Update: Market Roundup: House vote on Financial Regulatory Reform Bill today, GE gets an exemption, Geithner wants to exempt TARP 2 from restrictions and Geithner pushing BofA and CITI to payback TARP over objections of FDIC…

Update 2: It’s up on the newslinkys now:

Conyers/Turner/Lofgren/Marshall/Waters/Cohen/Miller (NC)/ Delahunt/Nadler/Fudge Amendment #201 (Defeated 241-188)Revised: Would allow bankruptcy courts to extend repayment periods, reduce excessive interest rates and fees, and adjust the principal balance of the mortgage to a home’s fair market value as necessary to prevent foreclosure and revised to allow the VA, FHA, and RHS to take steps to facilitate mortgage modifications.  The amendment is substantively identical to title I, subtitle A and sections 121-123 of subtitle B of H.R. 1106 Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009), which passed the House on March 5, 2009. (See related story)

Update: 1:25 pm EST: The DEMOCRATICALLY CONTROLLED HOUSE has just rejected the Amendment to the Financial Regulatory Reform Bill that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to ‘cramdown’ mortgages. This after we learned yesterday that of a pool of 3 MILLION delinquent homeowners (which is now up to 4.8 million BTW), Treasury/HUD have managed to get the banks to permanently modify 31,000, yes that’s thousand.  After that EPIC FAIL I became a SUPPORTER of this Amendment. It is not the BANKS holding these loans anymore peeps!! It is FAN FRED FHA!!!!

That being the case as taxpayers we will take a hit when those loans go to short sale and some investor makes a profit, WE will be bailing out FAN FRED (again) and FHA. Why wouldn’t we just buy the damned bad loans oh yeah that was what Paulson SAID he was gonna do with TARP.

Now WE the taxpayer guaranteeing FAN FRED FHA OWN these loans ALREADY. Why the hell arent we writing them down and taking the hit ONCE. Instead the homeowners get kicked out, it gets sold for less then the mortgage and we STILL give FAN FRED FHA the bailout for the loss. And now some investor with FREE money from the FED has the house and will dump it on the market in another bubble like the one they made that started this mess.

And Tim wants TARP II. But no cramdown. And they think they are ‘progressive’, they say they are Democrats.  Obama’s Treasury didn;t want it, therefore it didnt happen, This is Unbelievable.

This despite that IDENTICAL legislation had already PASSED the House once before and died in the Senate. Could not be more clear they are leaving the homeowners out to dry.

And everyone who lives near or is family with or sells goods to those homeowners. We are ALL gonna pay when people keep walking on these loans and getting foreclosed on, we will have ENDLESS bailouts of FAN FRED FHA as those homes are sold and resold in new bubbles and everyone makes a bundle but the taxpers and families who lose their homes. Utterly disgusting.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Should BofA and CITI be allowed to leave TARP? Will they be back like a bad penny?

Look for the cramdown/judicial mod amendment action also. Since Treasury and the banks managed only 31,000 mods out of 3 MILLION loans I now support it, frak ’em.

Politico:

FINAL RULE ON THE REFORM BILL, including a summary of all 36 amendments made in order by the Rules Committee. Some got votes Thursday night, others will come today. Final passage is expected sometime around noon.

BILL HAS LOOPHOLES, report WSJ’s Damian Paletta and David Enrich, “Buried in a 239-page amendment to the U.S. House of Representatives’ financial regulatory overhaul is a provision that appears to do just one thing: exempts financial-services company USAA from some of the bill’s tougher provisions. The carve-out is one of a number of exceptions that allow companies to avoid fresh scrutiny envisioned by the White House, which is aiming to overhaul the nation’s financial-regulatory apparatus. The beneficiaries run from corporations such as General Electric Co. and Pitney Bowes Inc. to USAA, which caters to members of the military and their families, to so-called fraternal benefit societies.”

