Federal Reserve Seeks to Protect U.S. Bailout Secrets (Update1) | Bloomberg.com

The Federal Reserve Bank, to preserve its own power, is engaged in a lawsuit to prevent disclosure over what banks received bailout funds, along with how much they received.

Since the Fed controls currency, in effect, your government is engaged in a fight to NOT tell you who the gave YOUR money to.

The Fed is joined in its bid to overturn Preska’s order by the Clearing House Association LLC, an industry-owned group in New York that processes payments between banks. The group assailed the judge’s decision for what it said were legal errors, such as applying the wrong standard in weighing the exception to FOIA.

The group includes ABN Amro Bank NV, a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, Bank of America Corp., The Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co., US Bancorp and Wells Fargo & Co.

Federal Reserve Seeks to Protect U.S. Bailout Secrets (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.

MOVE YOUR MONEY!!!

Do Something!

Continue reading “Federal Reserve Seeks to Protect U.S. Bailout Secrets (Update1) | Bloomberg.com”

SEC order helps maintain AIG bailout mystery | Reuters

It could take until November 2018 to get the full story behind the U.S. bailout of insurance giant American International Group (AIG.N) because of an action taken last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In May, the SEC approved a request by AIG to keep secret an exhibit to a year-old regulatory filing that includes some of the details on the most controversial aspect of the AIG bailout: the funneling of tens of billions of dollars to big banks like Societe Generale, Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) and Merrill Lynch.

Read Reuters Article.

Do Something!

Continue reading “SEC order helps maintain AIG bailout mystery | Reuters”

Additional Funding for SBA Recovery Lending Programs will Support $4.5 Billion in Small Business Lending | SBA

Agency plans to restart Recovery loan approvals by Dec. 28

WASHINGTON – President Obama signed the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) appropriations bill on Saturday, which included $125 million to continue through Feb. 28, 2010, the enhancements made possible through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to SBA’s two largest loan programs. The SBA estimates the additional funding will support $4.5 billion in small business lending.

New approvals of loans with the higher guarantee and reduced fees made possible by ARRA are expected to begin by Dec. 28.  Loan applications from borrowers who chose to be placed in the SBA’s Recovery Loan Queue will be funded first, followed by new loan approvals beginning on or before Dec. 28.
Continue reading “Additional Funding for SBA Recovery Lending Programs will Support $4.5 Billion in Small Business Lending | SBA”

Community lenders hit the funding jackpot | CNN – CA Hispanic Chambers of Commerce

Too bad they hit the jackpot on the nickel slots.

The entire Goldman bonus pool should be donated to small businesses, but that’s just me.

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) have been a rare small business lending success story this year — and next year, they’ll have more cash.

Continue reading “Community lenders hit the funding jackpot | CNN – CA Hispanic Chambers of Commerce”

Banks That Bundled Bad Debt Also Bet Against It | NYTimes.com

Lewis Sachs, left and John Paulson, right

“The simultaneous selling of securities to customers and shorting them because they believed they were going to default is the most cynical use of credit information that I have ever seen,” said Sylvain R. Raynes, an expert in structured finance at R & R Consulting in New York. “When you buy protection against an event that you have a hand in causing, you are buying fire insurance on someone else’s house and then committing arson.”

Read on to find out how Goldman Sachs created and sold securities – they thought would lose money – to investors.

Underwater and Not Walking Away – Brent T. White – Arizona Legal Studies, The University of Arizona.

The home financing system in America works because lenders count on your moral belief system, not contracts, to hold you to the deal, while they do not take that same obligation. This one single fact gives lenders the enormous power of humiliation. Brent White has created one of the most cogent and well crafted descriptions of the present storm we’re riding, along with some unusual observations.
Continue reading “Underwater and Not Walking Away – Brent T. White – Arizona Legal Studies, The University of Arizona.”

Report to the President – SBA Small Business Financing Forum

The opening remarks of this report contains the following brilliant observation:

With financial institutions tightening lending standards in this recent economic crisis, the small businesses that depend on them for credit have been hit particularly hard.

Ya think? Without the ability to sell stock or bonds to raise capital, small businesses have to turn to banks. Banks are required to meet tough new standards and for the most part, keep the loans they write on their balance sheets. To maintain their required ratios, most banks have withdrawn credit from those least able to survive it, small business. A perfect storm.
Continue reading “Report to the President – SBA Small Business Financing Forum”

Citi Execs Sell Assets to Avoid Pay Czar | Reuters

The executives at Citibank want to avoid the wall street pay czar so badly, they’re fire selling company assets to raise enough money to pay back the TARP funds:

Citigroup also is ending an agreement with the government that guaranteed a roughly $250 billion portfolio of assets against excessive losses.

The bank sold $17 billion of common shares and another $3.5 billion of bonds that automatically convert into shares in three years.

The bank sold convertible notes that pay a coupon of 7.5 percent a year, and automatically convert to shares at a 25 percent premium to the pricing level in three years.

The bank said on Monday it also plans to issue $1.7 billion of shares to employees, and may sell another $3 billion of trust preferred securities in the first quarter.

Bank of America and Wells Fargo have done the same thing, but they found buyers and Citi didn’t. These banks will crash again, they aren’t doing better, they’ve found even lower ways to be greedy. When they crash again, let them go under.

Read Article.