"In return for receiving billions of pounds more of taxpayers' money, the Treasury said, both banks will not pay cash bonuses for 2009 to any staff earning more than 39,000 a year"
How are they going to keep talent? Will never happen in the US, or can it?
both banks will not pay cash bonuses for 2009 to any staff earning more than £39,000 a year while the board of each lender will defer bonuses due for this year until 2012.
.......Pretty simple concept...........there's no such thing as "simple" here......
I would watch carefully the moves of the Indian Central bank- they have large enough reserves to be meaningful yet small enough that they (unlike the Chinese) have the option of diversifying out of the dollar.
BINGO! and as I posted previously RBS is a primary dealer for the Fed. Just wait until the citizens of the UK figure out they are buying expensive UST-notes as another poster here said.
while the board of each lender will defer bonuses due for this year until 2012.
Spinning goodness. These institutions are broke and its crew should get no bonus period. Heck, the corporate entity is insolvent and shouldn't by paying anybody much less employees over 39k GBP/yr. Orwell would be proud.
These days I wish I had a journalism degree and some big time contacts. Wonder if the the proud traditions of the UK of old will return with a lot of pitchforks?
I'm CONtinually amazed at the lengths these dingbat Central Bankers and Treasury officials will go to in order to prevent the value of fraudulent bank credit from deflating.
To what end?
The Fed and Central banks around the world are papering over their own mistakes. They failed to regulate and allowed greedy bankers to poison the money system with tens of trillions in non-economically viable debt.
Who benefits from these repeated historic bailouts? The same people that benefit from inflation and the issuance of the fraudulent credit.
The Treasury will inject 25.5 billion pounds of capital into RBS, for a total of 45.5 billion pounds, making it the costliest bailout of any bank worldwide.
We haven't even begun to see the unintended CONsequences of our Government's recent debt binge or the Fed's massive interventions in our "free" markets.
What are the odds the positives outweigh the negatives for the majority? The opening over under is a trillion to 1.
oh I know! I was being flip. I've been ocd over all this for a long time as I suspect you have. Banking should be a boring utilitarian part of life. Instead we get oscar caliber performances and thrillers.
cr writes: "That does mean we will be making extensive use of deferred payments and payments in shares."
pushing out millions if not billions in bonuses to 2012 means they defer into a future where inflation may eat up a significant part of the amount, and who knows what the share price might be then
of course, it all comes to a resounding end in 2012
check labels Cinco: High fructose corn syrup anyone? We all eat boatloads of it, for kids developmentally, this can't be good. Its in EVERYTHING.
My wife and I cut it out of our diets to the best of our abilities. We are much healthier and for my part, I don't 'sugar crash' like I always used to.
It's easy to find bread that is HFCS free. And it's not in meat or fresh vegetables.
To set the stage, the quote from Hunt came after he testified in from of the Senate in the early 1980's, when a Senator asked about his losing billions of dollars in trying to corner the physical silver market, and it was not only a great quote, but also an admission of how much he and brother William lost, when they pushed the price of silver from $6 to $48, but they were the only buyers, as it turned out.
Back when a billion was a Billion~
Silver bottomed at around $4 per oz in the intervening years...
I bet a decline in stocks right now would help make it easier to sell another stimulus package.
We'll be getting stimulus packages for years on end. Decades even. And all the while we'll be hearing politicians and eCONomists talking about keeping the "deficit" under CONtrol.
It's all a big lie. Government spending IS our eCONomy.
As I referred to earlier I admire the admire the way Lloyds is convinced that they can snap their fingers and the other 15 billion of equity will appear. Maybe they insure their own issues.
We'll be getting stimulus packages for years on end. Decades even. And all the while we'll be hearing politicians and eCONomists talking about keeping the "deficit" under CONtrol.
The problem is that tactic usually fails after a while. The stimulus money is basically wealth redistribution from people holding your currency and bonds.
So people stop holding your currency and bonds.
The alternative is taxation, but if the government in this country actually taxes people for what they spend it will be torch and pitchfork time.
The other alternative is to cut spending, but that only happens catastrophically because it's politically impossible to do so systematically. So it happens catastrophically.
and the most expensive things on the shelves. Nutrition, real nutrition, is expensive, beware of cheap soya products too. So for that single working mother challenged to keep all her skin intact, does she have the time, education, experience, etc. to read labels for her child? Is Coke sponsoring that school along with vending machines within reach?
As I referred to earlier I admire the admire the way Lloyds is convinced that they can snap their fingers and the other 15 billion of equity will appear. Maybe they insure their own issues.
Or are taking $15B worth of CDS's out on themselves. That way, there's an opportunity for the to get involved. Can't have $15B sloshing around the financial sector without that!
all this talk of bonuses and retaining talent misses the more fundamental question- should banks supported with tax payer funds be engaging in any business that require bonus compensation (that is factors of the base salary) to retain staff. Distinguished from a bonus of 10-20% that used to be the norm back in the old days.
Slight OT. Warren Buffett bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad for $100.00 a share, a 31% premium of yesterdays closing. The was a BNSF financial advisor. The tentacles are everywhere.
We laugh at the Brits, but they are not paying $100 million bonuses to glorified civil servants to lend them their own money at a fat profit (at least in cash). The British government owns almost all of RBS and 43% of LLoyds. We own Citi and AIG. The price of talent presumably just went down. Anyone paying attention? We can get all the bankers we can stand for whatever 50,000 Sterling is today, and $1000 at Christmas if they behave.
So the mortgage started out as fixed, then changed to adj for some reason. Very strange, maybe she didn't understand or wasn't told it was adjustable in the first place?
I have, in the past, seen loans that were hyped as "fixed for 5 years".
oooh, thanks for that link gabyjan. We lived in the burbs there for 25 years and husband was employed by GTRI. So I'm always interested in whats going on there.
I'm an idiot. Why did I think Thune was a Democrat? He's a Republican which means his amendment has no shot at getting taken up by Reid.
It looks like the Unemployment Extension didn't get voted on yesterday.
As I suspected there may be enough Democrats willing to vote on TARP sunset? Or they are upset that Senate procedures are being blocked?
As it is, the political classes are focused on the special elections...
Ever since I was a young man,
I've watched the price of silver fall.
From $48 down to $4
The first bubble I ever saw.
but I ain't seen nothing like him
In any recent haul.
That wealthy, plump, kid brother
Sure played a mean downfall.
Darn right, yogi. And I, for one, would find being face-sucked by the much more pleasant if it had an English accent, preferably East-end. What's cockney rhyming slang for "collateralized debt obligation?"
Here is the irony- if the small government people actually required that the government tax people for the level of spending there would be a stronger constituency for small government. Right now the American people are getting a 1/3 off sale on government- whats not to like. Has anybody seen the mobs that gather when a store announces they are going out of business and offer 20% off.
Almost all complaining about a stimulus will be pretense to keep the charade of a "free" market alive. Only dingbats like Sean Hannity still actually believe in the notion of free market capitalism.
Once we committed ourselves to never allowing deflation, the government became our eCONomy. It started with FDR and was taken to a new level by Reagan. Obama has no intentions of letting the free market work. None whatsoever.
whats hilarious is people who won't drink diet coke because it contains an artificial sweetner but then go onto drink regular coke with HFCS. I guess because it sounds so natural people think of it as natural- without realizing that it is totally artificial. HFCS doesn't exist in nature and requires an extensive chemical process to produce.
Excerpt from RFK: All this – questioning and uncertainty at home, divisive war abroad – has led us to a deep crisis of confidence: in our leadership, in each other, and in our very self as a nation. Today I would speak to you of the third of those great crises: of the war in Vietnam. I come here, to this serious forum in the heart of the nation to discuss with you why I regard our policy there as bankrupt: not on the basis of emotion, but fact; not, I hope, in clichés – but with a clear and discriminating sense of where the national interest really lies.
I do not want – as I believe most Americans do not want – to sell out American interests, to simply withdraw, to raise the white flag of surrender. That would be unacceptable to us as a country and as a people. But I am concerned – as I believe most Americans are concerned – that the course we are following at the present time is deeply wrong. I am concerned – as I believe most Americans are concerned – that we are acting as if no other nations existed, against the judgment and desires of neutrals and our historic allies alike. I am concerned – as I believe most Americans are concerned – that our present course will not bring victory; will not bring peace; will not stop the bloodshed; and will not advance the interests of the United States or the cause of peace in the world.
I am concerned that, at the end of it all, there will only be more Americans killed; more of our treasure spilled out; and because of the bitterness and hatred on every side of this war, more hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese slaughtered; so that they may say, as Tacitus said of Rome: "They made a desert, and called it peace."
And I do not think that is what the American spirit is really all about.