Geithner has learned NOTHING from the disasterous capital infusions into the big banks in TARP ROUND ONE. Now in Son of TARP he wants to EXEMPT everyone from the Feinberg pay czar that they installed to curb populist anger that THEY stoked in the first place!!! Which I agree was a stupid stupid limitation but CONGRESS did it, they will do it AGAIN. He cannot protect them. Who believes Congress will not arbitrarily add requirements later?

AND still no word on what the hexx they plan to do about HOUSING which was the FIRST thing named in TARP legislation…purpose was to address foreclosures and stabilize markets.:

WAPO REPORTS POSSIBLE SMALL BIZ TARP — by David Cho, A1, 2 column lead: “The Obama administration plans to channel money from the government’s massive financial bailout program to small businesses as part of an effort to limit the political and economic damage of high unemployment. One plan under consideration involves spinning off a new entity from [TARP] that would give banks access to federal funds without restrictions, including limits on executive pay, as long as the money was used to support loans to small businesses. … As an alternative, officials are prepared to ask Congress to modify TARP itself, easing the pay limits and other restrictions that would be imposed on small-business lenders taking the money, the sources said … Since the summer, the administration has been facing an uncomfortable dynamic in the economy. The ranks of the jobless have been growing, while big financial firms that got taxpayer bailout money have been thriving. In response, officials have been trying to recast TARP as aid for Main Street rather than Wall Street.”

GEITHNER SAYS SMALL BANKS WORRY OF TARP TAINT, reports FT’s Tom Braithwaite: “Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, on Thursday advocated exempting small businesses from restrictions attached to the bank bail-out program that Goldman Sachs , Citigroup and other large banks have been anxious to escape. In testimony to the Congressional Oversight Panel, Mr. Geithner said small banks were worried about being ‘stigmatized’ for asking for money from [TARP] and that this was exacerbating a credit crunch for their small business customers. They don’t want to come to do business with the government. ‘They think it’s a sign of weakness, not strength.’”

Geithner also pushed BofA and is pushing CITI paybacks of TARP, IMO to justify TARP 2: The Revenge of TARP!!!, over the objections of the FDIC. As originally reported by Andrew Ross Sorkin in the NYT. In the TARP C.O.P. questioning yesterday Geithner did not deny this. This morning a guest on CNBC noted this is a serious problem. We will post the video. FD: We are BofA/Merrill shareholders and have discussed this ad nauseum here on the site.

December 11, 2009. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Economy, FDIC, Finance, Foreclosures, Housing, Obama Administration, Politics, TARP, Unemployment Statistics, Wall St. Comments off.

Update: CNBC reports Lewis to step down by end of year; Cuomo/BofA Smackdown: It’s On! (again)

Update 09/30: Charlie Gasparino is reporting that Ken Lewis has been pushed out (the stmt says he stepped down but I call BS)!! This is HUGE! WOTS was he had TOTAL BACKING OF THE BOARD! Recall BofA is centred in Charlotte, NC far from the Wall St shenanigans but Lewis got sucked into the ‘eeeevil banker’ canard PLUS the added bonus of ‘hide the bonuses’ with Thain. I for one would never want Andy Cuomo on my trail if I had a blessed thing to hide!

Vodpod videos no longer available.

(Reminder FD- MiM are shareholders in both BofA and were MER shareholders as well pre merger)

CNBC:

Bank of America’s CEO Ken Lewis, the embattled head of the nation’s biggest bank, told the board he plans to step down by the end of the year.

Lewis wasn’t asked to step down and the decision was not the result of any regulatory action, sources told CNBC. No successor has been named yet….

Original post after the break:

(more…)

September 16, 2009. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Economy, Finance, Obama Administration, Politics, TARP, Wall St. Comments off.

Breaking: BofA to pay $33m penalty in settlement…SEC charges BofA with making material false stmts on Merrill deal…CIT Group shares halted for news pending….

Update 5: BofA Spokesman: Ken Lewis ABSOLUTELY has the full support of the Board…

Happier Days...

Happier Days...

