Shut up, Chuck
New York’s Chuck Schumer (D-Blabbermouth) leaks to the press a letter he wrote demagoguing bank regulators and singling out IndyMac’s financial instability.
It’s not just industry types who are shocked at Schumer’s lack of discretion. The Money and Co. blog at the LA Times notes:
Schumer sent letters to the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, saying he was “concerned that IndyMac’s financial deterioration poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers.”
IndyMac, which has suffered huge losses on defaulted mortgage loans, “could face a failure if prescriptive measures are not taken quickly,” Schumer wrote.
Uh, wait a minute — how could Schumer know that? And since when are regulators supposed to tell the public in advance that a particular institution has been earmarked for failure? All that would do is guarantee a collapse. If depositors are within FDIC insurance limits they have nothing to worry about, anyway…
…John D. Hawke, the U.S. comptroller of the currency (regulator of national banks) from 1998 to 2004, had more pointed words for Schumer in a story in the American Banker newspaper today.
“If Schumer continues to go public with letters raising questions about the condition of individual institutions, he will cause havoc in the banking system,” Hawke said.
“Leaking his IndyMac letter to the press was reckless and grossly irresponsible. I don’t see how he can be trusted with confidential information in the future. What this incredibly stupid conduct does is put at risk the willingness of regulators to share any information with the [congressional] oversight committees. After this, you’d be crazy to share information with Schumer.”
Democrat leadership: Not to be trusted with confidential information.
When Chuckie talks, markets balk.
Put those on bumper stickers and don’t forget it.
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What an idiot. This, from a guy who bounced 900+ checks for $300,000 on the House Bank back in the 90’s.
Mr. Schumer, you are unfit for high office. Please resign today.
It’s an election year. He will do whatever it takes to make sure people know what he thinks how terrible things are, so the democrats get more power. It doesn’t matter if businesses go sour or people suffer. And, of course, everything is Bush’s fault and not congress’s fault.
The Dimocraps have been leaking cofidential information on any number of issues for years.
Chuck Schumer would be so happy if the entire stock market crashed, Banks close their doors and we started into a major financial crisis because this would give the Dimocraps control of the national, corporate and personal finances which in turn puts them in control of the people. They continue to chip away at our republic attempting to drive it right into the ground. Chuckie could care less what results from his incompetence because everything he and Dimocraps do is contrived.
Is this public leak an effort to hide a private leaking to his friends? Is the senator guilty of insider trading? If I were him, I’d watch my back, especially with who the junior senator is.
Chuckie is well known to us gun nuts. One of a very small group of outspoken hoplophobes in Congress.
Trusting a democrat with confidential information??? Uh oh….it’s Berger-mania!
Chuckie Pukie!
Wow. He must owe them an awful lot of money to be trying such a blatant effort to kill them off.
Must be that new style patriotism and love of the USA that drives Mr. Schumer and Leahy and McDermott etc., etc., etc.
Reminder of definitions.
Agreed. Shut up, Chuck. Someone please shut Chuck up. Before we all upchuck.
The democrats have been trying to tank the US economy ever since Bush was elected President. The only thing new here is that Chuckie was actually public about it.
Any lawyers here? I’m wondering: if I was a depositor or borrower from IndyMac, would I have standing to sue that ignoramus, as an individual?
He is just *such* a fool, I’d love to see him dragged through a trial.
I lived in NYS for awhile, and my senators were Clinton and Schumer. I’ve also had Kennedy and Kerry as my “representatives to the senate…”
Talk about losing the will to live…
But if you choose to go in style, grab your belt or shoelaces, a rickety chair and head for the attic. We’ll pray for your family.
Schumer isn’t the ONLY Democrat who abused the House Bank in the 1990s, Barbara Boxer was the Queen of the Bank, bouncing over $750,000 worth of checks without penalty. And she was re-elected by her embarrassed (but not TOO embarrassed) constituents in San Francisco. Keep one thing in mind: Schumer was elected by the same NY Mensa members that elected Hillary (my experience is soooo vast) Clinton. The perfect example of getting what you pay for. Or not, actually.
Trusting Schumer or any other liberal with sensitive information of any type is stupid, even if they are on a committee.
“Loose lips sink banks” doesn’t have quite the same ring as the original, but it is apropos.
How come it seems like everyone in congress has committed a crime, but they are still there ?
Chucky boy…one of the most self-important intellectually shallow people to ever serve in govt. And thats saying something. One of a hundred reasons I was thrilled to escape from NY three years ago.
Run him out on a rail. At least that’s what once happened to folks like him. Instead he’ll just be reelected and given more responsibility.
*rolls eyes*
Thus the need for two term limits. . .one in office one in jail.
# 20 Walterc…Well said…
And people wonder why Congress can’t seem to balance the budget.
They get to write the laws. The people of New York do seem to be rather Dhimmi in that they have given us both Miss Hillary and UpChuck.