Let me begin this discussion with a note both personal and public. I was involved in many of the early decisions on Vietnam, decisions that helped set us on our present path. It may be that the effort was doomed from the start; that it was never really possible to bring all the people of South Vietnam under the rule of the successive governments we supported – governments, one after another, riddled with corruption, inefficiency, and greed; governments which did not and could not successfully capture and energize the national feeling of their people. If that is the case, as it well may be, and then I am willing to bear my share of the responsibility, before history and before my fellow citizens. But past error is no excuse for its own perpetuation. Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live. Now as ever, we do ourselves best justice when we measure ourselves against ancient tests, as in the Antigone of Sophocles: "All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only sin is pride."
The reversals of the last several months have led our military to ask for 206,000 more troops. Recently, it was announced that some of them – a "moderate" increase, it was said – would soon be sent. But isn't this exactly what we have always done in the past? If we examine the history of this conflict, we find the dismal story repeated time after time. Every time – at every crisis – we have denied that anything was wrong; sent more troops; and issued more confident communiqués. Every time, we have been assured that this one last step would bring victory. And every time, the predictions and promises have failed and been forgotten, and the demand has been made again for just one more step up the ladder.
Is he talking about Vietnam in 1968 or Afghanistan in 2009!
It's amazing that in a culture that values equity, bonuses paid to high income earners (US equiv: $78,000) is deemed so offensive so as not to even be attempted to be snuck in. However, here in the US, people buy hook, line, and sinker that no one will work without the promise of a $1 million dollar pay day at the end of the year.
black star ranch.
if you have student loans and got any stimulus something is very wrong. because if your name comes up as oweing anything to fed or state govs or child support ,you do not get check,it goes to whoever you owe.mine went to student loans. they sent me letter acknowledging payment. just saying.
“It all smells to me a bit of politics and the start of election campaigning,” said Lothar Mentel, chief investment officer at Octopus Investments Ltd., which oversees $2 billion, including a stake in Lloyds. “The government wants to be seen as punishing the banks, whereas addressing the underlying problems of credit derivatives is a lot more complicated and less headline grabbing.” [It really is called Octopus]
It smells like someone's stake got diluted with piss. I guess he won't jump to lend that other $15 billion. Not sure how Lothar would solve the credit derivatives problem, but if has a stake in Lloyd's, I suppose he feels the measly $51 billion is punishment.
Almost all complaining about a stimulus will be pretense to keep the charade of a "free" market alive. Only dingbats like Sean Hannity still actually believe in the notion of free market capitalism.
Once we committed ourselves to never allowing deflation, the government became our eCONomy. It started with FDR and was taken to a new level by Reagan. Obama has no intentions of letting the free market work. None whatsoever.
No free market means no individual economic freedom. They're the same thing.
Either you have free markets or we're all indentured servants.
Personally I think free markets have been made necessary by the complexity of modern economies -- attempts to excessively restrain free markets will lead to economic collapse because the government doesn't have the means to collect and process the information needed to manage the economy.
This has to be done on a distributed granular basis or we have to vastly reduce the complexity of the economy, which incidentally is how economists like to define economic collapse.
Now, Reagan excerpts (he was focused on higher education:
Our nation is founded on a concern for the individual and his right to fulfillment, and this should be the preoccupation of our schools and colleges.The graduate should go forth, literally starting on a lifetime of learning and growing and creativity that will in turn bring growth and innovation to our society. And the truth is - never in history has there been such a need for men and women of wisdom and courage - to absorb the knowledge of the past and plan its application to the present and future and courage to make the hard decisions.
Unleashing Individual Genius
At Stanford University in 1906 William James said, "The wealth of a nation consists more than in anything else in the number of superior men that it harbors." At the risk of great oversimplification may I suggest that the great ideological split dividing us on the world scene and here within our own borders has to do with the place of the individual.
Acceptance is given more and more to the concept of lifting men by mass movements and collective action, in spite of the fact that history is strangely barren of any record of advances made in this manner. By contrast, the road from the swamp to the stars is studded with the names of individuals who achieved fulfillment and lifted mankind another rung.
It is time we realized what we mean by "equality" and being "born equal''. We are equal before God and the law and our society guarantees that no acquisition of property during our lifetime nor achievement, no matter how exemplary, should give us more protection than those of less prestige, nor should it exempt us from any of the restrictions and punishments imposed by law.
But let there be no misunderstanding about the right of man to achieve above the capacity of his fellows. The world is richer because of a Shakespeare and a Tennyson, a Beethoven and a Brahms. Certainly major league baseball would not be improved by letting every citizen who wanted to have a turn at playing Willie Mays' position. We live (even many so-called poor) at a level above the wildest dreams of the kings of one hundred years ago-because some individual thought of a horseless carriage, an ice box and later a refrigerator, or machinery that lifted burdens from our backs. (I would have thrown in television if I were still appearing on Death Valley Days.)
Why did so much of this develop so far and fast in America? Other countries are blessed with natural resources and equable climate - yes, and energetic and talented people. But here, to a degree unequalled any place in the world, we unleashed the individual genius of man, recognized his inherent dignity, and rewarded him commensurate with his ability and achievement.
... We need you asking why, if we are so prosperous, should the numbers of those on welfare increase each year? Shouldn't welfare, if it is successful, be reducing the need for itself? Will we consider it a success when all of us are on public subsistence or should we judge its success on how many people it rescues from the dole? We need answers to crime and why it has reached a critical point. Just blaming it on poverty will not do, because in the poverty of the great depression crime was at its lowest level and now in prosperity it has reached its peak.
Higher education in contemporary America has a sacred obligation to instill attitudes toward growth and learning that will in turn shape society. You are here to find yourselves as individuals to at least have a chance to realize your potential. The world is full of people who believe men need masters. Our society was founded on a different premise, but continuation of this way of ours is not inevitable. It will persist only if we care enough. We must care too much to settle for a non-competitive mediocrity. Only the best that is in each of us will do.
39K pounds is closer to $64K USD. Amazing the brits would feel justified in cutting bonusus to rank and file employees earning mid 5 figure equivalent salaries.
There are no "food stamps" anymore. It looks just like a credit card now. That's why it's hard to make out the 1 in 9 Americans as they swipe their plastic, that only eat because of the prospect of a free lunch, dinner and breakfast.
it's a very limited sample set, but the financial industry's reports/outlooks/trading is extremely sensitive to any employment and/or pay cuts within 1 or 2 degrees of separation. in my opinion. I think that's why Lehman had a much deeper impact than just the actual process of bk.
I'm an idiot. Why did I think Thune was a Democrat? He's a Republican which means his amendment has no shot at getting taken up by Reid.
Corker introduced a TARP related oversight amendment yesterday before the deadline - haven't had a chance to digest it yet. It can be viewed at: Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress)
primary dealers are required to submit a bid, not necessarily a winning bid
Or what, the FED takes them off the guest list? The primary dealer system is obsolete with Treasury Direct anyway. In fact, the best sales pitch the US has left is to cut out the middle man. Factory direct, why pay more? We'll finance you at .25%!!! What do you need a dealer to price a T-bond for, can't you read?
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 3, 2009
Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical company, said Tuesday it would trim layers of management, cut jobs, and make other restructuring moves in order to save up to $900 million next year.
The company, based in New Brunswick, N.J., said the job cuts would affect 6 to 7 percent of its global work force of roughly 118,700 workers and prompt a pretax restructuring charge of up to $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter. Still, the company confirmed its profit forecast of $4.54 and $4.59 a share for 2009.
Has anyone been able to find out when Berkshire's acquisition of BNI is expected to close? I'm thinking about buying it here at $97 and change. Tried EDGAR but the documents aren't there yet.
I think the biggest British concern will end up being the evaporation of sponsorship money for golf, wimbeldon, and soccer. English Premier League might have to re-locate in another country if/once the credit bubble linked sponsors don't renew at the same levels. They already lost Vauxhall to Germany
Atrios points out that the entire budget of the UK's nationalized health service is $100 billion. So this bailout (not counting earlier taxpayer injections) is ONE-HALF the entire cost of health care for one year for the entire country.
Aren't bankers lucky duckies?
Meanwhile, DJ reports:
General Electric and the cable giant Comcast have moved closer to a deal giving control of NBC Universal to Comcast, and a formal announcement could be made sometime next week, people briefed on the talks said Sunday. After a series of meetings last week, the two companies reached a tentative agreement on Friday over the main points of a deal, these people said. Comcast would own about 51 percent of NBC Universal, contributing several billions of dollars in cash and its own stable of cable networks to the new venture.
...
G.E., which currently owns 80 percent of the entertainment company, would retain the other 49 percent and would contribute about $12 billion in debt to the new entity, though it is expected eventually to sell its ownership interest over several years.
Comcast is yet another We are in reach of having only one cable owner to tell us what to think, when Murdock eats Comcast before retiring to his fair and balanced lair.