Update 4: BofA to pay $33 million penalty as part of settlement. Gee as a shareholder can I get part of that? Suuuure, after all WE are the wronged parties.. AS IF!

BofA is settling the charges, “without admitting or denying guilt”. Well now TAXPAYERS will wind up SOL when shareholders sue…after all we will not allow their capital ratios to fall….Pfft.

Developing via CNBC

Breaking II: Now SEC is charging BofA with making materially false, misleading statements in connection with the Merrill merger….oh boy….

We are shareholders. We have covered this extensively see our posts on Thain/Lewis here and here and here and  here

This is NOT about the failure to use the Material Adverse Change clause to escape the merger, this is the bonus issue Cuomo was on top of…

From Mary Thompson CNBC:

SEC: BofA agreed to pay up to $5.8B in Merill bonuses, contrary to statements in the merger agreement…

Oh Andrew Cuomo must have gotten them in the depositions of Thain and Lewis, oh boy….

Hope to Good Lord it is news of a buyout or capital infusion of some magnitude and not a bankruptcy….

Our previous post on CIT Group here

Okay CIT Group just raised the purchase price on the tender offer.. no biggie.

August 3, 2009. Tags: , , , , , , , , . Economy, Finance, Politics, TARP. 1 comment.

Update: BofA refutes FT report, says not raising capital: Market Mover Monday: red-headed stepchildren of Stress Tests try to raise capital and save themselves from Government….goin’ down…

Update: 8:57am EST: CNBC Becky Quick live now talking to Buffett reporting BofA issued statement denying FT report that they are raising 10b in capital…..the fact that the banks are fighting it out with Team TOTUS bean-counters IN THE MEDIA is frightening..yeah I sold in May baby and I would go away could I afford a vacation in this economy, HA!!!

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Here they come, walking down the street, they get the funniest looks from the Treasury agents they meet..

Hey Hey they’re the Zombies, people say their capital’s down…

yada yada…they managed to get everyone but JPMC under their thumb here, they nabbed Wells Fargo and PNC too….

CNBC:

Bank of America is working on plans to raise more than $10 billion in fresh capital, even as it and Citigroup launch last-ditch attempts to convince the U.S. government they do not need to bolster their balance sheets, the Financial Times reported.

Citing people close to the situation, the paper said that Citi, Bank of America and at least two other lenders will on Monday attempt to convince the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve that the findings of “stress tests” into their financial health were too pessimistic.

Bank of America, which has had $45 billion in government aid, was found to need well in excess of $10 billion, the Financial Times reported on its website on Sunday, citing sources.

Regional lenders Wells Fargo and PNC Financial were also among the banks that would need to raise more capital unless they could persuade the authorities their findings were wrong, the paper reported, citing people close to the situation.

*Monkees courtesy of OrangeTabbyCat3

May 4, 2009. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , . CITI, citigroup, Economy, FDIC, Finance, Music, Obama Administration, Politics, Popular Culture, TARP, Uncategorized, Wall St. 1 comment.

Update: Paulson to Lewis on BofA Merrill Merger, An Offer He Couldn’t Refuse?

Update: In Depth View via Bloomberg:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Our previous posts on the Clash of these Bank, Trading and Finance Titans here

Disclaimer: MiM are Merrill/BofA shareholders, our view is pretty damn biased as a result..

Was Timmeh in the room and in the loop? He was head of NY Fed then, betcha he was in the loop…..

Andrew Cuomo has his teeth in and he has that bulldog lockjaw thing happenin’ as he gets ready to run in 2010, Cuomo v Giuliani would be sweet!

