These Bank CEOs are all weaving an unbelieveable storyline...

[Blackhatjack]

Businesses and people on the street do not lie .... there is no effective lending going on to them.

These Banks took the TARP $$ and padded dividend payments to shareholders, bonuses to employees, and used the $$ to shore up their balance sheets(which helped them avoid closing wealthy investor hedge funds and the like.

You cannot believe what they are saying ... the facts do not support them.

[Earth_First]

1. Did you happen to catch Maxine Waters' comments in the testimony before the break?

She definately gave it both barrels over exactly what you point out.

[truebrit71]

3. No kidding...she was fearsome...

..it was good to hear...

[City Lights]

7. I *love* her!

I wish we had more ass-kicking Dems like her in Congress! She really let them have it.

[Spazito]

13. She was awesome!

One of the few to say exactly what needed to be said. Her questions remained, largely, unanswered by the 8 cockroaches sitting there because to answer would mean they would have to lie to congress or admit grievous wrong doing.

[Taverner]

2. NATIONALIZE THE BANKS NOW!!!!

[LakeSamish706]

4. Why do I have the feeling that the Bush Administration set this whole thing up...

with the banks? I think this whole melt down was a well conceived plane to help destroy the middle class. A gut feeling...

[grasswire]

6. a reason to gut Medicare and Social Security

...and drown them in the bathtub, as the Pugs have always wanted. Do away with the New Deal.

[FiveGoodMen]

11. I agree. The Bush admin was one giant robbery and the Sept crisis was the final step

before they left office.

[Andy823]

12. I have to agree

Bush and gang did everything they could to tie Obama's hands once they knew for sure, and I think they knew a long time back, that the republicans didn't stand a chance of winning the race. I also think that the money was giving out so that certain banks could buy up other banks using taxpayers dollars so that like our energy sector and the MSM, a handful of select people would be in control of the majority of banks in this country. Control the energy, banks, MSM and you pretty much control the country. I sure hope that like everything else Bush did, this fails also. Obama can still make the changes we need, it will just take longer. He needs to get tough though. I am all for working together with both parties to get this country back on track, but now it seems that the majority on the other side have not intention of working with him, at least not yet. He may be able to bring some of the over to work with him in time, but we don't have time right now! Let them know who is boss Mr. President!

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. Who really moves the big swings in the stock market?

The 2009 Vault Investment Management Rankings are here. The Vault Guide to the Top 25 Investment Management Employers rates 59 firms with significant operations in asset management, wealth management or brokerage services. (Read our rankings methodology.)



These guys move the most shares



Featured Employers

RANK FIRM SCORE HEADQUARTERS
1 Goldman Sachs 8.354 New York, NY
2 BlackRock 7.489 New York, NY
3 The BlackStone Group 7.485 New York, NY
4 Barclays GlobalInvestors, N.A. 6.848 San Francisco, CA
5 Lehman Brothers 6.804 New York, NY
6 JPMorgan Asset Management 6.802 New York, NY
7 PIMCO 6.725 Newport Beach, CA
8 D.E. Shaw & Co. 6.578 New York, NY
9 Wellington Management Co., LLP 6.565 Boston, MA
10 Deutsche Bank 6.509 New York, NY
11 Merrill Lynch 6.464 New York, NY
12 Morgan Stanely 6.462 New York, NY
13 Fidelity Investments 6.398 Boston, MA
14 Lazard Asset Managament 6.315 New York, NY
15 UBS 6.176 New York, NY
16 Credit Suisse 6.162 New York, NY


http://www.vault.com/nr/finance_rankings/imngmnt_rankings.jsp

[Earth_First]

8. Here's another example: "Some Credit Card Companies Financially Profiling Customers"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3711072

They absolutely denied that this was an ongoing practice during testimony earlier. While it may not be their particular card, the question was very directed in that was "...is the industry currently known to be profiling credit lines of their consumers?" -perhaps that is paraphrased a bit.

But all eight decidedly denied that this is occurring.

For the record, American Express recieved $3.39 billion from the TARP program.

http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSTRE4BM4JC20081223?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

[On the Road]

9. Do You Have Numbers on Lending?

I visited five banks recently looking for a loan.

Citi, BoA, Suntrust, and TD were all interested in lending me money. BB&T said people were just not coming into apply.

I ended up getting denied by three of them and borrowing from my 401k. But the denials were for legitimate reasons: I was overdue several months in a row on some utility bills and also had over $40k on credit cards. I got the feeling that the banks were tightening up, but were still perfectly willing to lend to qualified people.

I suspect the disconnect is that people are used to being lent money and are suddenly finding their financial record examined more closely.

[Earth_First]

10. Links:

TARP recipients: http://bailout.uslaw.com/?page_id=353

TARP recipient lending numbers:

Lending Drops at Big U.S. Banks

Lending at many of the nation's largest banks fell in recent months, even after they received $148 billion in taxpayer capital that was intended to help the economy by making loans more readily available.

Ten of the 13 big beneficiaries of the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, saw their outstanding loan balances decline by a total of about $46 billion, or 1.4%, between the third and fourth quarters of 2008, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of banks that recently announced their quarterly results.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123293041915314113.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

[Sal Minella]

14. Deja vu = "I believe that nicotine is not addictive" x 7 = mega$$$ at stake = the Big Boys

will sit in front of both Congress and their Christian God and lie their fat asses off.