Back to BFF - the WSJ has an article today on the FDIC using its powers to assess losses at resolved banks against healthy banks owned by the same holding company. Citizens National Bank and Park National Bank, owned by FBOP Corp, were well capitalized and profitable, but they refused to shoulder the losses of their six sister banks, so the FDIC took them over, too, reducing overall losses to the DIF. Glad to see the FDIC use that power - which they rarely do.
okay the other one for business,basel too.chapter 11? 13? there is another one and i can think of it,and im too lazy to hunt my computer. please....
it was chapter 11 they filed.got google trained.
Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical company, said Tuesday it would trim layers of management, cut jobs, and make other restructuring moves
Like to see the international distribution of cuts. It'll probably be a net ADD in China & India. This would have been a better story had they done thie release at the same time obama held his job creation summit yesterday. Guess O neglected to invite J&J so they elected to throw a tantrum.
bearly
sort of suprised about this but could be just jumping on "lets get lean and mean" like business do blaming it all on the recession.
wait a minute we're in recovery now. so it just the get leaner and meaner all by itself.
I thought one of the primary recovery themes was that corporate America has cut all the fat, so the big layoffs are behind us. Did they not get the memo?
chapter 11 is a reorganization. you pretend not to be done, enter into a plan to repay creditors at X cents on the dollar over time.
Then you come back in a few months to get more gov't money while delaying your reentry into Ch 11. Then, you refile for Ch 11 or get shotgun married to a competitor.
.
It isn't codified, but it should be.
Thats a big , more for them! Hire workers in Asia that will work for the price of a bowl of rice and a bunk bed. Meanwhile that Heparin used to clear out your IV in the hospital is a death sentence with no consequences to the company that provides it sole source and is mfg in Asia.
Terry,
Reid has already agreed to the Corker amendment. It establishes a trust that will take care of the US stake in any TARP bailed out company. I thought they were saying it was companies in which the US has a 20% stake (might've been a previous amendment), but the amendment yesterday had 10% as the threshold.
Has anyone been able to find out when Berkshire's acquisition of BNI is expected to close? I'm thinking about buying it here at $97 and change. Tried EDGAR but the documents aren't there yet.
From the press release (and note GS involvement):
Terms of the Transaction
The definitive agreement provides that each share of BNI common stock will at the election of the shareholder be converted into the right to receive either (i) a cash payment of $100.00 or (ii) a variable number of shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class A or Class B common stock, subject to proration if the elections do not equal approximately 60 percent in cash and 40 percent in stock. The stock component of the consideration is subject to a “collar” whereby the value of each Berkshire Hathaway share received is fixed at $100.00 if the price of Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock at closing is between approximately $80,000.00 and approximately $125,000.00 per share. If the value of Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock is outside of this collar range at closing, then the number of shares received of Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock will be fixed at either 0.001253489 per BNI share for values below the collar range, or 0.000802233 per BNI share for values above the collar range. The shareholder may receive Class A or, in lieu of fractional Class A shares, equivalent economic value of Class B Berkshire Hathaway shares, subject to certain limitations as described in the definitive agreement.
The transaction requires approval by holders of two-thirds of BNI’s outstanding shares (other than shares held by Berkshire Hathaway), and customary closing conditions, including Department of Justice review. Closing is expected to occur during the first quarter of 2010.
BNSF Railway Company will continue to focus on providing outstanding service to its customers from its Fort Worth, TX headquarters. Included in the transaction are all assets and subsidiaries of BNSF.
Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Evercore Partners, Inc. acted as financial advisors to BNSF and the company’s legal counsel is Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP. Berkshire Hathaway’s transaction counsel is Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP.
No, their idea of "fat" is trimming the 550 lb waistline. They conveniently ignore the arms and legs. Then, they ignore the fact that the average "american" used to weigh 125 lbs not 185 lbs. Saying that there is no more fat to cut in gov't or corporate america is just wrong. Granted, they could shed their own fat via salary and benes and lead from the front, but that is unAmerican.
The first wave of foreclosures was foreclosures caused by unaffordable loan terms," said John Groene, associate director of planning and neighborhood strategy at Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago. "The second wave is job cuts, less overtime, job loss. A year ago, two years ago, the average interest rate of the loans we were dealing with was 9 percent. Now we're seeing more people in the 6 percent range. You're seeing people with good loans, but there's something else going in their life."
Apropos of nothing, I happen to know the CEO of Comcast, and I trust his integrity far beyond the reaches of the . I think he is smart enough to see the internet easily swallowing cable, and wants the family business to adapt.
Sell in December, don’t forget to remember.
Sell in January, the market is hairy
Sell in February...does Bret Favre pronounce that “R”?
Sell in March and buy .
Sell in April; if you don’t then I will.
Sell in May and walk away.
Sell in June before the swoon.
Sell in July – why would I lie?
Sell in August, this advice you must trust.
Sell in September (what rhymes with “September”?)
Sell in October, the rally is over.
if the housing market were allowed to clear, even if just free from government interference, it wouldn't be homeowners who lose
there are too many vacant homes, and any money coming in is better than losing money on maintenance + taxes. everyone would have a credible walk away threat
I like the british way better. much cleaner. give the banks any money they need to stay solvent, take equity share in exchange, and delay all bonuses until there is a pool of profits from which to pay them. whoever in the treasury or fed proposed letting the banks heal their balance sheets over time like volcker did for the latin american debt crisis, is a complete idiot that can't see more than half a step ahead
Terry,
My take:
- Companies the US has 10% equity stake in will be held by 3 trustees appointed by the President.
- This was a recommendation from Ms. Warren's COP, I believe.
- Seems like there is some nebulous exception regarding FRBNY and "special purpose vehicles". I'm probably just paranoid.
Text excerpts are below: The President shall appoint 3 trustees, managers, or directors (in this section referred to as ``trustees''), to manage the equity held in a TARP Trust.
Consistent with the goal of protecting the interests and investment of the United States taxpayer, with the purpose of maintaining economic stability and maximizing the return on investment to the taxpayer in a reasonable period of time, the trustees of the TARP Trust shall--
(A) exercise the voting rights of any shares held by the TARP Trust, in accordance with the voting principles;
(B) not participate in the day-to-day management of any designated TARP recipient;
(C) develop and implement a plan of disposition;
(D) develop an annual operating budget for its operations, which shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary, and conduct the operations of the TARP Trust in accordance with that budget;
(E) provide for an accounting of the books and records of the TARP Trust that is audited on an annual basis, as well as monthly unaudited accounting and reporting, and such other reports as the Secretary shall require;
(F) hire such employees, advisors, and agents as may be required, define their duties, and determine their compensation, without regard to the provisions of title 5, United States Code, or other laws related to the appointment, compensation, or termination of Federal employees;
(G) enter into such contracts as may be required, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;
( comply with standards and practices of the Secretary with respect to custody of assets, cash management services, and related activities including depositing the net cash proceeds of any disposition of assets in an account established by the Secretary pursuant to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008; and
(I) comply with the requirements of the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 (2 U.S.C. 661 et seq.) and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (12 U.S.C. 5221 et seq.) with respect to budgeting, accounting, and financial reporting.
The trustees shall liquidate a TARP Trust, including the assets held by such trust, not later than December 24, 2011, unless--
(i) the trustees submit a report to the Congress that liquidation would not maintain financial stability or maximize the return on investment to the taxpayer; and
(ii) not later than 15 calendar days after the date on which the Congress receives such report, there is not enacted into law a joint resolution disapproving the extension, as described in subparagraph (B).
(Sub-para B is a legislative rules mess to me, spaghetti!)
Similar oversight/audit provisions as the TARP.
`designated TARP recipient'' means any entity that has received, or receives, financial assistance under the Troubled Asset Relief Program or any other provision of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-343), such that the Department of the Treasury holds or controls, as of the date of enactment of this Act, or will hold or control at a future date, not less than a 10 percent ownership stake in the outstanding equity that ordinarily votes in the election of directors (except that warrants to acquire voting equity shall not be included in such determination, unless and until exercised) in the company as a result of such assistance, other than any investment fund created under the Public Private Investment Partnership Program under TARP or any other special purpose vehicle that was created in connection with purchasing or insuring troubled assets, except that stock held in a trust of which the trustees were appointed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shall not be deemed held or controlled by the Department of the Treasury for purposes of this section;
G.E., which currently owns 80 percent of the entertainment company, would retain the other 49 percent and would contribute about $12 billion in debt to the new entity, though it is expected eventually to sell its ownership interest over several years.
eg: we have found a way to circumvent market pricing with continuation of mark to dreams for the NBC Universal unit
I can see why the Democrats don't want to end TARP as well. There are still programs that haven't been rolled out; and ending the TARP right now; wouldn't that stop and hinder HAMP as well as whatever small business assistance the administration is going to pursue?
