Ahem: Speaking of socialism…
GOP Rep. Steve LaTourette, one of the consistent oppponents of socialism in the House, reports:
U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette (R-OH) says he fears that John Dugan, Comptroller of the Currency, steered $7.7 billion of taxpayer bailout money to his former client, PNC, so it could buy National City Bank.
LaTourette today sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson outlining his concerns and asking for an investigation. He also asked House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) to hold a hearing on the Fed’s decision to have one regional bank (PNC) gobble up regional bank (National City) using bailout money. LaTourette is a senior member of the Financial Services panel.
The Pittsburgh-based PNC, which bought National City on Friday at a fire-sale price with federal bailout money, was one of Dugan’s clients just before he was sworn in as Comptroller of the Currency in August 2005, LaTourette said. Prior to becoming Comptroller, Dugan was a partner at Covington and Burling, a DC law firm that specializes in banking regulation.
“I am very concerned that the Comptroller first deprived bailout money to National City Bank and then orchestrated its sale to his former client, PNC. The officials at PNC have made it very clear that they were only able to buy National City because they got a $7.7 billion handout from the government,” LaTourette said.
The federal infusion of cash for PNC marked the very first time that the Treasury has taken an equity stake in a regional bank. On October 14, Treasury announced it was using up to $250 billion of federal bailout money to take an equity stake in 9 banks, including $10 billion for Goldman Sachs, the former employer of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. LaTourette said no regional banks, including National City, were included in this first round of bailouts for banks, even though National City was the seventh largest bank in the nation and was interested in pursuing bailout funding.
On Friday, PNC became the first regional bank to be propped up with government help, and that $7.7 billion infusion allowed PNC to buy National City Bank. About a week before National City was forced to sell itself to PNC, OCC head Dugan told the head of National City Bank, Peter Raskind, that it shouldn’t expect to get a slice of the $250 billion being pumped into banks. LaTourette said the Wall Street Journal reported that Dugan was “heavily involved” in the sale of National City to PNC, and that Dugan was “pushing for a deal by (last) Friday.”
“By all accounts, this sale was being forced onto National City by federal regulators,” LaTourette said. “This was supposed be a $700 billion rescue package, and instead it’s being used to kill a Cleveland bank and kill local jobs. This is what happens when you have chickens guarding the hen house.”
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, is the nations’ primary banking regulator. It operates under the Department of Treasury.
LaTourette, who opposed the $700 billion bailout, said he was concerned all along that “someone could play God” and decide which troubled assets to purchase.
“It’s very clear that the Treasury and the OCC are hand-picking winners and losers, and National City came out on the losing end. I think it’s entirely fair to pose the question about whether PNC got favorable treatment because of their relationship with the nation’s top banking regulator,” LaTourette said. “Some may argue that National City was already gravely ill, but make no mistake, Paulson and Dugan put the nail in the coffin.”
LaTourette said National City’s stock was at about $5 a share when word of possible bailout package began circulating. A rough draft of the $700 billion bailout was unveiled on September 28, a Sunday. The next day, National City’s stock plunged 63 percent and closed at $1.36 a share. The stock has since rebounded to just over $2 a share.
LaTourette said he is also concerned that Paulson and Dugan may have violated the rules of the troubled asset program contained in the $700 billion bailout. LaTourette said he believes PNC was only eligible to receive an amount of bailout money equal to 3 percent of its risk-weighted assets, but the $7.7 billion bailout for PNC is closer to 6 percent. LaTourette said the bailout law stipulates that Treasury can purchase a maximum of 3 percent of a bank’s risk-weighted assets under the program rules. LaTourette said some assets are deemed riskier than others and must be backed by more capital, so they are risk-weighted.
The question isn’t whether we’re slouching toward socialism. It’s how fast.
We’re Screwed ‘08.
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Wow, that sucks. We ARE screwed. But, hark! Take comfort! He’s asked Barney Frank for hearings! I’m sure Barney will get to the bottom of things…no pun intended.
Dear Fox,
Please investigate henhouse. Thanks.
Given the complete lack of understanding in the fed banking system that everyone in the House of Representatives has shown lately, I wouldn’t be surprised if LaTourette’s concerns are misplaced.
Our government, bankrupting us with money we haven’t even earned yet.
tom friedman (gasp) in the new york times (double gasp) wrote about how govt owned banks will stifle creativity. whole thing here
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/opinion/26friedman.html
And just how fast will this request for an investigation get since it came from a Republican? Let me check the calendar. Looks like stardate 64511.7 is available.
