An audit of the Federal Reserve Bank would "substantially castrate the Fed so it cannot do what it was set up to do," Rep. Melvin Watt (D., N.C.) said yesterday, in an effort to tamp down a congressional uprising against the Bush/Obama economic team. This devastating exchange Thursday between Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas); along with weeks of close...
As everyone knows by now, Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for TARP, has a new report out on the decision by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last Fall to make various AIG counterparties (primarily some very big banks with names you know) whole on the the CDS protection they had bought from AIG [...]
Wednesday's Wall Street Journal featured a very damning article concerning Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's mishandling of the payment of collateral to Goldman Sachs for its AIG positions last year, as head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. In article entitled "Report Rebuts Goldman Claim," following only days after the Journal published Goldman's assertions that it never needed those...
clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner appeared before the Joint Economic Committee today. One striking feature of Geithner's testimony was how partisan it was. In keeping with the Obama administration's mantra, he repeatedly tried to cast blame on the Bush administration while failing to acknowledge that when the financial crisis developed, he was the head of the Federal...
Congressman Roy Blunt is urging the Financial Services Committee to schedule a hearing to examine a report that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was unprepared to deal with bailout money AIG received last year. Blunt said the committee must investigate before legislation regarding further AIG-style bailouts are considered. From BLOOMBERG: The inspector general’s report “paints a devastating...
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner appeared before the Joint Economic Committee today. One striking feature of Geithner's testimony was how partisan it was. In keeping with the Obama administration's mantra, he repeatedly tried to cast blame on the Bush administration while failing to acknowledge that when the financial crisis developed, he was the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and as...
Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner, speaking at a Joint Economic Hearing, got into a quite the tizzy with Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX). On one level, it's just two guys yelling at each other. On another level, it's a glimpse at why an idea as basic as "We should reform our profligate banking system" can break down when you run it through the political sausage factory. A taste of the skirmish, via Real...
by Kevin G. Hall WASHINGTON - Like a boxer under siege, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday rebuffed calls from Republicans to resign and slugged it out with lawmakers over Obama administration economic policies. Geithner is on the hot seat with lawmakers because billions of stimulus dollars have not prevented the nation's high 10.2 percent unemployment rate, and for bank bailout decisions...
NEW YORK, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of New York ("FHLBNY") announced that, earlier today, November 19, 2009, its Board of Directors approved a dividend rate for the third quarter of 2009 of 5.60% (annualized). The FHLBNY's dividend rate in each of the first and second quarters of 2009 was 5.60%. The dollar amount of the third quarter dividend will be approximately...
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analys (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
When you can't change public opinion any other way, you buy it. That is the message from Huffington Post today in Economists Opposing Fed Audit Have Undisclosed Fed Ties . As the debate over an audit of the Federal Reserve intensifies in the House, one camp is trotting out eight academics that it calls a "political cross section of prominent economists." A review of their backgrounds shows...
Daily Intelligencer - New York Magazine (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
"Unfortunately, the regulatory regime that failed so terribly leading up to the financial crisis is precisely the regulatory regime we have today," Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in prepared remarks at a Joint Economic Committee hearing today. That struck some as a little rich, considering the recent revelations about Geithner's own behavior during the crisis, and during the question-and-answer...
Emailed to me by a contact in Congress. November 18, 2009 The Honorable Barney Chairman, House Financial Services Committee 2129 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Christopher Dodd Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs 534 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Chairman Frank and Chairman Dodd: In light of Tuesday’s...
Every week in this space, we’ll take a look at the news and offer our own incisive blend of commentary, analysis, and poop jokes. The news you need, from a voice you can trust, in the 90 seconds you have to spare: that’s Woot Weads the Wire. PASADENA, Calif. ( UPI ) -- NASA and the Microsoft Corp. say they've created the "Be a Martian" Web site where Internet users can have fun...
So we're going to trust health care to a government who's done this..... Special Inspector General for TARP (aka "SIG TARP") Neil Barofsky said something we've all known for a while: the government gave away the farm when AIG failed . If you recall, AIG's failure meant that the companies on the other side of all of its contracts (counterparties) were going to be left holding the bag. Under...
Reason readers learned a few weeks ago about then-President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Tim Geithner's role in crafting a full-payment deal for big banks that had credit-default swaps with the failed AIG insurance company. As Radley Balko noted earlier , Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program, has now issued a harshly critical report on Geithner's...
Back in October 2008, then US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson met with CEOs of the 9 largest US banks. During that meeting, it was reported that Paulson required the CEOs to take TARP money whether they wanted the money or not. In May, Judicial Watch released talking points taken from official documents from those meetings. The talking points used by Paulson in that meeting include the comment that
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