The mortgage unit of Citigroup says one in five borrowers who defaults does so willingly, even though they're able to pay the mortgage. "It's a very large number, and it's a very, very significant risk to the housing recovery," says Sanjiv Das, CEO of CitiMortgage, adding that new government programs to curb strategic defaults may be needed.
First of all a big HOOCOODANODE on the walkaways.
I can just envision the government program... a $10,000 tax credit if you agree not to strategically default and make the bank take a mark on their balance sheet. No sacrifice is too large to save the banks!
Public broadband option, baby.
Cheaper than antitrust litigation by a long shot. Information is a public good. Superhighway jobs at $64,000-- free access and health care as bonus.
Program under TARP or any other special purpose vehicle that was created in connection with purchasing or insuring troubled assets, except that stock held in a trust of which the trustees were appointed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shall not be deemed held or controlled by the Department of the Treasury for purposes of this section;
Instant migraine! So I have a stupid question, are the other alphabet soup programs of the fed like TALF included as part of TARP or are those the "special purpose vehicles" they refer to??
I don't like comcast. Their owner is partner in crime with Gary Bettman in doing their best to ruin the NHL.
Care to elaborate? I have Comcast.... they carry VS, they carry NHL. (and I get both in HD). They carry Center Ice, and this year added an HD Center Ice channel.
What are they doing to kill the game? I get almost as much HD hockey now as I did when I lived in NJ, where I used to get every Rags/Isles/Devils game in HD.
Q: if the US govt takes an 80% or more stake in a company, they have to consolidate balance sheets (company debt gets added to government debt)
What are the equivalent thresholds in the UK, Europe, Japan, or any other country you know of off-hand? (it's because of some accounting standard. maybe GAAP)
Thanks guys. So you buy the BNI here at $97.50 and if everything goes right make roughly a 6% annualized return if the thing closes successfully by the end of March 2010. I'll probably do this for a portion of my IRA.
Buffet buying rest of BNI railroad. Given he has inside information from the WH and row, what are the implications? Some major stimulus coming for the railroads?
"whoever in the treasury or fed proposed letting the banks heal their balance sheets over time like volcker did for the latin american debt crisis, is a complete idiot that can't see more than half a step ahead"
And they also have a poor grasp of recent economic history. Japan couldn't bring themselves to restructure their banking system even as rigor mortis set in. Instead they did round after round of stimulus to try and keep the economy functioning and people employed. 20 years later some are projecting that JP govt debt will hit 250% of GDP in the next 3 years. Absent truly draconian spending cuts and tax increases they will have passed the "event horizon" of the debt black hole.
I realize there are differences in our economies, cultures, demographics, etc..., but the American policy response has been a rerun of Japan in the early 90s. This is not encouraging.
Thanks guys. So you buy the BNI here at $97.50 and if everything goes right make roughly a 6% annualized return if the thing closes successfully by the end of March 2010. I'll probably do this for a portion of my IRA.
I haven't looked too closely, but there's two provisions in the agreement that may make the return less than that.
1) they decide whether you get cash or stock, depending on the aggregate election of shareholders
2) You might not get $100 worth of stock, if there's a huge move in BRK between now and then. There's a lower bound at $80,000, below that you still only get .001253489 BRK shares no matter how far it falls, so if it goes to $70,000, you might lose.
... adding that new government programs to curb strategic defaults may be needed.
I don't see very many carrots out there for underwater homeowners, or any other "real people" for that matter, so I can only assume that they want a bigger stick. Sounds ominous. Sounds like a call for "homeowner re-education camps."
I guess the only thing I can say is "Go for it, squid." You can't get blood from a stone, and if people CANNOT pay, it follows that they WILL NOT pay.
Eric
You can't get versus in a single hotel room in the US for one.
It is no longer available on direct tv. When available, it is in an extra tier. Fans complain about the matchups they do/don't show, that they use the pundit instead of analyst intermission shows.
It's getting into league politics, but Comcast owner owns the Philadelphia Flyers and is one of a core group keeping Gary Bettman in power in exchange for what amount to kickbacks.
The NHL could have been on Fox and got quality exposure, but instead it is harder to watch than time delayed soccer or live bowling. Versus (formerly OLN) has had years to get its distribution in order, and it shows regression in losing Direct TV instead of the long awaited progression
first and with out my 2nd
yep you first
disgraced predecessor, Sir Fred Goodwin aka Freddy the Shredder
"In return for receiving billions of pounds more of taxpayers' money, the Treasury said, both banks will not pay cash bonuses for 2009 to any staff earning more than 39,000 a year"
How are they going to keep talent? Will never happen in the US, or can it?
How are they going to keep talent? Will never happen in the US, or can it?
They only said no CASH bonuses.
Big big big big big loophole.
.......Pretty simple concept...........there's no such thing as "simple" here......
in case you didn't catch this story
India Buys IMF Gold to Boost Reserves as Dollar Drops (Update2) - Bloomberg.com
I would watch carefully the moves of the Indian Central bank- they have large enough reserves to be meaningful yet small enough that they (unlike the Chinese) have the option of diversifying out of the dollar.
BINGO! and as I posted previously RBS is a primary dealer for the Fed. Just wait until the citizens of the UK figure out they are buying expensive UST-notes as another poster here said.
Spinning goodness. These institutions are broke and its crew should get no bonus period. Heck, the corporate entity is insolvent and shouldn't by paying anybody much less employees over 39k GBP/yr. Orwell would be proud.
nanoo-nanoo
should we tell them?
Study: Half of U.S. kids will receive food stamps.
Study: Half of U.S. kids will receive food stamps - USATODAY.com
So more than a year after Lehman, and we're still pumping more atropine into the living corpse that is the global financial system.
Greenlee will be sent to oversee northern Alaskan credit unions for daring to speak the truth yesterday.
These days I wish I had a journalism degree and some big time contacts. Wonder if the the proud traditions of the UK of old will return with a lot of pitchforks?
First
at 4AM here.
at 5:30
Second
Thoughts from last thread...
These two categories will not increase significantly until the number of excess housing units is reduced
Talking Heads
51Billion. So what? More money, more faster. The sooner the numbers become beyond ridiculous, the sooner the collapse and new paradigm can begin.
[numerous electrons were killed for this comment]
chainsaw
more and more people are speaking the truth,little by little, and tptb havent been listening.
,rads
Why does this Area $51 Billion giveaway seem eerily similar to "Dumb & Dumber", starring Lloyd Christmas?
yogi-check the last
thread for a response to you. 
I'm CONtinually amazed at the lengths these dingbat Central Bankers and Treasury officials will go to in order to prevent the value of fraudulent bank credit from deflating.
To what end?
The Fed and Central banks around the world are papering over their own mistakes. They failed to regulate and allowed greedy bankers to poison the money system with tens of trillions in non-economically viable debt.
Who benefits from these repeated historic bailouts? The same people that benefit from inflation and the issuance of the fraudulent credit.
Productive work is for the little people.
The Treasury will inject 25.5 billion pounds of capital into RBS, for a total of 45.5 billion pounds, making it the costliest bailout of any bank worldwide.
I'll take "Short-Lived Records" for $400, Alex.
non-economically viable debt.
You missed a "CON".
I'll take "Short-Lived Records" for $400, Alex.
DAILY DOUBLE!!!
How much would you like to wager?
DAILY DOUBLE!!!
How much would you like to wager?
Don't ask me; ask my children and grandchildren.
shill wrote:
Unfortunately, it's the half that are already overweight-
ooh today is going to be another interesting day,lots of stuff coming up on the calendar.
it is a sinking pit
investing contrarian
link deleted by kcoop
We haven't even begun to see the unintended CONsequences of our Government's recent debt binge or the Fed's massive interventions in our "free" markets.
What are the odds the positives outweigh the negatives for the majority? The opening over under is a trillion to 1.
Nelson Bunker Hunt
soaps are boring,i mean nothing like this.
Sir Fred Goodwindfall for bankers comes through with another GIANT bailout and an even bigger bonus loophole.
"A billion dollars isn't what it used to be."
Neither are you and I.
The 21st C update to that remark is: "a trillion dollars ...."
Unfortunately, it's the half that are already overweight-
-11
Unfortunately, it's the half that don't get any kind of meal before leaving for school in the morning.
Anonymous Bosch wrote:
Don't believe it; our underclass is eating itself to death. Type II diabetes at the age of 10, etc.
What the hell? I have it on good authority that the banks were already fixed. Was I... um... lied to?
Soda is cheaper than milk.
When the truth is found to be lies. And all the joy within you dies. - Jefferson Airplane.
Our eCONomy is all a big lie. A giant sham. It takes tens of trillions of Government and Fed guarantees to keep the truth at bay.
oh I know! I was being flip. I've been ocd over all this for a long time as I suspect you have. Banking should be a boring utilitarian part of life. Instead we get oscar caliber performances and thrillers.
Can't get it up anymore financially?
Ask your doctor if Loanagra* is right for you!