Ken Lewis is SOL, shareholders are rightfully pixxed as all get out if he let Hank bully him into waiving withdrawing form the merger under MAC provisions. Material Adverse Change, which is what the MER losses  were at that point according to Lewis’ testimony to Cuomo

…BUT even if he stood up to Hank and pushed ahead and went to court in DE, Hank is right in what he told Lewis anyway, DE is a tough fight on MAC, and it would have likely turned out BofA could NOT withdraw under MAC as with proper DUE DILIGENCE they should have KNOWN these losses were coming…either way Lewis is Fired CEO Walking…

more about “Paulson to Lewis on BofA Merrill Merg…“, posted with vodpod

April 23, 2009. Tags: , , , , , , , , . Economy, Film, Finance, Politics, Popular Culture, TARP, Uncategorized, Wall St. 1 comment.

He’s baack! John Thain takes reins at CIT Group…

Happier Days

Hardly seems fair does it? Ken Lewis loses his spot at BofA, gets civil complaints filed against him by Cuomo, gets grilled by CongressCritters as attorneys drool on their TVs hoping for a magical shareholder class action suit, and Thain walks into a new CEO suite with hardly a scratch.

Vagaries of the dice toss or a deal with Beelzebub? Maybe it’s just that Ken is from Charlotte and John is from The Street? Must be his ‘Goldman’ parachute, heh. FD-MiM are Merrill/BofA shareholders….Our multitude of posts on the BofA Merrill merger and post merger brouhaha here..

Mashup by BluTaiger

NYPost:

John Thain has been chosen to run lender CIT, after a year in which he was ousted from Merrill Lynch and the business lender teetered on the brink.  Thain will start as chairman and chief executive immediately, CIT said late yesterday, replacing interim head Peter Tobin.

Thain, 54, led Merrill for a year, when he was shoved out in January 2009 after the company was bought by Bank of America in a controversial merger. The former president of Goldman Sachs and the New York Stock Exchange has been out of work since.  CIT, a major business lender that expanded into subprime mortgages and student loans during the boom, filed for bankruptcy last year after the government refused to give it a second infusion of rescue funds.

It emerged from bankruptcy in December, after managing to unload more than $10 billion in debt. “Much has been accomplished in recent months to position CIT for renewed success,” Thain said.  CIT executives face compensation restrictions because it received funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. According to reports, Thain will receive $500,000 in salary and $5.5 million worth of restricted CIT shares. He could also earn another $1.5 million in restricted shares.

That’s a pittance compared to what he was making at Merrill Lynch. When he joined, the bank agreed to a $44 million compensation package…

You know who should pay the shareholder suits? STANLEY O’NEIL, he destroyed Merrill IMO….

February 8, 2010. Tags: , , , , , , , , . Economy, Finance, Politics, Popular Culture, TARP, Wall St. Comments off.

Hank Paulson on the Hill…

Reminder, here is where we were almost a year ago now, the world was ending and Hank was in a sea of flotsam and jetsom trying to keep us afloat..do I like what he did, hell no, am I glad TOTUS and Timmeh werent alone at the reins then? Hell yes!

Update: Video as it is available…

Watching them grill Hank on the Hill

Live feed here

IMO this is bad, very very bad..

This is what they would do with a CIA investigation of ‘Torture’…go back and question shxt they knew about and never opened their mouths about before to look good….

They are going back and questioning every aspect of decisions they KNEW at the time were being madem, that they rolled over for..

After 9/11, after the collapse of Lehman, things were not ‘normal’

Never thought I could feel bad for Hank but I do..

This is a witch hunt and a kangaroo court and a clusterfark all rolled into one…

These people have NO CLUE about the financial system, and the things they are allowing Team TOTUS to do RIGHT NOW IMO far outweigh what Hank did with TARP and BofA and Merrill…

Shit Chrysler Senior Debtholders were threatened a few months ago, none of these Congress critters made a peep..

Pelosi and Paulson and Reid, Oh My!

These are the same tools who LOVED them some Hank in October of 2008…

Hank does not look well….

The Critters are frankly really interrogating him at this point…cutting him off…beating him up and bullying him in fact with emails he has never seen…this is a guy they schmoozed like crazy, a guy who like it or not saved the system form collapsing, I do not agree with everything they did and didnt want TARP but we HAVE A FINANCIAL SYSTEM TODAY b/c Hank did something, unlike the Congress who was clueless and led by Nancy who was busy interfering with national elections and not minding the store….

