Tuesday
Mar172009
Bailout News CNBC Video: New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Talks Tough On AIG Bonuses
Maria Bartiromo snagged an exclusive interview with New York AG Andrew Cuomo on Monday after the bell. According to Cuomo, AIG did not comply with his 4pm deadline for the information he had requested and he has now issued subpoenas.
Smells like puffery, but at least he is making AIG executives sweat.
Another day and another way that Tim Geithner looks like an ineffectual street sweeper.
Mar 17, 2009 at 1:03 AM
Reader Comments (18)
He just seems too smooth if that's possible for a new yorker.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/16/iowa-senator-says-aig-executives-resign-commit-suicide/
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley suggested on Monday that AIG executives should take a Japanese approach toward accepting responsibility for the collapse of the insurance giant by resigning or killing themselves.
March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Federal Reserve policy makers may have to ramp up their purchases of mortgage securities and other assets after the economy and job market deteriorated further since they last met.
For everyone. It's the updated AIG squirrel. Has approx. 20 stories inside. Background and current.
Absolutely hilarious Will Ferrell and John Mcenroe on CNBC in 2004.
Ferrell goes after sue herrera in a loving kind of way.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, worried about the fate of The Chronicle and other financially struggling newspapers, urged the Justice Department Monday to consider giving Bay Area papers more leeway to merge or consolidate business operations to stay afloat.
General Motors is preparing a fresh barrage of discounts and other promotions to coax Americans into buying more cars after an upcoming US government decision on further financial aid to the Detroit motor industry.
The incentives will be designed to counter a slump in sales and GM’s market share, amid signs on both sides of the Atlantic that its financial woes are beginning to drive away customers.
MONTAGUE, Texas (AP) - For months, perhaps longer, the Montague County Jail was "Animal House" meets Mayberry. Inside the small brick building across from the courthouse, inmates had the run of the place, having sex with their jailer girlfriends, bringing in recliners, taking drugs and chatting on cell phones supplied by friends or guards, according to authorities. They also disabled some of the surveillance cameras and made weapons out of nails.
The doors to two groups of cells didn't lock, but apparently no one tried to escape - perhaps because they had everything they needed inside.
A woman from Russia's Siberian region of Irkutsk has been arrested for killing a friend and then eating part of the corpse, Interfax news agency reported, quoting local investigators.
The incident occurred on March 5 when the two women were drinking together at the suspect's home and an argument broke out between them.
"Investigators have information to suggest the woman cooked pieces of her murdered friend and ate them," said an official with the Russian prosecutor's investigative committee, Vladimir Salovarov.
Alaska dodges banking collapse
California state government's full-time work force continues to grow despite Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's order to freeze hiring amid a historic budget shortfall.
From June 2008 to February 2009, most state agencies either increased or kept the same number of full-time employees, according to a Bee analysis of personnel data. The state also failed to lay off as many part-time employees during the crisis as promised by the governor.
While legislators and Schwarzenegger debated how to close a $40 billion budget deficit, 66 state agencies saw a net gain of full-time employees, 35 kept the same number of employees and 55 lost employees, data from the state controller's office show.
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co. Chairman Richard Kovacevich criticized the U.S. for retroactively adding curbs to the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which he said forced the bank to cut its dividend, and called the administration’s plan for stress-testing banks “asinine.”
When the U.S. Treasury persuaded the nation’s nine biggest banks to accept capital investments in October, it signaled the whole industry was weak, Kovacevich, 65, said in a March 13 speech at Stanford University in California. Even though Wells Fargo didn’t want the money, it must comply with the same rules that the government placed on banks that did need it, he said.
“Is this America -- when you do what your government asks you to do and then retroactively you also have additional conditions?” Kovacevich said. “If we were not forced to take the TARP money, we would have been able to raise private capital at that time” and not needed to cut the dividend to preserve cash, he said.
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc., barraged by criticism on how it’s using $173 billion of taxpayer money, faces demands from President Barack Obama to rescind or repay $165 million in bonuses.
AIG also may get a subpoena from Andrew Cuomo, New York State’s attorney general, who wants a list of everyone who received the bonuses. The payments were part of a $1 billion plan by AIG to reward employees for staying with the crippled New York-based company, once the world’s biggest insurer.
AIG has faced pressure to disclose more on its operations since the U.S. took a stake of almost 80 percent last year. Yesterday, AIG named at least 20 banks that received money to avoid losses after buying credit-default swaps from the insurer. The derivatives almost bankrupted AIG, and the bonuses Obama cited went to employees who created or sold them.
“It’s hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million,” said Obama at the White House speech today. “How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?”
How about addressing the REAL ass-raping here, rat-faced Andy?? Can't do that, though -- the bois at 85 Broad may not fund your gubernatorial campaign...
http://www.downtownnews.com/articles/2009/03/13/news/doc49b85ec6388cc234605031.txt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMikAeK8rL0