YUP! Socialism works because everyone gets such warm fuzzy feelings knowing we all get equal treatment.
speaking of the lies that got the sandwich made …
Don’t worry, all parties involved in this will get together at a retreat in Switzerland and have a good laugh about how they cheated the American taxpayers again. Marie Antoinette is starting to look like a humanitarian compared to these swindlers.
Thanks,magicarb
This would be like having safecrackers guarding the vault.
This less about socialism than it is about who knows who, who is to be favored, and making money.
How does using the cash provided in the bailout (excuse me, rescue plan) to buy another bank provide the cash that was necessary to create/increase the liquidity for borrowing in the credit markets? That cash went to stockholders and what are the stockholders going to do with the cash? Re-invest in the market, or park it? Wasn’t part of the problem that financial institutions were not lending to one another? Wasn’t another part of the problem bad loans? Using cash to buy another bank does nothing to deal with these issues.
I like many many many banks and am uncomfortable with fewer banks controlling and having larger market shares.
If the idea was to help banks (plural) then forcing one to be absorbed by another is not the way. We have accepted, on a certain level, that the country’s financial institutions required some help. OK, but not at the expense of loosing competition.
How different and possibly better would we have been served if the cash had been provided directly to National City Bank and not through PNC? The bailout (darn it, rescue plan) was hastely created and poorly implemented.
This problem was not created in a day and we should not have expected to fix it in a day.
Then beam me up, Scotty. Because I don’t want to be here when the fit hits the shan.
Yeah, Barney Frank will get Inspector Clousseau right on it!
In less than five years these decisions will bring neighbor against neighbor in armed conflict… the first signs will appear either at the outset of a disputed McCain election, or if Obie is elected, following a setback of freedom, legislatively, or through the courts. Today civil unrest is moving towards civil war in the U.S. Act to preserve liberty now, and stockpile weapons needed to defend America from this subversion within…
The time to hesitate is gone… no time to wallow in the mire…
When gvt. ‘officials’ can forcefully take my $$$ (taxes) to ;
buy votes and;
‘help “friends”””’
GRAFT just HAPPENS –right!!!???
and on BOTH sides of the aisle!!!!
Boy-who would have guessed!!!!!
C-CS
GD F SOBs…. I knew this was going to happen , Michelle and all true conservatives who hated this crap sandwich deluxe knew this would happen. This killed it for me. I don’t care who wins this freaking election right about now, they’re all scum, in my book. Time to rebuild the Conservative movement up while suffering for two years.
Why, award winner Barney Frank will surely get to the bottom of this, making sure that any wrong-doers will be brought to justice, and will do so with his usual perky good humor that he is known and loved for.
Yes, after all, Barney Frank has shown such fantastic knowledge and fair-play in everything having to do with this entire thing.
I know I sleep better at night knowing that he is in charge and will make all the right and fair decision.
Thank God for you Barney Frank. You make us all feel proud and safe.
Hold on to your respective hind ends folks. You can bet your own farm that this is simply the tip of what will turn out to be a HUGE iceberg.
Do I hear the band playing as their chairs are sliding down the ever more sharply tilting deck?
Al Capone would be proud.
When do we get our wooden arrows? I think I have found a good use for them.
Now this would be an example of corporate welfare.
I think thats what happens with socialism and any other economic structure. I would prefer free market corruption rather than socialistic corruption.
Dear America,
Welcome to your $700 BILLION version
of the UN Oil for Food Program.
Hope you make it to 2010.
Much Love,
Your Socialist Gov’t
Al Capone, and Robert Mugabe.
Exactly. I mean gee….corruptocrats steering money from the bailout to line their own pockets?? Who coulda seen THAT coming??!!!
On October 27th, 2008 at 7:30 pm, corona said:
Manufactured Crisis.
Step 3 of 4.
The Four Stages of Ideological Subversion:
————————————————————————
1) Demoralization (already “over-fulfilled” in 1985, per Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov.)
2) Destabilization (Years of destablizing Fannie and Freddie)
3) Crisis (Both the Bailout Crisis and the Crisis predicted by Joe Biden)
4) Communist “normalization”
This 2.0 version of the crap sandwich just gets better and better everyday. This is exactly what I knew would happen with the lack of internal management controls and over sight of Paulson and his cronies.
