Watchdog: Regulators bowed to banks on bailout

[cory777]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators bowed to pressure from big banks seeking a quick exit from the financial bailout program and did not uniformly apply the government's own conditions set for repaying the taxpayer funds, a new watchdog report says.

The report was issued Friday by the office of Christy Romero, the acting special inspector general for the $400 billion taxpayer bailout of the financial industry and automakers. It found that regulators, to varying degrees, "bent" to pressure from the banks in late 2009 and relaxed the requirements put in only weeks earlier.

The regulators also were motivated by a desire to cut the government's stake in the banks it had bailed out in September 2008 when the financial crisis struck, the report says.

Meanwhile, the banks wanted to get out quickly from the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, because they wanted to avoid its limits on executive compensation and the stigma associated with receiving rescue money, according to the report.

Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Watchdog-Regulators-bowed-to-apf-3217329384.html?x=0

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Breaking Activist News http://activistnews.blogspot.com/

[No Elephants]

1. So? I get those kind of breaks from government all the time!

Wait a minute! No, I never got a break from government.

Did you?

"NC, Wells Fargo and Citigroup said the TARP repayments allowed them to focus on their businesses and were in the best interests of taxpayers and shareholders."

Well, if they said so, it must be true, right?

But, who are they to decide what is my best interests? And why did the author of this story never point that out.

[ixion]

2. exactly. We, the people never get a break.

We get the shaft, or worse. :argh:

This is why we're occupying Wall St, and why I hope it continues until we root all these bastards out.

[dkf]

6. You do realize that the "break" they got was the government allowed them to pay their tarp loans?

Are you really angry about that? Seriously?

[fasttense]

14. Allowed the banksters to pay their loan?????

Let's see, I get a loan, with no collateral or with toxic collateral that I have willingly bought (which I later get to dump on Uncle Sam but that's another story). I get that loan at zero to .25 interest when the going rate for borrowing money is closer to 5%. I get this loan with absolutely no strings attached.

A bankster borrows $1 billion at .25%. He loans it to someone else at the going rate of 5%. The bankster just made $450,000,000.00. But they paid the loan back, big deal.

Any bank that would make a loan under the conditions Uncle Sam just gave the banksters, would not be in business long. But Uncle Sam allowed the banksters this wonderful deal and much, much more. Half the banks who are calling themselves banks weren't banks until AFTER they crashed the economy. The bushes waved their magic wands and made them banks over night.

Then Uncle Sam doesn't put any restrictions on the supposed loan. Pay yourself billions in executive and CEO pay and benefits. Go ahead, because you just got a windfall from the American middle class. Because most those bankster pay less in taxes than you and I do. We support them. We pay their welfare. Job creators my a**.

[dkf]

25. That is the "break" that is being given in this article.::letting them pay back the loans.

On the other hand it's hard to dictate good terms when most were saying they didn't want the loan anyway.

Warren Buffet gets good terms because he goes in when the banks need it and are willing to concede it. Most of this crew weren't there yet.

[Citizen Worker]

3. Socialism for the banks and capitalism for the masses.

[dkf]

8. Funny how we forget the government forced the banks to take those loans.

[fasttense]

17. Funny how we forgot that most of those Wall Street firms weren't banks until after they crashed.n/t

[dkf]

22. Most? You mean Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley? Two?

[david_vincent]

21. Funny how YOU forget that there was an alternative

which was for the government to demand equity shares in them. Which I and a whole lot of other people were in favor of. Yeah, they were "forced" to take those loans... I call bullshit.

[dkf]

23. They wanted to save Citi but didn't want to stigmatize them so they forced

Everyone to take the funds whether they requested it or not.

It was to save Citi.

[RickFromMN]

9. Socialism for the banks and feudalism for the masses?

[PatrynXX]

4. They ain't gonna get bailed out again

So what do we get in return? for me Regions it was $5 a month then $8 now it's going to be $10 a month if I have less than $50 in the bank and don't make at least 15 transactions and on top of that $5 per time I use my debit card (Seinfeld isn't going to be happy. The checks are gonna be cheaper. and I guess Bank of America is also doing this absurd $5 a month. I'm leaving mine shortly for a credit union. Car Makers get bailed out and they were smart. Banks get bailed out. do'h they are spoiled rotten. nothing new there.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dkf]

7. The Government will make $20 billion from the TARP loans.

"Taxpayers will recoup the full amount invested in banks, around $245 billion, and will make an additional $20 billion or so in profit, Massad said in a telephone interview Thursday."

[Katashi_itto]

11. Slight problem is that, with CDOs we took over we are now in the hole effectively 172 Trillion.

in the hole.

The whole planet makes between 7-8 trillion a year.


Now there is calls by the banking industry to recapitalize the global banking industry to the tune of 100 trillion more.

Your TARP means squat, other than it was a ploy to hook us for a much larger amount.

There called "Toxic Assets" for a reason. Actually "Toxic Assets" calling them that, is really a misnomer. They are just fraudulent "assets"

[dkf]

24. Recapitalize the banks to 100 trillion? Where do you get this stuff from? Seriously?

[fasttense]

18. And the government lost how much?????

The money they loaned to the banksters was worth a lot more at the time. It was a horrible deal for the American people and a windfall for the banksters. If the bushes had charged the going rate for the loans they gave away in TARP, we would have a huge chunk of the federal budget deficit paid off.

If a private bank gave out loans like our federal government did in TARP, the bank would be bankrupt by now.

[RickFromMN]

10. The real problem is, the banks are still too big to fail...can anything be done to fix this?

[Katashi_itto]

12. At this point no. Other than a Chinese Solution would be

a way. Declare derivatives illegal, and start executing Banksters wholesale.

You have Sociopaths running the finance industry.

A SH*tload of people are now positioned to make trillions off of crashing the world markets.

They WANT us to crash now.

No real way out with the current leadership.

The Teabaggers alone, amplify the hurdles to fix anything, let alone a real solution.

But in this situation you have multiple factions each wanting to crash the system for their own reasons.

[cppuddy]

13. ?

Question if they crash everthing to make trillions, trillions of what currency, it will all be worthless. It will have no value. So they are commiting suicide. They are sociopaths, and they should be strung up. But if that happens then obama can declair marchal law, and forgive all debt?

[Katashi_itto]

15. Thats the rub. They will end up starving to death...after us.

"Question if they crash everthing to make trillions, trillions of what currency, it will all be worthless. It will have no value. So they are commiting suicide. They are sociopaths, and they should be strung up. But if that happens then obama can declair marchal law, and forgive all debt?"

Likely that is what we might end up with is Marshal Law.

Worse case is they continue to try to put band aids on the problem thinking they can "Ride it out". Course that doesnt help you or me since we would have no ability to purchase anything.

[Katashi_itto]

16. The Bible even has examples for Debt forgivness I think its called "Jubilee"

Declaring CDO illegal is the best solution. But least likely to happen.

[Hubert Flottz]

19. Were they really bowing, or were they bobbing for bribes?

Like better jobs and other perks?

Edit...memberships at the country clubs?

[Oceansaway]

20. K&R...n/t

[BadGimp]

26. Im shocked I tell yoou shocked