*Side-effects include jibbering, jabbering, loss of confidence, weak knees and trapezoidism.
check labels Cinco: High fructose corn syrup anyone? We all eat boatloads of it, for kids developmentally, this can't be good. Its in EVERYTHING.
A few judiciously placed EMPs would solve a lot of problems.
Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200. (or $2 quadrillion in electrons)
josap
last year i was hoping like everything that gas prices would not be as high as milk prices.
Nanoo, you are so right about the corn sugars.
I bought potato salad in the store, had corn sugar, honest to g, in salad. Tasted pretty bad and I tossed it out. They should ban that stuff,.
I bet a decline in stocks right now would help make it easier to sell another stimulus package.
cr writes: "That does mean we will be making extensive use of deferred payments and payments in shares."
pushing out millions if not billions in bonuses to 2012 means they defer into a future where inflation may eat up a significant part of the amount, and who knows what the share price might be then
of course, it all comes to a resounding end in 2012
My wife and I cut it out of our diets to the best of our abilities. We are much healthier and for my part, I don't 'sugar crash' like I always used to.
It's easy to find bread that is HFCS free. And it's not in meat or fresh vegetables.
When EU hits 10%, stocks are down, gas is up, people will be screaming for more stimulus.
MSM is hinting at it, getting J6P to accept is as "we knew it would come".
,rad pavel,
To set the stage, the quote from Hunt came after he testified in from of the Senate in the early 1980's, when a Senator asked about his losing billions of dollars in trying to corner the physical silver market, and it was not only a great quote, but also an admission of how much he and brother William lost, when they pushed the price of silver from $6 to $48, but they were the only buyers, as it turned out.
Back when a billion was a Billion~
Silver bottomed at around $4 per oz in the intervening years...
ac
can they ppt work that way,sell instead of buy? and the other name of the ppt is the president's working ...,something like that?
I CAN HAZ STIMOOLUS PLEZ!
AAAAHHHH!!!1!1!!!!!!!!
can they ppt work that way,sell instead of buy?
Tell me you're not actually asking if the govt CAN do something?
I bet a decline in stocks right now would help make it easier to sell another stimulus package.
We'll be getting stimulus packages for years on end. Decades even. And all the while we'll be hearing politicians and eCONomists talking about keeping the "deficit" under CONtrol.
It's all a big lie. Government spending IS our eCONomy.
Sell in November before you're dismembered.
ditto, nan.
As I referred to earlier I admire the admire the way Lloyds is convinced that they can snap their fingers and the other 15 billion of equity will appear. Maybe they insure their own issues.
Anyone else selling paper out there?
,rad token,
Throw down your CAP-gun and come out real nice and easy like-hands where I can see them, no funny business.
Angry Saver wrote:
Agree 100%
And it will be for many years is my guess.
ac
can they ppt work that way,sell instead of buy? and the other name of the ppt is the president's working ...,something like that?
They can just call some of their FCB buddies and have them put a bid on the dollar.
Likewise when you give the investment banks billions in wealth taken from taxpayers you get owed a few favors by the big players in the market.
eric please forgive me,havent had enough coffee.wasnt thinking.
Make it a Decembris to dismember?
bellweather elections for another stimulus. VA and NJ governor's races.
comp2.png (image)
txchick57 has this one up in clusterstock comment section. low volume, short term NAZ breakout coming up?
We'll be getting stimulus packages for years on end. Decades even. And all the while we'll be hearing politicians and eCONomists talking about keeping the "deficit" under CONtrol.
The problem is that tactic usually fails after a while. The stimulus money is basically wealth redistribution from people holding your currency and bonds.
So people stop holding your currency and bonds.
The alternative is taxation, but if the government in this country actually taxes people for what they spend it will be torch and pitchfork time.
The other alternative is to cut spending, but that only happens catastrophically because it's politically impossible to do so systematically. So it happens catastrophically.
Are we going to marvel at the demand vacuum created by C4C today? I think so.
Jonathan wrote:
and the most expensive things on the shelves. Nutrition, real nutrition, is expensive, beware of cheap soya products too. So for that single working mother challenged to keep all her skin intact, does she have the time, education, experience, etc. to read labels for her child? Is Coke sponsoring that school along with vending machines within reach?
Ooops ot sorry. Too passionate about this stuff.
As I referred to earlier I admire the admire the way Lloyds is convinced that they can snap their fingers and the other 15 billion of equity will appear. Maybe they insure their own issues.
Or are taking $15B worth of CDS's out on themselves. That way, there's an opportunity for the
to get involved. Can't have $15B sloshing around the financial sector without that!
aort of on topic just wrong country
State's bank bust draws Congressional panel | ajc.com
ps aort should read sort.
all this talk of bonuses and retaining talent misses the more fundamental question- should banks supported with tax payer funds be engaging in any business that require bonus compensation (that is factors of the base salary) to retain staff. Distinguished from a bonus of 10-20% that used to be the norm back in the old days.
Slight OT. Warren Buffett bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad for $100.00 a share, a 31% premium of yesterdays closing. The
was a BNSF financial advisor. The tentacles are everywhere.
We laugh at the Brits, but they are not paying $100 million bonuses to glorified civil servants to lend them their own money at a fat profit (at least in cash). The British government owns almost all of RBS and 43% of LLoyds. We own Citi and AIG. The price of talent presumably just went down. Anyone paying attention? We can get all the bankers we can stand for whatever 50,000 Sterling is today, and $1000 at Christmas if they behave.
So the mortgage started out as fixed, then changed to adj for some reason. Very strange, maybe she didn't understand or wasn't told it was adjustable in the first place?
I have, in the past, seen loans that were hyped as "fixed for 5 years".
oooh, thanks for that link gabyjan. We lived in the burbs there for 25 years and husband was employed by GTRI. So I'm always interested in whats going on there.
Re: TARP Sunset as part of Unemployment Extension
I'm an idiot. Why did I think Thune was a Democrat? He's a Republican which means his amendment has no shot at getting taken up by Reid.
It looks like the Unemployment Extension didn't get voted on yesterday.
As I suspected there may be enough Democrats willing to vote on TARP sunset? Or they are upset that Senate procedures are being blocked?
As it is, the political classes are focused on the special elections...
YLSP wrote:
Yep, while hundreds of thousands loose EU benifits and move into their cars.
See Food, Inc. movie. Extremely enlightening.
Ever since I was a young man,
I've watched the price of silver fall.
From $48 down to $4
The first bubble I ever saw.
but I ain't seen nothing like him
In any recent haul.
That wealthy, plump, kid brother
Sure played a mean downfall.
Darn right, yogi. And I, for one, would find being face-sucked by the
much more pleasant if it had an English accent, preferably East-end. What's cockney rhyming slang for "collateralized debt obligation?"
Here is the irony- if the small government people actually required that the government tax people for the level of spending there would be a stronger constituency for small government. Right now the American people are getting a 1/3 off sale on government- whats not to like. Has anybody seen the mobs that gather when a store announces they are going out of business and offer 20% off.
Nanoo-Nanoo wrote:
Are you saying that food stamps have HFC?
ac,
Almost all complaining about a stimulus will be pretense to keep the charade of a "free" market alive. Only dingbats like Sean Hannity still actually believe in the notion of free market capitalism.
Once we committed ourselves to never allowing deflation, the government became our eCONomy. It started with FDR and was taken to a new level by Reagan. Obama has no intentions of letting the free market work. None whatsoever.
bANK fAILURE wrote:
Where has txchick57 been anyway?
Naw.....you got the growth hormones and pesticides for THAT.........thank goodness I eat what's at home.
Cinco-X wrote:
whats hilarious is people who won't drink diet coke because it contains an artificial sweetner but then go onto drink regular coke with HFCS. I guess because it sounds so natural people think of it as natural- without realizing that it is totally artificial. HFCS doesn't exist in nature and requires an extensive chemical process to produce.
Free markets in the USA are an enduring myth. Once a government subsidy was accepted by business, the free market ceased to exist.
I offer two perspectives from decades ago about America (I found these while looking for text of Bair Speech yesterday from K-State:
Robert F Kennedy
Ronald Reagan
These speeches are from 1968 and 1967.
Excerpt from RFK:
All this – questioning and uncertainty at home, divisive war abroad – has led us to a deep crisis of confidence: in our leadership, in each other, and in our very self as a nation. Today I would speak to you of the third of those great crises: of the war in Vietnam. I come here, to this serious forum in the heart of the nation to discuss with you why I regard our policy there as bankrupt: not on the basis of emotion, but fact; not, I hope, in clichés – but with a clear and discriminating sense of where the national interest really lies.