Just a matter of time before the tyranny of this rapidly Socialist monster we call the Federal government starts to take other liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. The already have perverted the 1st and 5th Amendments how long before they start chipping away at others due to either a real or imagined incident/threat to really go to town on the pesky flawed US Constitution. The results of events of 4 November will decide if or when I will start organizing with my neighbors to either form a militia or at a minimum a mutual defense force in the spirit of the minutemen of 1775.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE!
let’s see… The Dems are using this crap sandwich to line their pockets while hammering their republican opponents, who voted for it, in their campaign ads here in Georgia. It’s like the perfect storm and our constitution is getting blown away by these crap sandwich makers.. Hypocrites one and all! Did I spell that right? Just get out and vote and let’s see who sticks and who falls! Hey! there is a big party in Barney Franks basement, bring your own CEO night!
Obama dropped the tax cut from $250,000 to $200,000 on his new ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJvkRFKGgGw
When did this happen native?
I don’t wanna be treated equal, I wanna be special! Whaaaaaaa!
I also told my postman that he better deliver my bailout check pretty soon or I’m gonna sic the dog on him! (fuzzy little pomeranian goes by the nickname Hannibal Lecter)
Can we go for $150,000?
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/31718_Obama_Compared_America_to_Nazi_Germany
Obama Compared America to Nazi Germany
Politics | Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 5:10:01 pm PST
Afterwards they will get a tour of the vault to see the gold they kept from Jews who never reclaimed it.
Do I hear $100,000?
post of the day….
Going Going Gone is our Country!
Keep in mind the Republicans that voted against the bailout(twice), like Demint, Pence, Bunning, Blackburn, etc., etc.; That they may create a coalition in the future to wrest back control of the GOP from the likes of Grahamnesty, Martinez, Spector, etc. is one faint hope for conservatism to return to the party of Reagan.
The ad was just placed on Yahoo three days ago.
The sweetest words in the English language are not “I love you.” No, the sweetest words are: “I told you so but you wouldn’t listen.”
The stock market has lost something like 3 trillion dollars since the bailout. Can’t Bush just give himself a medal of freedom and get the hell out of office? How can any president be worse than Carter and Johnson combined? It’s not possible, yet Bush pulled it off effortlessly. For no other reason than to be loved by democrats.
Future historians of this country will weep. The man should have stayed drunk. Lord knows the rest of us are going to have to be in that state to endure this.
Just a taste of things to come. Remember, ‘Absolute power corrupts – absolutely.’
Corrected…Massive spending Bush govt is no different from a socialist govt.
Small well-managed local banks are at least part of the answer. Stop giving your money to the behemoths who likely have Dubai or the Saudis or the Chinese as partners.
PUN
PUN
PUN
Picking on Nancy Peloi’s only real competition for Queen of the House. Just because the lisping lizard…
never mind.
PUN
PUN
PUN
Does the LL barney Frank really drive a Pimpmobile? (I want to be flippant on the way to the gulag)
#14 Tazed and Confused:
I’m afraid you are right. I pray it doesn’t come to that, but I am ready if it does. I wish we could develop a coalition of like-minded people. Do you have a website?
Oh happy day…..NOT.
Got a nice 4 page letter from the IRS today …stating that in 2006 I underpaid taxes by about $3000 bucks.
Oops. More money for libtards to spend.
You know what I really wanna do with this letter? Cram it into the Senate’s aarse. Already paid over $10,000 for that year.
DAMN THEM. Some little person who doesn’t work will reap that money I now have to send to the IRS.
KMA, IRS, libs, and Obama.
After listening to his ad, it makes a lot of sense to vote for Obama. He has hit every hot button that the middle and below classes want to hear. They want to get all the free stuff and put the screws to the rich. And these people will vote on Tuesday by the millions. The price gouging oil companies and the multi-million dollar CEOs and the bailout and the fat-cat crooks that have been in congress are all against the middle and below classes. These people don’t care who he associated with in the past. He is a fresh face and talks real good. He is not one of those that have been in politics for many years and is in bed with the special interest people. These people don’t believe all of the stuff the other party is saying because they are just mean and are always for the evil rich. These people have no clue about repercussions or the future and don’t care about tomorrow. These people don’t care about the rest of the World economy. These people’s economy is what ever money is left in their wallet today. These people are only worried about today and today they want to vote the bums out.
Sarah Palin and Joe The Plumber 2012
gayle
I got one of those letters, too and they promptly used the stimulus thingie to pay it….. did I get any change? of course not.
Anyone really surprised?
