Links -- The Kashkari Edition (October 20, 2009)
Tonight's links are an experiment in formatting gone wrong. They are in honor of former TARP chief Neel Kashkari, who came out of hiding earlier today to blow some more smoke up your..
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Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Obama administration advisers said U.S. banks bailed out with taxpayer funds have responsibility to support the president’s effort to overhaul the rules for Wall Street and avoid future financial crises.
White House officials say they are frustrated that major financial firms are fighting President Barack Obama on the regulatory overhaul after taxpayer bailouts helped firms restore profits and near-record compensation for executives.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ajO.RPPDsL6Q
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Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. regulators should consider breaking up large financial institutions considered “too big to fail,” former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said.
Those banks have an implicit subsidy allowing them to borrow at lower cost because lenders believe the government will always step in to guarantee their obligations. That squeezes out competition and creates a danger to the financial system, Greenspan told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
“If they’re too big to fail, they’re too big,” Greenspan said today. “In 1911 we broke up Standard Oil -- so what happened? The individual parts became more valuable than the whole. Maybe that’s what we need to do.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJ8HPmNUfchg
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Greenspan Video from the CFR Speech
Timeline: Crisis On Wall Street
Fed becomes reluctant landlord
Moscow Mayor Promises a Winter Without Snow
Jimmy Cayne’s Desk Drawer Of Fun
Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk 10/19/09: We Must Reverse This Destructive Course!
Hank Paulson Held A Secret Meeting With Goldman Sachs In Moscow
Attorney Richard Greenfield Brands Mary Schapiro and FINRA Execs as “Liars”
Are the Fed, the Congress and the Primary Dealers an Alliance of Convenience?
Wall Street in Turmoil (photo gallery)
Rakoff Gets Galleon Case And Will Bharara Become the Great Preetinder?
Buffett Says Wall Street Pay Must Have ‘Downside’
NYC Judge Tosses Suit Against Biden's Son, Brother
Wall Street on edge as SEC top cop gets aggressive
Prosecutor in Galleon Case Makes a Splash
The substantial remainder of today's links are in comments below.
Oct 20, 2009 at 6:49 PM
Reader Comments (12)
In the frantic hours before Barclays Plc sought bankruptcy court approval to buy most of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s assets last year, executives at both firms were concerned the deal would fall apart if the U.K. bank acted “like pigs” in picking over Lehman’s carcass.
Neil Weinberg, 10.20.09, 12:45 PM EDT
Dirty enough to be drawing the wrong lessons from Galleon.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/20/galleon-hedge-fund-wire-personal-finance-galleon.html?feed=rss_news
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aBnddzF.B8zw
What could possibly go wrong?
http://blogs.reuters.com/rolfe-winkler/2009/10/15/letting-goldman-roll-the-dice/
WASHINGTON -- The Internal Revenue Service is examining more than 100,000 suspicious claims for the first-time home-buyer tax break, another sign of potential trouble for the soon-to-expire program.
The measure, adopted in February as part of the economic-stimulus bill, gives first-time buyers an $8,000 tax credit in an effort to boost sales and stimulate the moribund housing market. The program is set to end Nov. 30, but housing-industry leaders are lobbying Congress to extend it.
More than a million claims for the credit have been received so far, and housing-industry experts estimated that the credit has helped generate about 350,000 home sales that wouldn't otherwise have occurred. But some lawmakers and tax experts now say there is evidence that a significant number of the claims might prove to be unjustified, or even fraudulent.
"I am concerned about recent reports that there have been fraudulent schemes involving the credit," Rep. John Lewis (D., Ga.), chairman of a House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, said in a statement. The subcommittee is planning a hearing on the problems on Thursday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE59J3TN20091020
It's official...the banks have won...
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/holding-off-disaster-the-race-to-save-lehman/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/13/AR2009101302653.html
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/around-town/shopping/No-Youre-Reading-That-Right-64173667.html
http://english.caijing.com.cn/2009-09-28/110267252.html
Must Read...Andy Xie...Outstanding...
http://mobile.thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/62655-financial-firms-warn-accounting-change-could-threaten-recovery
From last week...but extremely important article about what the banks have planned...
http://www.eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=7886
If the above link does not work, try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efuepuPb2u8
Here is a little info on the bill from the Wall Street Journal
Proponents of auditing the Federal Reserve have a new bill to support their cause. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.) and Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) introduced legislation today to require the Government Accountability Office to audit several of the central bank’s emergency lending programs that were created during the financial crisis.
The two junior senators are joining a movement that has drawn more than two-thirds of the House and a third of the Senate. But their legislation, the Federal Reserve Accountability Act, is intended to sidestep criticism that auditing the central bank would hinder the Fed’s independence in conducting monetary policy. The bill directs the GAO — the investigative arm of Congress — to audit emergency lending programs that aren’t already subject to government audits. (Institution-specific lending programs, such as those tied to AIG and Bear Stearns, are already open to GAO review, as are programs conducted jointly with the Treasury Department.)
To avoid disrupting markets, the legislation directs the GAO to redact from its reports the names of specific institutions using the programs and “identifying details regarding assets or collateral” held in the audited facilities.
http://www.dailypaul.com/