I do not want – as I believe most Americans do not want – to sell out American interests, to simply withdraw, to raise the white flag of surrender. That would be unacceptable to us as a country and as a people. But I am concerned – as I believe most Americans are concerned – that the course we are following at the present time is deeply wrong. I am concerned – as I believe most Americans are concerned – that we are acting as if no other nations existed, against the judgment and desires of neutrals and our historic allies alike. I am concerned – as I believe most Americans are concerned – that our present course will not bring victory; will not bring peace; will not stop the bloodshed; and will not advance the interests of the United States or the cause of peace in the world.
I am concerned that, at the end of it all, there will only be more Americans killed; more of our treasure spilled out; and because of the bitterness and hatred on every side of this war, more hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese slaughtered; so that they may say, as Tacitus said of Rome: "They made a desert, and called it peace."
And I do not think that is what the American spirit is really all about.
Let me begin this discussion with a note both personal and public. I was involved in many of the early decisions on Vietnam, decisions that helped set us on our present path. It may be that the effort was doomed from the start; that it was never really possible to bring all the people of South Vietnam under the rule of the successive governments we supported – governments, one after another, riddled with corruption, inefficiency, and greed; governments which did not and could not successfully capture and energize the national feeling of their people. If that is the case, as it well may be, and then I am willing to bear my share of the responsibility, before history and before my fellow citizens. But past error is no excuse for its own perpetuation. Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live. Now as ever, we do ourselves best justice when we measure ourselves against ancient tests, as in the Antigone of Sophocles: "All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only sin is pride."
The reversals of the last several months have led our military to ask for 206,000 more troops. Recently, it was announced that some of them – a "moderate" increase, it was said – would soon be sent. But isn't this exactly what we have always done in the past? If we examine the history of this conflict, we find the dismal story repeated time after time. Every time – at every crisis – we have denied that anything was wrong; sent more troops; and issued more confident communiqués. Every time, we have been assured that this one last step would bring victory. And every time, the predictions and promises have failed and been forgotten, and the demand has been made again for just one more step up the ladder.
Is he talking about Vietnam in 1968 or Afghanistan in 2009!
"Natural", the most misleading marketing term ever.
yes, cinco has a modest proposal for them...
It's amazing that in a culture that values equity, bonuses paid to high income earners (US equiv: $78,000) is deemed so offensive so as not to even be attempted to be snuck in. However, here in the US, people buy hook, line, and sinker that no one will work without the promise of a $1 million dollar pay day at the end of the year.
black star ranch.
if you have student loans and got any stimulus something is very wrong. because if your name comes up as oweing anything to fed or state govs or child support ,you do not get check,it goes to whoever you owe.mine went to student loans. they sent me letter acknowledging payment. just saying.
always thought that the avoidance of artificial sweeteners had more to carcinogenic studies.
(I won't drink anything other than water and coffee. Actually, I subsist on coffee.)
It smells like someone's stake got diluted with piss. I guess he won't jump to lend that other $15 billion. Not sure how Lothar would solve the credit derivatives problem, but if has a stake in Lloyd's, I suppose he feels the measly $51 billion is punishment.
bonuses paid to high income earners (US equiv: $78,000) is deemed so offensive so as not to even be attempted to be snuck in.
They barred cash bonuses.
Do you seriously think those guys aren't actually going to get paid?
yogi, re: last thread
primary dealers are required to submit a bid, not necessarily a winning bid
AS,
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_jbs0fnMs1sc/SunS1dWNyZI/AAAAAAAAAMU/K2ktVb81EiU/s1600-h/YoY_Delta_PP-GSB_qrtrly.PNG
,rad YLSP,
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions- and financed by China.
fwiw
I liked the british bailout better than the us one. The main difference was they promised to recapitalize the banks in a transparent manner
ac,
Almost all complaining about a stimulus will be pretense to keep the charade of a "free" market alive. Only dingbats like Sean Hannity still actually believe in the notion of free market capitalism.
Once we committed ourselves to never allowing deflation, the government became our eCONomy. It started with FDR and was taken to a new level by Reagan. Obama has no intentions of letting the free market work. None whatsoever.
No free market means no individual economic freedom. They're the same thing.
Either you have free markets or we're all indentured servants.
Personally I think free markets have been made necessary by the complexity of modern economies -- attempts to excessively restrain free markets will lead to economic collapse because the government doesn't have the means to collect and process the information needed to manage the economy.
This has to be done on a distributed granular basis or we have to vastly reduce the complexity of the economy, which incidentally is how economists like to define economic collapse.
Cinco-X wrote:
Despite the name, food stamps are not edible.
What happened to the smug RBS, "Make it HAPPEN" ads ?
Now, Reagan excerpts (he was focused on higher education:
Our nation is founded on a concern for the individual and his right to fulfillment, and this should be the preoccupation of our schools and colleges.The graduate should go forth, literally starting on a lifetime of learning and growing and creativity that will in turn bring growth and innovation to our society. And the truth is - never in history has there been such a need for men and women of wisdom and courage - to absorb the knowledge of the past and plan its application to the present and future and courage to make the hard decisions.
Unleashing Individual Genius
At Stanford University in 1906 William James said, "The wealth of a nation consists more than in anything else in the number of superior men that it harbors." At the risk of great oversimplification may I suggest that the great ideological split dividing us on the world scene and here within our own borders has to do with the place of the individual.
Acceptance is given more and more to the concept of lifting men by mass movements and collective action, in spite of the fact that history is strangely barren of any record of advances made in this manner. By contrast, the road from the swamp to the stars is studded with the names of individuals who achieved fulfillment and lifted mankind another rung.
It is time we realized what we mean by "equality" and being "born equal''. We are equal before God and the law and our society guarantees that no acquisition of property during our lifetime nor achievement, no matter how exemplary, should give us more protection than those of less prestige, nor should it exempt us from any of the restrictions and punishments imposed by law.
But let there be no misunderstanding about the right of man to achieve above the capacity of his fellows. The world is richer because of a Shakespeare and a Tennyson, a Beethoven and a Brahms. Certainly major league baseball would not be improved by letting every citizen who wanted to have a turn at playing Willie Mays' position. We live (even many so-called poor) at a level above the wildest dreams of the kings of one hundred years ago-because some individual thought of a horseless carriage, an ice box and later a refrigerator, or machinery that lifted burdens from our backs. (I would have thrown in television if I were still appearing on Death Valley Days.)
Why did so much of this develop so far and fast in America? Other countries are blessed with natural resources and equable climate - yes, and energetic and talented people. But here, to a degree unequalled any place in the world, we unleashed the individual genius of man, recognized his inherent dignity, and rewarded him commensurate with his ability and achievement.
...
We need you asking why, if we are so prosperous, should the numbers of those on welfare increase each year? Shouldn't welfare, if it is successful, be reducing the need for itself? Will we consider it a success when all of us are on public subsistence or should we judge its success on how many people it rescues from the dole? We need answers to crime and why it has reached a critical point. Just blaming it on poverty will not do, because in the poverty of the great depression crime was at its lowest level and now in prosperity it has reached its peak.
Higher education in contemporary America has a sacred obligation to instill attitudes toward growth and learning that will in turn shape society. You are here to find yourselves as individuals to at least have a chance to realize your potential. The world is full of people who believe men need masters. Our society was founded on a different premise, but continuation of this way of ours is not inevitable. It will persist only if we care enough. We must care too much to settle for a non-competitive mediocrity. Only the best that is in each of us will do.
Gold/miners and stocks are starting to break their tight correlation, in favor of gold/miners.
GLD has moved ahead of SPY today for the first time in awhile.
energyecon,
That reminds me of the chart here: FRBSF Economic Letter: Inflation Expectations and the Risk of Deflation (2009-34, 11/2/2009)
energyecon,
Awesome chart. Our recent cliff dive is epic to say the least.
The situation is even worse than your chart shows if one considers that private incomes are declining while government incomes are increasing.
We're getting poorer. Preserving the value of trillions in fraudulent debt is a big mistake.
39K pounds is closer to $64K USD. Amazing the brits would feel justified in cutting bonusus to rank and file employees earning mid 5 figure equivalent salaries.
There are no "food stamps" anymore. It looks just like a credit card now. That's why it's hard to make out the 1 in 9 Americans as they swipe their plastic, that only eat because of the prospect of a free lunch, dinner and breakfast.
I had to look twice at that pic of Buffett on Bloomberg, for a minute rather than a hands up I thought it was the "live well and prosper" Spock.
Edit: It probably was just an evil
hallucination produced by something in my coffee that I wasn't aware of. 
it's a very limited sample set, but the financial industry's reports/outlooks/trading is extremely sensitive to any employment and/or pay cuts within 1 or 2 degrees of separation. in my opinion. I think that's why Lehman had a much deeper impact than just the actual process of bk.
The Brits wan't take it lying down, banks in UK revised their overdraft charges last year which cost banks mega mega bucks.
I'm an idiot. Why did I think Thune was a Democrat? He's a Republican which means his amendment has no shot at getting taken up by Reid.