Have you noticed that the economy started to tank, oil prices took off AFTER the Democrats took both houses in the last election? They NEED a crisis to grab even more power and by damn, they will create one.
Good time to stock up on ammunition and spare magazines, and no I do not mean Playboy. Barack Hussein Obama and his whore Schumer will reintroduce gun control.
Drill Here
Drill Now
Shoot a Liberal
Pay Less
Excellent question. I hope someone is checking certain ‘put option’ and ’short sale’ trading activity prior to the release of this letter. Any Schumer friends?
I loath NY-D Schumer and his monkey-boy side kick NY-D Wiener.
# 23 ArizonaNeanderthal Also well said…and I agree…But didn’t they run on the fact that they were going to LOWER gas prices…
(D)=PASS
Coulter & Savage are right. Liberalism is truly a mental disorder. Now, how to get the men in white coats over to Congress to get the liberal Dems transported to the nice psych hospital without causing an hysterical stampede….. “Hold still dammit or I’ll have to give you the needle!”
#23
You comments have consistently confirmed that the extremes on both the left AND the right suffer from serious mental illness.
Ummm, so the problem here is that Schumer “leaked” the fact that a bank who rode the wave of subprime mortgages to it’s inevitable destruction, is on the brink of going under?
So are we arguing that banks and regulators should be able to have full discretion on who knows about their inevitable collapse? More secrecy in the banking-industrial complex is just what we need. The Dow would still be at 14,000 if people would just believe what the government/banking corporations told them, and not looked at the actual sustainability of subprime.
So what we want is more Bear Sterns? I mean, I’m a big fan of seeing a stock go from $60 to $2 in a day, with no forewarning of catashrophe, but shouldn’t we be getting more information about the actual health of our companies, and what regulators are actually doing to keep them afloat?
We already know Bear Sterns was sacrificed to the subprime meltdown, with the Federal Reserve getting involved by giving money to JP Morgan to buy it up at $2/share. The banking-industrial complex could be the most dangerous to American prosperity than any of the collusion between industry and government. And here, we are asking for less transparency and more secrecy?
Watch out, moving into troofer territory.
Funny,
how I’m roundly criticised, and severly chastised, whenever I tell people, I vote a straight Republican ticket, even though I may have to use a barf-bag while I do it,
isn’t it.
PEOPLE, PEOPLE, cut CHARLIE some slack!!! It’s been days, maybe weeks since CHARLIE-POO has been in the NEWS. Do you have any idea how painful that is to a CHARLIE???
Ahh a Lion,
You are blissfully unaware of the consequences of leaking this type of info. It amazes me that you would not be embarrased by your lack of financial sophistication let alone condoning the narcissistic behavior of schmucks like Schumer.
A democrat leaking sensitive information, is anybody really surprised?
#29
First of all, Bear Stearns’ stock price did not drop from $60 to $2 in one day, so I’m assuming that is literary license on your part.
Second of all, the company was not sacrificed to the subprime meltdown. They got themselves into a hole that they couldn’t get out of, and were headed for insolvency. The fact that the Fed guaranteed some of their assets so that JP Morgan would buy them would suggest a desire to keep them in business at least long enough to be bought out, not let them fail. So how does that constitute a sacrifice?
And thirdly, anyone who reads a company’s tax return, and then reads their annual report, would think they were talking about two different firms. The selective leaking of information that bank regulators may be privy to can have significant impact on the company’s stock price, whether justified or not. Knowing Senator Schumer’s partisanship, one can not help but think he wanted to stoke instability in the banking industry in order to make it a campaign issue that his candidate can look good on. If that is not the case, then I would check Senator Schumer’s personal accounts for short-selling IndyMac, although at 56 cents a share it can’t go much lower.
What’s embarrassing is how we got into this mess in the first place. What’s embarrassing is that our markets are so dependent on government that a single senator can hatchet-job an institution by expressing concern for it’s financial state. What’s the most embarrassing is that praying to the altar of central bank socialism is now the MO for the American economy.
This could very well be a planned hatchet-job by Schumer or his handlers, which is why it reminds me of Bear Sterns, which was a hatchet-job with much bloodier results.
I guess this is another example of Pelosi’s “most ethical” government in action. I thought she was going to eradicate the “culture of corruption”? Looks like she and her fellow Dems are only propogating more of it.
The liberals like to use the catch phrase “failed [this or that” when referring to the Bush Administration. They repeat it as often as they are in front of the camera or microphone. I believe the moniker is more apt when referring to themselves. It is they who have the longest history of failed programs starting with Social Security. welfare, and Civil Rights.
There was really no difference between Bear Stearns lending practices and JP Morgan, or any of their other competitors. However, where most of the insider banking institutions get (basically) free money, printed up from the Fed in the form as “liquidity injections”, Bear Stearns had the Fed, and Treasury publicly seal their fate by vocally and financially backing JP Morgan to take over. Bear Stearns was sacrificed to JP Morgan (who has a large stake at the Fed).
