Day: February 9, 2009

TARP UpDate

Now here something the American people should jump on with both feet……you were PLAYED!

The U.S. Treasury may have significantly overpaid for its investments in financial institutions, a government watchdog said Thursday, as criticism of the $700 billion financial rescue continues to build.

“Treasury paid substantially more for the assets it purchased under the [ Troubled Asset Relief Program] than their then-current market value,” Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren told the Senate Banking Committee.

Warren, who chairs a five-person congressional oversight panel overseeing the Wall Street rescue plan, said a report being released Friday by the group includes an analysis of 10 TARP transactions. Extrapolating that analysis for all of the purchases made by the Treasury in 2008 suggests Treasury paid $254 billion for preferred stock and warrants worth approximately $176 billion, a shortfall of $78 billion

“They did not price for risk, that’s what markets do,” Warren said, suggesting the Treasury’s lack of consistency had made the government funds a better deal for some institutions.

Details of the transactions used to come up with the number were not released.

The Treasury has frequently noted that many of its major investments – those in American International Group Inc. (AIG), U.S. automakers, and a second capital boost to Bank of America Corp. (BAC) – were made to maintain stability in the financial system, and are different than the $250 billion plan to inject capital into the banking system.

“Treasury has made long-term investments to stabilize the financial sector and get credit flowing, but more needs to be done,” spokesman Isaac Baker said.

More broadly, both lawmakers and other government watchdogs were sharply critical about the way the program has been implemented; the ad hoc nature of the Treasury’s efforts to stabilize individual financial firms; and the lack of transparency surrounding the program.

Basically, what we are saying here is that the Treasury just threw money at the banks and told them to have fun.  Taxpayer may be getting more screwed than first thought.

2009 Anal-Ocity

It is Feb ’09 and already we have a plethora of nominees for the most anal statement made…..gonna be a great year…well at least so far.

Former VP Dick Cheney recently gave a phone interview to the Politico and the news guys zero in on his playing of the “fear card” on terrorism even yet.  Personally I listened to the interview and there was one part that I have not heard too many mention when talking on this interview.

Cheney when asked about the economy and the situation that the country is in, he said:

“We did worry about it to some extent.”

That pretty much sums up what they had done to stop the bleeding….their plan was to try and ignore it and let the next president handle it.  Whoever that might have been.  It would had been a great punctuation to his comment if he had chuckled under his breath.

Keep those anal-ocities coming…the more the better for the “Assies”.

Bring The Hen House To The Fox

More news from the “crack” economic team of the Obama Admin.  And you thought things would be different…..silly, silly person!

Hoping to jump-start the financial system, the Obama administration is considering turning to a new program run by the Federal Reserve that has been a challenge to launch and depends heavily on hedge funds.

The Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, was announced in November after investors stopped buying securities backed by consumer debt. Under the $200 billion program, the Fed will make loans to almost any U.S. firm that is willing to use the government financing to buy securities tied to credit-card, small-business, student and auto loans.

In essence, the government, which doesn’t want to buy these securities itself, is lending money to professional investors so they can buy them. In some cases, the government itself is guaranteeing payment on the loans that back these securities.

Some hedge funds, which often use borrowed money to boost returns, are lining up to get in on the Fed program, seeing a chance to make high double-digit-percentage returns with little downside using low-cost loans made on easy terms. Some officials inside the Fed are nervous about relying on unregulated hedge funds. But they see it as a trade-off in order to get capital to consumers.

Broader philosophical issues could arise if the program is expanded. The White House has promised more transparency in how its funds are used. But lending to hedge funds may be problematic because their operations are opaque. Moreover, the program depends on many of the practices that helped to fell Wall Street firms in the first place, such as leverage, structured-debt investments and a dependence on credit ratings.

Depending on the different types of collateral, investors will get roughly $100 of lending for every $5 to $16 of cash they put up to invest. The rate investors will have to pay will be set at one percentage point over interest rates based on London interbank offered rates.

The activities of hedge funds are another potential issue. Some investors have privately expressed worries that hedge funds could game the system to use cheap Fed financing to fund other trading positions that run counter to U.S. goals. A firm might, for instance, buy debt backed by car loans with Fed financing and use the cash flows from the investment to fund short positions on auto makers that pay off if they struggle.

How long are we, the taxpayers, going to subsidize these greedy sh!ts?  Too many ways these guys can just keep doing what they have been doing and putting this country in the shape it is in now……please PAY ATTENTION….it is always about the greed ….NEVER what is best for the country.  So you lost your job?  They could care less… if it makes Company A more profitable, then so be it…fire the MFer!