Dennis Kucinich has bene on a MISSION to get Ken Lewis fired and BofA shareholders a nifty lawsuit, he is on CNBC now attacking Paulson….

July 16, 2009. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Politics. Comments off.

Update: CIT Group files bankruptcy; No Government aid for CIT….Thursday Market Mover: Paulson on the Hill…

Update: 11/2/09:  Bad, sad news, CIT Group went belly-up this weekend despite the 2B taxpayer infusion and the Carl Icahn offer. Bad news for small business. But it is an attempt to dump the debt and live on, so maybe it will live to fight another day.

WSJ:

CIT Group Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday, in a final attempt to restructure and keep the doors open at the century-old commercial lender.

Now, the lender to nearly a million small and midsize businesses must maintain its customer base as it tries to rehabilitate under Chapter 11 protection. Most financial firms sell off assets or liquidate in bankruptcy amid fears that customers will draw down credit lines and spark a run on the bank.

But CIT garnered support from about 90% of voting debt holders for a prepackaged reorganization plan that could allow the lender to speed through Chapter 11 and emerge with a new business model by year’s end. Under the plan, bondholders will exchange their debt for new debt that matures later, as well as nearly all the equity in a reorganized CIT.

The bankruptcy stay would eliminate some $10 billion in debt from the lender’s balance sheet, the company said. CIT has been weighed down by more than $30 billion in bond debt.

A $2.3 billion taxpayer bailout extended to CIT late last year under the Bush administration will be wiped out in the bankruptcy. Common shareholders will be wiped out, too.

The plan is among the first attempts to restructure a financial firm in bankruptcy court and have it emerge relatively intact. The board approved CIT’s decision to seek Chapter 11 protection in a meeting Sunday. “The board appreciated that this is a [historic] sort of filing,” said a person close to the lender. “It is clearly unprecedented.”…

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Charlie Gasparino is reporting on CNBC’s Kudlow that Sheila (Bair of FDIC) brought the hammer down and drew the line in the sand saying NO MORE BAILOUTS…shxt it would have to be on small business that the money train dried up eh?

Well, we love Sheila here at MiM (we wanted her or Jamie Dimon of JPMC for Treasury)and Timmeh was saying from Saudia Arabia that he was confident they would find a way to do the bailout, so we enjoy it when his toes are stepped on, bitter and petty that’s us today fer shure, BWAAAAHAAAA.

Hope Sheila’s foot met Timmeh’s axx on this one, FDIC should have the too big to fail wipeout authority IMO not the Fed and for Gawds sake not the Treasury….

CNBC on imminent CIT bankruptcy following FDIC and Treasury decision not to bailout…

CIT Group, a major lender to small- and mid-sized U.S. businesses, said on Wednesday that talks with the government to bail out the company had ended, a development that could make bankruptcy likely.

…”Discussions with government agencies have ceased,” the New York-based company said in a statement. “There is no appreciable likelihood of additional government support being provided over the near term.”

The announcement came after last-ditch talks in which Treasury Department had been concerned about a worsening liquidity crunch at CIT over the last few days, and that government aid would not put the lender on a path to recovery….

Tomorrow BIG NEWS will be HANK PAULSON testifying on Capitol Hill about the Merrill BofA shenanigans, should be lots of fun. Hanks is the man who handed free market capitalism over to the government and then retired with hundreds of thousands of Golden Slacks shares…..Hank Hank Hank, when he sees whatis happening now how does he feel? He opened this door and TOTUS swagga’d through it….

Our MANY posts on Hank, Timmeh, AIG, Merrill, BofA, CITIBANK, Sheila, are too numerous to link…

071025_paulson_0

Smashing Pumpins fan made video with footage of Tours in France, courtesy of buissonland

July 15, 2009. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , . FDIC, Finance, Music, Obama Administration, Politics. 1 comment.

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