You were right on the drop in share price though, took 4 days.
iamsaved said:
I don’t think this has as much to do with poor ethics. It seems more like a lack of brainpower. Pelosi never promised to make congressional Democrats smarter
Chuckie for VP! Boy, these wacky liberals just don’t know how stupid they sound every time they open their mouths. I have finally figured out how the election cycle works; those running have to appear sane so they get the ones who are running later to say all the wacky things. I hope every stupid comment made by those in Washington are saved for 527 adds when they are up for reelection! The electorate needs to remember who the nuts are.
# 40 rambler…that’s easy, they are all nuts….
And what Extreme would that be supersean?
I am not trying to run the Liberals lives, they are trying to run mine. There is nothing Extreme about fighting back.
Ruby Ridge
Gun Control
Speech Codes
Fairness Doctrine
Assaults on private property
Bombs at the Pentagon
Bombs at police stations
Presidental Candidate justifying same
God Damn America?
No Extremism here supersean;
Conservatives DID NOT justify Timothy McVeigh the way Liberals justify the Weather Underground
Life, Liberty and Property. Have you ever heard that phrase? Good week end to look it up.
.
Have a Glorious Fourth.
#38 Lion said
I beg to differ. Although all of the investment banks loaned money to the same type of subprime borrowers, Bear Stearns was over-leveraged (if that’s a word) about one-and-a-half times more than most of their competitors. They were going to be the first investment bank failure regardless of what the Fed did.
You call it a sacrifice, I call it survival of the fittest (i.e. capitalism).
Getting back to IndyMac, it would appear that their stock price has fallen from around $31.50 a share to $0.56 a share over the past year. Maybe Senator Schumer was just stating the obvious, but it’s still not his call to broadcast confidential proprietary information, IMHO.
Term Limits - One in office, one in jail. I LOVE IT!! #20
I think if Bear Stearns simply collapsed, then you’d have survival of the fittest. When the Federal Reserve gets involved, capitalism is thrown out the window. Case and point - The Fed’s loan to JP Morgan to buy up Bear. Interestingly enough, JP’s CEO Jamie Dimon declared upon agreeing to acquire the firm that Bear’s risk-management practices were in good shape. Secondly, the Fed is now extending cash to investment banks, allowing people like Richard Fuld, CEO of Lehman Brothers to say stuff like this:
An amazing quote seeing that Lehman Brothers was almost in the same position Bear Stearns was in. The difference is that the Fed will bailout Lehman, but sacrificed Bear to JP Morgan.
Lastly, and probably the most important point, Jamie Dimon and Richard Fuld sit on the board of the NY federal reserve. We don’t have capitalism here - one reason I think Schumer’s ‘gaffe’ was really a planned move to Bear Stearns (new verb) IndyMac.
As a citizen of Red California (i.e., the Central Valley), I refer to the junior Senator of our illustrious state as “Barbara Bouncer”.
If it’s a Republican senator doing this, he’s a corruptocrat politician. If it’s a Democrat senator doing this, he’s a heroic “whistleblower”.
Nothing surprises me anymore. Nothing.
Imagine how different our government would be if gerrymandering were illegal.
Another indication that Liberalism is a mental disorder. And Chuck The Shmuck has it in spades.
Somewhere in the back of my brain I have the idea that’s it’s against the law to badmouth a bank. Something passed after runs on banks in the Depression, but I wouldn’t swear to it. Any of the resident lawywers here know?
Democrats, particularly the virulent ones like Shumer, Murtha, Reid, Durbin, et. al. are genuinely disinterested in what is best for the people of America. They only care about their little fiefdoms. They are for example happy when our troops become casualties. Obama is happy when gas is $4.50 (he just wished it came a little more gradually). Murtha is happy to get the chance to defame our Marines. And finally, Shumer is happy to cause havoc in the banking industry if it serves his purposes.
Loose Lips Chuck: $100M run on IndyMac in the two days following his stupidity.
http://www.americanbanker.com/
As for Lehman, consider Paulson’s speech this week: institutions must be allowed to fail. So Goldman Sachs will get to pick this cherry. Betcha.
ps on Lehman: how they got it wrong.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/02/AR2008070203343.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Schumer is not stupid - it’s the people in New York that keep voting and re-electing him that are stupid.
Just to give you a sense of what a schmuck Schumer really is:
Every September, some of us NYers run a 5k through a tunnel from Brooklyn to the WTC Towers, recreating the steps that a NYC firefighter named Stephen Siller took to his death on 9/11.
When the race begins, thousands of runners pass beneath a picture of Stephen, jump up and touch him with their right hands in recognition.
One year, after raising my right hand and touching the starting-line picture of Stephen, I was greeted by Schumer, standing off to the side on top of a media truck surrounded by dozens of news cameras, waving back at the thousands of us as if we were waving and acknowledging him.
A total, classless loser.