Time to pull your head out of your butt and we are dying slowly and with the help of the financial “genuises” on Wall Street.  WAKE UP!

“I Won”

The GOP and the Repubs in Congress have been throwing this quote around ad nauseum.  But what is the quote from?  Is there a source for what this quote is referring to?  Was it said in jest?

Even on air personalities are holding true to their conservative past by using over and over and over……..but NO ONE has shown the exact quote other than what someone says was said.

(I will pause here for all you people to go to Goggle and make yourself tired)

President Obama listened to Republican gripes about his stimulus package during a meeting with congressional leaders Friday morning – but he also left no doubt about who’s in charge of these negotiations. “I won,” Obama noted matter-of-factly, according to sources familiar with the conversation.

I believe that this was “leaked” to the media via Sen. Kyl, who is about as trustworthy as a rattlesnake in heat.  You people do know what “hearsay” means right?

That is about as close to finding it on the web as you can get.  I other words it is hearsay, there is NO WAY for them to prove beyind a shadow of a doubt what he was talking about.

Please stop!  Stop trying to sabotage the process in the name of fairness and balanced reporting…you represent neither.  If all these “people” want to truly see the presdident and the country succeed then stop mindless crap and work together regardless of who is up for re-election in two years.

This is just so damn pathetic and silly….they are accomplishing nothing except what they say they are against—-partisanship.  These people are playing Russian roulette with the lives of American people and hopefully the people will realize it before it is too late……but unfortunately…I have my doubts.

GOP Needs To Be More Like Taliban

In an interview with National Journal‘s Hotline, Republican Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas suggested his party could follow the model of the Taliban in its legislative battles.

“Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban,” Sessions said. “And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes. And these Taliban — I’m not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that’s not what we’re saying. I’m saying an example of how you go about [sic] is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with.”

Sessions said the “Taliban” approach was a reaction to a lack of bipartisan outreach from House Democrats.

When pressed to clarify, Sessions said he was not comparing the House Republican caucus to the Taliban, the Muslim fundamentalist group.
“I simply said one can see that there’s a model out there for insurgency,” Sessions said before being interrupted by an aide. The staffer said Sessions was trying to convey that the Republicans need to start thinking about how to act strategically from their perch in the minority.

Damn, these guys are just making way too easy……..Not only is the GOP losing ground in the political arena but now they are losing ground in the logic arena.

Give KBR More Time To Kill Americans

Recently I had several posts about the Americans that have killed in Iraq…not by IUDs or snipers or rockets…..no killed, electrocuted while taking as shower.  Now the company that is being investigated over these deaths gets a new contract.  Why?

Defense contractor KBR Inc. has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving major electrical work, even as it is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The announcement of the new KBR contract came just months after the Pentagon, in strongly worded correspondence obtained by The Associated Press, rejected the company’s explanation of serious mistakes in Iraq and its proposed improvements. A senior Pentagon official, David J. Graff, cited the company’s “continuing quality deficiencies” and said KBR executives were “not sufficiently in touch with the urgency or realities of what was actually occurring on the ground.”

Graff rejected the company’s claims that it wasn’t required to follow U.S. electrical codes for its work on U.S. military facilities in Iraq. KBR has said it would cost an extra $560 million to refurbish buildings in Iraq used by the U.S. military, including Saddam Hussein‘s palaces, which among other problems are based on a 220-volt standard rather than the American 120-volt standard.

KBR announced last week it won a new $35.4 million contract from the Army Corps of Engineers to design and build a convoy support center at Camp Adder in southern Iraq. It will include a power plant, electrical distribution center, water purification and distribution systems, wastewater and information systems and road paving.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said the new KBR contract was inappropriate. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said he has formally asked the Corps of Engineers whether it was confident KBR could accomplish it and whether the Corps had any alternatives.

“KBR has not been debarred, suspended, nor have they been proposed for debarment from government contracting,” Corps spokeswoman Joan Kibler said.

KBR was previously owned by Halliburton Co., the oil services conglomerate that former Vice President Dick Cheney once led. Democrats have long complained it benefited from ties to Cheney.

Let me see if I have this about right?  We are holding people in Gitmo that have done little more than think about killing Americans and we have a company linked directly with American deaths and they some how get the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe it is time to rethink this whole “justice” thing.  Thoughts?