Corker introduced a TARP related oversight amendment yesterday before the deadline - haven't had a chance to digest it yet. It can be viewed at: Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress)
Or what, the FED takes them off the guest list? The primary dealer system is obsolete with Treasury Direct anyway. In fact, the best sales pitch the US has left is to cut out the middle man. Factory direct, why pay more? We'll finance you at .25%!!! What do you need a dealer to price a T-bond for, can't you read?
What a great profession to be in. NO talk whatsoever of sacking the POSs who lose 51 billion. Now that's job security.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 3, 2009
Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical company, said Tuesday it would trim layers of management, cut jobs, and make other restructuring moves in order to save up to $900 million next year.
The company, based in New Brunswick, N.J., said the job cuts would affect 6 to 7 percent of its global work force of roughly 118,700 workers and prompt a pretax restructuring charge of up to $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter. Still, the company confirmed its profit forecast of $4.54 and $4.59 a share for 2009.
1 if by loan
2 if by seize
Paul Revere & the Raiders
someone please why paulson was supposed to have told lehman to file for chapter 7. instead they filed for chapter 12. whats the difference?
GOOD question.
chapter 12 bankruptcy is family farmers and fisherman....
Has anyone been able to find out when Berkshire's acquisition of BNI is expected to close? I'm thinking about buying it here at $97 and change. Tried EDGAR but the documents aren't there yet.
I think the biggest British concern will end up being the evaporation of sponsorship money for golf, wimbeldon, and soccer. English Premier League might have to re-locate in another country if/once the credit bubble linked sponsors don't renew at the same levels. They already lost Vauxhall to Germany
Atrios points out that the entire budget of the UK's nationalized health service is $100 billion. So this bailout (not counting earlier taxpayer injections) is ONE-HALF the entire cost of health care for one year for the entire country.
Aren't bankers lucky duckies?
Meanwhile, DJ reports:
General Electric and the cable giant Comcast have moved closer to a deal giving control of NBC Universal to Comcast, and a formal announcement could be made sometime next week, people briefed on the talks said Sunday. After a series of meetings last week, the two companies reached a tentative agreement on Friday over the main points of a deal, these people said. Comcast would own about 51 percent of NBC Universal, contributing several billions of dollars in cash and its own stable of cable networks to the new venture.
...
G.E., which currently owns 80 percent of the entertainment company, would retain the other 49 percent and would contribute about $12 billion in debt to the new entity, though it is expected eventually to sell its ownership interest over several years.
Comcast is yet another
We are in reach of having only one cable owner to tell us what to think, when Murdock eats Comcast before retiring to his fair and balanced lair.
Back to BFF - the WSJ has an article today on the FDIC using its powers to assess losses at resolved banks against healthy banks owned by the same holding company. Citizens National Bank and Park National Bank, owned by FBOP Corp, were well capitalized and profitable, but they refused to shoulder the losses of their six sister banks, so the FDIC took them over, too, reducing overall losses to the DIF. Glad to see the FDIC use that power - which they rarely do.
okay the other one for business,basel too.chapter 11? 13? there is another one and i can think of it,and im too lazy to hunt my computer. please....
it was chapter 11 they filed.got google trained.
Link
Omaha.com - The Omaha World-Herald: News - Berkshire buys Burlington Northern
shill wrote:
Like to see the international distribution of cuts. It'll probably be a net ADD in China & India. This would have been a better story had they done thie release at the same time obama held his job creation summit yesterday. Guess O neglected to invite J&J so they elected to throw a tantrum.
chapter 7 is a liquidation. you're done, sell the assets, creditors share the proceeds based on their respective priorities.
chapter 11 is a reorganization. you pretend not to be done, enter into a plan to repay creditors at X cents on the dollar over time.
My Google ads are for Mobile Home Loans. Is this like a horoscope?
bearly wrote:
Indeed. I feel so much better about that too, don't you? snark/
bearly
sort of suprised about this but could be just jumping on "lets get lean and mean" like business do blaming it all on the recession.
wait a minute we're in recovery now. so it just the get leaner and meaner all by itself.
More walk away from homes, mortgages - USATODAY.com
basel too
huge difference,wow no wonder lehmans didnt go that route. wonder why paulson......
First of all, the banks agreed to impose the terms in exchange for $51 billion dollars to cover losses.
Second, does the rank and file registered nurse get a bonus? How about she accidentally poisons more patients than she helps?
Third, the banks are apparently free to give stock bonuses to further dilute the taxpayer's equity.
I like mine for real estate IRAs...google really knows who we are!! more intelligent
work.
re: J&J layoffs
I thought one of the primary recovery themes was that corporate America has cut all the fat, so the big layoffs are behind us. Did they not get the memo?
Basel Too wrote:
Then you come back in a few months to get more gov't money while delaying your reentry into Ch 11. Then, you refile for Ch 11 or get shotgun married to a competitor.
.
It isn't codified, but it should be.
Tim,
ditto: Foreclosure filings spike in collar counties - Chicago Tribune
dum luk
Its like a trend or something...
Thats a big
, more for them! Hire workers in Asia that will work for the price of a bowl of rice and a bunk bed. Meanwhile that Heparin used to clear out your IV in the hospital is a death sentence with no consequences to the company that provides it sole source and is mfg in Asia.
And yet the lede is about a woman who lost her job...cast as a walkaway by choice...
Terry,
Reid has already agreed to the Corker amendment. It establishes a trust that will take care of the US stake in any TARP bailed out company. I thought they were saying it was companies in which the US has a 20% stake (might've been a previous amendment), but the amendment yesterday had 10% as the threshold.
Agronox wrote:
From the press release (and note GS involvement):
Terms of the Transaction
The definitive agreement provides that each share of BNI common stock will at the election of the shareholder be converted into the right to receive either (i) a cash payment of $100.00 or (ii) a variable number of shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class A or Class B common stock, subject to proration if the elections do not equal approximately 60 percent in cash and 40 percent in stock. The stock component of the consideration is subject to a “collar” whereby the value of each Berkshire Hathaway share received is fixed at $100.00 if the price of Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock at closing is between approximately $80,000.00 and approximately $125,000.00 per share. If the value of Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock is outside of this collar range at closing, then the number of shares received of Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock will be fixed at either 0.001253489 per BNI share for values below the collar range, or 0.000802233 per BNI share for values above the collar range. The shareholder may receive Class A or, in lieu of fractional Class A shares, equivalent economic value of Class B Berkshire Hathaway shares, subject to certain limitations as described in the definitive agreement.
The transaction requires approval by holders of two-thirds of BNI’s outstanding shares (other than shares held by Berkshire Hathaway), and customary closing conditions, including Department of Justice review. Closing is expected to occur during the first quarter of 2010.
BNSF Railway Company will continue to focus on providing outstanding service to its customers from its Fort Worth, TX headquarters. Included in the transaction are all assets and subsidiaries of BNSF.
Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Evercore Partners, Inc. acted as financial advisors to BNSF and the company’s legal counsel is Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP. Berkshire Hathaway’s transaction counsel is Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP.
Chainsaw wrote:
No, their idea of "fat" is trimming the 550 lb waistline. They conveniently ignore the arms and legs. Then, they ignore the fact that the average "american" used to weigh 125 lbs not 185 lbs. Saying that there is no more fat to cut in gov't or corporate america is just wrong. Granted, they could shed their own fat via salary and benes and lead from the front, but that is unAmerican.
Its like a trend or something...
The first wave of foreclosures was foreclosures caused by unaffordable loan terms," said John Groene, associate director of planning and neighborhood strategy at Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago. "The second wave is job cuts, less overtime, job loss. A year ago, two years ago, the average interest rate of the loans we were dealing with was 9 percent. Now we're seeing more people in the 6 percent range. You're seeing people with good loans, but there's something else going in their life."
quoted from : Foreclosure filings spike in collar counties - Chicago Tribune
Apropos of nothing, I happen to know the CEO of Comcast, and I trust his integrity far beyond the reaches of the
. I think he is smart enough to see the internet easily swallowing cable, and wants the family business to adapt.
Rob Dawg wrote:
Sell in December, don’t forget to remember.
.
Sell in January, the market is hairy
Sell in February...does Bret Favre pronounce that “R”?
Sell in March and buy
Sell in April; if you don’t then I will.
Sell in May and walk away.
Sell in June before the swoon.
Sell in July – why would I lie?
Sell in August, this advice you must trust.
Sell in September (what rhymes with “September”?)
Sell in October, the rally is over.
Too much
Royal Caribbean Q3 profits fall 40%
Royal Caribbean Q3 profits fall 44% - South Florida Business Journal:
it'd be interesting to read the DOJ's take on Comcast/NBC Universal, the union being a vertical merger and all...
shill-
What a perfect time to launch this:
World's largest cruise ship to enter Atlantic - Telegraph
Gotta love it..