Ever wonder what a democrap or liberal is doing? What ever they accuse you of, they’ve already done it or hard it.
You are likely to grow a long white beard waiting for this to happen, Sir, but I personally thank you for paying attention. At least someone inside the beltway gives a damn.
The bailout’s chickens…
are coming home…
to roost.
OK, the worst part of this bailout approach is …
If Obama wins, it will become a precedent for further redistribution of wealth! While we are currently looking at cronyism as a problem in directing govt money, just think of the opportunity it will provide for Obama and someone with a clearly stated objective like Maxine Waters!
We could be looking at the complete breakdown of financial, service, and industrial activity in the US for many years.
Now Obama has moved his 250,000 limit to 200,000, and he has mentioned ‘families’.
This will undoubtedly mean an individual with a 100,000 income will now be subjected to whatever ’spread the wealth’ increases he desires.
Now, out here in Cal, and no doubt in NY, someone making 100,000 is no where near the top 2% of taxpayers.
I also noticed he has dropped his claim of 95% of taxpayers not being impacted by his tax increases.
I currently live in a world of Socialism where the most a person can hope for is mediocraty, YOU pay the banks to keep your money and if you defend yourself from attack in any way, you have committed a crime. But everybody is just sooooo happy.
The bailout – print money you don’t have and hope inflation doesn’t go up.. Just like Italy in the 1970’s. When we run out of room for zeros on the “new money” in a few years, remember, everyone told us the free market didn’t work and we can be soooooo happy.
This whole thing stinks of Socialist cronyism. At least when we had Capitalist cronyism, we were free and still had the opportunity to excel, buy the house of our choice and expect a decent return on our retirement.
Oil was pushing $175 a barrel until one day President Bush finally showed some leadership ability and simply said, “drill”. Not one extra ounce of oil has come out of Alaska or the Gulf since but the price has plummeted, Gas is getting back to the reasonable level and America’s enemies are in a panic because the wealth that gave them their power base has dried up. The President changed the world with a word. He could have done the same with the financial issues our country now faces. Instead, we take the EuroSocialist approach of printing more money. Do they really think welfare is a better course than leadership?
By the time his proposal reaches congress, it would have radically changed. I sincerely doubt any sort of “tax cut” will reach the floor, from committee. More likely, I see a “tax increase” with the blame being laid on Bush and the republicans. Perhaps it will be a “hidden” tax, like the ones on oil companies and other businesses. They hope the illiterate will not understand that people pay taxes, not businesses. Any sort of proposal will need Pelosi/Reid backing (the true rulers in ‘09, with Obama). You know those two can’t stand “cuts”, only demands for more.
There has never been, nor will there ever be, a collectivist State that has not been corrupted to favor the leaders.
MNUSMC David and Gayle,
I got one of those IRS letters back in July. Apparently I did not pay enough in 2005 so they took it from the stimulus check and I also owe $48.50 more. No widescreen TV for me. At the time I was even more angry since gas was $4.15 a gallon here in Georgia and we did not have the money to take my family on vacation. I’m a huge Fair Tax guy now, however thanks to Barney, Dodd, Bush, Paulson and the whole Hee Haw gang in DC, IF Obama wins the Fair Tax will sit on the shelf for another 10 years.
So Rangel can get away with not paying taxes but by God we’ll soak the Americans for all their worth. I’m happy Stevens was found guilty but what about Jefferson, democrat, Louisiana? Will he get off the hook once Obama controls the Dept. of Justice? IF Obama wins the only justice we’ll see will be against the people that question “That One” Be afraid…. Very afraid…..
http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_main
IT’S THE ONLY WAY TO GO!!!!!!!
WTF is this ‘middle class’ everyone keeps talking about??! Can someone please give me a number? a salary? anything??
I think it’s a percentage, something like the middle 10 or 15% to 85 or 90%.
They do the same thing with the “poverty” figure. They want to eliminate the poor in America but they define them as the lowest x% income earners in the country. That way they never go away and you always always have someone to look out for.
Expect the response, if there even is a response, to be obfuscation.
And expect there to be TONS more of this sort of criminal activity with our money.
Hopefully, these idiots will leave lots of paperwork behind and when the public has revolted and kicked Pelosi and Reid to the curb, criminal investigations can be started and Barney Frank will get a Dream Vacation at Leavenworth.
I have no idea what that means. Are you there? Am I?
don’t tell me I need to go to that dreaded website of Obamas to get an answer.
**vomits**