Elizabeth Warren & Henry Blodget On The $18 Billion Bailout Train Wreck At GMAC -- Tim Geithner Screwed Taxpayers Once Again (VIDEO)
Another gift from Geithner to the politically connected. We've got proof.
The GMAC, and now industry wide story of foreclosure fraud leaves us no choice but to revisit the GMAC bailout. It should never have happened. It was the most controversial of all the TARP bailouts. There was no strategic importance to saving GMAC. It was a gift to the politically connected.
2 very good short clips, plus links and detail.
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Video: The Unique Treatment of GMAC Under TARP
GMAC received $18 billion of TARP funds and Elizabeth Warren says we could lose more than $6 billion.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Treasury Department sank billions into auto finance giant GMAC Inc. without an exit strategy or proof the company was viable -- a decision that could cost taxpayers $6.3 billion, a new watchdog report says.
The government said the $17.2 billion bailout was a necessary step to save troubled automakers General Motors and Chrysler. GMAC provides critical financing to auto dealers, who borrow to finance their fleets until the cars can be sold to consumers.
Yet GMAC faced far fewer conditions than the bailed-out automakers, the report says. When the automakers were rescued, they were forced into bankruptcy. Shareholders lost their investments, creditors took a hit and executives were forced to detail plans for making the companies viable.
GMAC was treated more like banks that received bailouts without having to explain what they were doing with the money, the report says.
The report was released Thursday by the Congressional Oversight Panel overseeing the $700 billion financial bailout that Congress passed in October 2008.
"Treasury missed many opportunities to improve accountability and protect taxpayer money," panel chair Elizabeth Warren said in a conference call with reporters. She said Treasury didn't make GMAC show how it would return the taxpayer money, or how the investment would increase credit to consumers.
"These decisions mean that Treasury is now struggling to deal with a GMAC that is not financially rehabilitated, Treasury has no exit strategy and taxpayers are not fully protected," Warren said.
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Get all the detail on this clip at
Background:
Sep 23, 2010 at 1:37 AM
Reader Comments (10)
Colbert will be appearing with United Farm Workers (UFW) President Arturo S. Rodriguez before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law. In August, the comedian spent a day working at a corn and vegetable farm in New York state after Rodriguez appeared on his show to discuss UFW's "Take Our Jobs" campaign.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/22/stephen-colbert-testify-congress-immigration_n_735464.html
The troubled auto and mortgage lender will collect $3.8 billion of additional aid on top of the nearly $13.5 billion already received since December 2008, the Treasury said in a statement Wednesday.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/30/news/companies/gmac_bailout/index.htm
Was the smoking gun information held by Kellermann (and other top CEOs who’ve been “suicided” in recent months) what ultimately cost him his life?
Stranger yet, police spokesman Lucy Caldwell told All Headline News editor Linda Young via telephone on April 22 that “other people were present at the home at the time of Kellermann’s death, and that there was a gun and a gunshot wound.”
Some compared this scenario to the murder of Vince Foster; while others claimed Kellermann became a fall guy for Sen. Christopher Dodd, Rep. Barney Frank, or the architects behind Barack Obama’s economic plan.
The question remains: what was Kellermann’s role in Freddie Mac’s meltdown? Being a key insider with access to highly sensitive material, did he help facilitate the accounting gimmicks that brought about his company’s demise? Or, could Kellermann have been one of the good guys who refused to perpetrate this ruse being foisted on American taxpayers? To his credit, Barakat and Zibel indicate that “Kellermann was neither a target nor a subject of the [U.S. Attorney’s] investigation, and had not been under law enforcement scrutiny.”
GMAC gave “false testimony” when it justified foreclosures by submitting sworn affidavits signed by a mortgage executive who later said in a deposition she didn’t actually review the loan documents or sign in the presence of a notary, according to a 2006 court order filed in Duval County, Florida. In response to the sanctions, GMAC Mortgage directed employees to “read and fully understand” court documents before signing.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-22/gmac-mortgage-s-foreclosures-drew-earlier-sanctions-over-false-testimony-.html
Ally, which benefitted from a $17.2 billion bailout, paid Treasury $1.5 billion in dividends on preferred stock held by the government, and $133 million in dividends on trust-preferred securities, according to a Sept. 10 Treasury report. New York- based Citigroup Inc., which received $45 billion in government aid, has paid $2.91 billion, the report showed.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-13/ally-financial-dividends-to-u-s-treasury-surpass-1-6-billion.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-23/saving-americans-requires-sticking-it-to-them-jonathan-weil.html
Great piece from weil...
Our government isn’t supposed to prey on its own people in the name of protecting our investments. It never should have gotten in this business in the first place. "
When many cultures failed throughout history do to the excesses at the top, the people have proven to be very resilient, even if they had to resort to long pig of those responsible to survive.
People should be careful about "let them eat cake" words or actions...
But it's hard to dance around this one:
http://letthemfail.us/archives/5700
Now we’ll see whether Elizabeth Warren will serve as Geithner’s water boy, or a Brooksley Born with teeth, or just the next frustrated appointee to jump ship when the water gets rough.
The bell has rung – round one.