNMoney reports. Bloomberg News initially filed a lawsuit against the Fed in an attempt to gain details on the loans; the Fed declined the request due to "...

Treasury to Sell Off $142B in Toxic Assets, Make Billions

'Notably improved' market means $15B-$20B profit for taxpayers

(Newser) - The Treasury Department will start selling the $142 billion portfolio of mortgage-backed securities, the "toxic" assets it bought up during the financial crisis , the Wall Street Journal reports. The securities are mostly 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. And having bought the securities...

Did Bankers Go to Jail for Causing Great Depression?

No, although a couple were charged and some were embarrassed

(Newser) - The government could soon prosecute a few Wall Streeters who allegedly played a role in the financial crisis, and the commission that uncovered those at fault was modeled on a similar probe after the Great Depression. So did anyone who precipitated that collapse ever go to jail? Nope, writes Brian...

Taxpayers Will Score $12B on Citigroup Bailout: Treasury

Government strikes deal to sell remaining 2.4B shares

(Newser) - Taxpayers will wind up making out like bandits on their $45 billion bailout of Citigroup. The Treasury Department has struck a deal to sell its remaining 2.4 billion shares of Citigroup for $4.35 a share, it announced yesterday, bringing the total money made off such sales to $57...

Bailed-Out Companies Throw Cash to GOP

Even though Dems led push for TARP

(Newser) - Despite being bailed out by the government—and, in some cases, still owing money to the government—many companies are donating heavily to candidates. And many of those candidates are Republicans, even though it was mostly Democrats who supported the TARP program, the Washington Post reports. The 23 companies that...

Final Bailout Tab: $29B
 Final Bailout Tab: $29B 
Oct 6, 2010 7:52 AM CDT

Final Bailout Tab: $29B

Bank bailout is highlight of latest accounting

(Newser) - So it's not exactly zero, but the $388 billion the feds dumped into bailouts is going to end up with a final price tag of ... $29 billion, reports the New York Times. Most of Treasury's losses are focused in housing rescues ($46 billion) and the Detroit bailout ($17 billion), while...

Obama Takes on Disgruntled Wall Streeters

Says 'big chunk of country thinks I've been too soft on you'

(Newser) - President Obama insisted he was not “anti-business” today, as he was confronted with several angry businesspeople in a town hall-style event on CNBC . “I have been amused over the last couple of years by this sense of me beating up on Wall Street,” Obama said. “Most...

Democrats Hammer GOP on Wall Street Ties

Pat Toomey's taking especially heavy fire

(Newser) - As the midterms heat up, expect to hear the words “Wall Street” a lot. Democrats are hammering Republicans on their ties to Wall Street, no matter how tangential, and on their party’s opposition to financial reform legislation, the LA Times reports. Republicans, meanwhile, speak angrily about bailouts and...

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