Ciao
MS
if the housing market were allowed to clear, even if just free from government interference, it wouldn't be homeowners who lose
there are too many vacant homes, and any money coming in is better than losing money on maintenance + taxes. everyone would have a credible walk away threat
I like the british way better. much cleaner. give the banks any money they need to stay solvent, take equity share in exchange, and delay all bonuses until there is a pool of profits from which to pay them. whoever in the treasury or fed proposed letting the banks heal their balance sheets over time like volcker did for the latin american debt crisis, is a complete idiot that can't see more than half a step ahead
Come get your Norovirus here!
I don't like comcast. Their owner is partner in crime with Gary Bettman in doing their best to ruin the NHL. Allegedly a jerk too
Doesn't Royal Caribbean own the world's largest cruise ship?
Will they have to hire the Ancient Mariner to be the skipper?
Terry,
My take:
- Companies the US has 10% equity stake in will be held by 3 trustees appointed by the President.
- This was a recommendation from Ms. Warren's COP, I believe.
- Seems like there is some nebulous exception regarding FRBNY and "special purpose vehicles". I'm probably just paranoid.
Text excerpts are below:
The President shall appoint 3 trustees, managers, or directors (in this section referred to as ``trustees''), to manage the equity held in a TARP Trust.
Consistent with the goal of protecting the interests and investment of the United States taxpayer, with the purpose of maintaining economic stability and maximizing the return on investment to the taxpayer in a reasonable period of time, the trustees of the TARP Trust shall--
comply with standards and practices of the Secretary with respect to custody of assets, cash management services, and related activities including depositing the net cash proceeds of any disposition of assets in an account established by the Secretary pursuant to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008; and
(A) exercise the voting rights of any shares held by the TARP Trust, in accordance with the voting principles;
(B) not participate in the day-to-day management of any designated TARP recipient;
(C) develop and implement a plan of disposition;
(D) develop an annual operating budget for its operations, which shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary, and conduct the operations of the TARP Trust in accordance with that budget;
(E) provide for an accounting of the books and records of the TARP Trust that is audited on an annual basis, as well as monthly unaudited accounting and reporting, and such other reports as the Secretary shall require;
(F) hire such employees, advisors, and agents as may be required, define their duties, and determine their compensation, without regard to the provisions of title 5, United States Code, or other laws related to the appointment, compensation, or termination of Federal employees;
(G) enter into such contracts as may be required, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;
(
(I) comply with the requirements of the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 (2 U.S.C. 661 et seq.) and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (12 U.S.C. 5221 et seq.) with respect to budgeting, accounting, and financial reporting.
The trustees shall liquidate a TARP Trust, including the assets held by such trust, not later than December 24, 2011, unless--
(i) the trustees submit a report to the Congress that liquidation would not maintain financial stability or maximize the return on investment to the taxpayer; and
(ii) not later than 15 calendar days after the date on which the Congress receives such report, there is not enacted into law a joint resolution disapproving the extension, as described in subparagraph (B).
(Sub-para B is a legislative rules mess to me, spaghetti!)
Similar oversight/audit provisions as the TARP.
`designated TARP recipient'' means any entity that has received, or receives, financial assistance under the Troubled Asset Relief Program or any other provision of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-343), such that the Department of the Treasury holds or controls, as of the date of enactment of this Act, or will hold or control at a future date, not less than a 10 percent ownership stake in the outstanding equity that ordinarily votes in the election of directors (except that warrants to acquire voting equity shall not be included in such determination, unless and until exercised) in the company as a result of such assistance, other than any investment fund created under the Public Private Investment Partnership Program under TARP or any other special purpose vehicle that was created in connection with purchasing or insuring troubled assets, except that stock held in a trust of which the trustees were appointed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shall not be deemed held or controlled by the Department of the Treasury for purposes of this section;
JimPortlandOR wrote:
eg: we have found a way to circumvent market pricing with continuation of mark to dreams for the NBC Universal unit
I can see why the Democrats don't want to end TARP as well. There are still programs that haven't been rolled out; and ending the TARP right now; wouldn't that stop and hinder HAMP as well as whatever small business assistance the administration is going to pursue?
From that USA Today story...
The mortgage unit of Citigroup says one in five borrowers who defaults does so willingly, even though they're able to pay the mortgage. "It's a very large number, and it's a very, very significant risk to the housing recovery," says Sanjiv Das, CEO of CitiMortgage, adding that new government programs to curb strategic defaults may be needed.
First of all a big HOOCOODANODE on the walkaways.
I can just envision the government program... a $10,000 tax credit if you agree not to strategically default and make the bank take a mark on their balance sheet. No sacrifice is too large to save the banks!
In other travel related news:
Ryanair to make passengers stand - Telegraph
Ciao
MS
Public broadband option, baby.
Cheaper than antitrust litigation by a long shot. Information is a public good. Superhighway jobs at $64,000-- free access and health care as bonus.
YLSP wrote:
Instant migraine! So I have a stupid question, are the other alphabet soup programs of the fed like TALF included as part of TARP or are those the "special purpose vehicles" they refer to??
I don't like comcast. Their owner is partner in crime with Gary Bettman in doing their best to ruin the NHL.
Care to elaborate? I have Comcast.... they carry VS, they carry NHL. (and I get both in HD). They carry Center Ice, and this year added an HD Center Ice channel.
What are they doing to kill the game? I get almost as much HD hockey now as I did when I lived in NJ, where I used to get every Rags/Isles/Devils game in HD.
Q: if the US govt takes an 80% or more stake in a company, they have to consolidate balance sheets (company debt gets added to government debt)
What are the equivalent thresholds in the UK, Europe, Japan, or any other country you know of off-hand? (it's because of some accounting standard. maybe GAAP)
BTW the only time I took a cruise I was never surrounded by a more filthy and rude bunch of people than at that time.....present company excluded....
Ciao
MS
Thanks guys. So you buy the BNI here at $97.50 and if everything goes right make roughly a 6% annualized return if the thing closes successfully by the end of March 2010. I'll probably do this for a portion of my IRA.
Nokia Siemens may cut nearly 6,000 jobs
Nokia Siemens may cut nearly 6,000 jobs - MarketWatch
"How are they going to keep talent? Will never happen in the US, or can it?
They only said no CASH bonuses.
Big big big big big loophole."
never trust someone with crooked teeth.
ms
that ought to be a little fun when the skies get a little choppy. every one will be lower to avoid turbulence.
Buffet buying rest of BNI railroad. Given he has inside information from the WH and
row, what are the implications? Some major stimulus coming for the railroads?
EHP,
"whoever in the treasury or fed proposed letting the banks heal their balance sheets over time like volcker did for the latin american debt crisis, is a complete idiot that can't see more than half a step ahead"
And they also have a poor grasp of recent economic history. Japan couldn't bring themselves to restructure their banking system even as rigor mortis set in. Instead they did round after round of stimulus to try and keep the economy functioning and people employed. 20 years later some are projecting that JP govt debt will hit 250% of GDP in the next 3 years. Absent truly draconian spending cuts and tax increases they will have passed the "event horizon" of the debt black hole.
I realize there are differences in our economies, cultures, demographics, etc..., but the American policy response has been a rerun of Japan in the early 90s. This is not encouraging.
I though Greenlee was given a hammer and a chisel and shipped out to carry out currency reform on Yap.
Thanks guys. So you buy the BNI here at $97.50 and if everything goes right make roughly a 6% annualized return if the thing closes successfully by the end of March 2010. I'll probably do this for a portion of my IRA.
I haven't looked too closely, but there's two provisions in the agreement that may make the return less than that.
1) they decide whether you get cash or stock, depending on the aggregate election of shareholders
2) You might not get $100 worth of stock, if there's a huge move in BRK between now and then. There's a lower bound at $80,000, below that you still only get .001253489 BRK shares no matter how far it falls, so if it goes to $70,000, you might lose.
I don't see very many carrots out there for underwater homeowners, or any other "real people" for that matter, so I can only assume that they want a bigger stick. Sounds ominous. Sounds like a call for "homeowner re-education camps."
I guess the only thing I can say is "Go for it, squid." You can't get blood from a stone, and if people CANNOT pay, it follows that they WILL NOT pay.
Eric
You can't get versus in a single hotel room in the US for one.
It is no longer available on direct tv. When available, it is in an extra tier. Fans complain about the matchups they do/don't show, that they use the pundit instead of analyst intermission shows.
It's getting into league politics, but Comcast owner owns the Philadelphia Flyers and is one of a core group keeping Gary Bettman in power in exchange for what amount to kickbacks.
The NHL could have been on Fox and got quality exposure, but instead it is harder to watch than time delayed soccer or live bowling. Versus (formerly OLN) has had years to get its distribution in order, and it shows regression in losing Direct TV instead of the long awaited progression
gabyjan wrote:
IIRC, Chapter 11 is for reorganization and Chapter 7 is for dissolution.