Posted by madmaxmacaw on March 16, 2009
President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner meet with small business owners and community lenders on Monday.
President Barack Obama, trying to contain a political firestorm, instructed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner “pursue every legal avenue” to block $165 million in bonuses to AIG executives who were in part responsible for the company’s near collapse.
“This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed,” Mr. Obama said ahead of announcing a plan to rescue small businesses through a raft of new lending options. “Under these circumstances, it’s hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay. How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?”
“This isn’t just a matter of dollars and cents. It’s about our fundamental values,” he added.
Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo asked AIG to provide details on who’s receiving bonuses in its AIG Financial Products subsidiary by 4 EDT p.m. on Monday or face subpoenas. He has blamed the unit for the insurer’s near collapse last year. Breaking News
Posted in Obama, politics | Tagged: aig, bailout, barack obama, breaking news, economy, finance, financial, insurance, insurance companies, insurance company, jobs, layoffs, politics, president barack obama | Leave a Comment »
Posted by madmaxmacaw on March 16, 2009
Job seekers wait in line to enter a job fair in Concord, Calif.
California, a state so large that its economy dwarfs most nations, now has another, less cheery, claim to fame: It is one of the states hardest hit by the country’s unemployment woes. The California jobless rate hit 10.1 percent in January, up from 5.9 percent when the recession began in December 2007. Only Michigan, South Carolina and Rhode Island reported a higher unemployment rate for the first month of the new year, when the national average was 7.6 percent. While other states with exceptionally high unemployment rates are suffering from severe downturns in specific sectors that power their economies — such as Michigan’s auto industry — in California, the state is dealing with a broad array of problems, more similar to the country as a whole, economists say. Breaking News
Posted in Obama, economy, politics | Tagged: bankruptcy, bankruptcy court, barack obama, breaking news, california, detroit, economy, finance, financial, foreclosure, jobs, layoffs, politics, president barack obama | Leave a Comment »
Posted by madmaxmacaw on March 16, 2009
Chandler, Ariz., police officers confront residents of the Alante at the Islands apartment complex last week at a meeting called to discuss what the renters would do next.
Nicholle Krause first noticed the weeds sprouting in the usually well-manicured grounds of her 320-unit apartment complex in Chandler, Ariz., in December. Soon, signs of neglect began multiplying: Garbage spilled over from the dumpsters, the water in the swimming pool turned a slimy pea green and the grounds were infested by swarms of bees — especially alarming because Krause is severely allergic to bee stings.
“I couldn’t even go outside to enjoy where I live,” said Krause, a 21-year-old office worker who pays $827 a month for a one-bedroom apartment with garage space. “I shouldn’t have to pay $800 a month to live in a … hole.”
It wasn’t until early March that Krause and other residents learned why the complex – the alluringly named Alante at the Islands — was rapidly going to seed. The property owner, Irvine, Calif.-based Bethany Holdings Group, had abandoned the complex and a dozen other large rental properties in the greater Phoenix area after defaulting on hundreds of millions of dollars in loans. Breaking News
Posted in Obama, economy, politics | Tagged: bankruptcy, bankruptcy court, barack obama, breaking news, economy, finance, financial, foreclosure, jobs, layoffs, politics, president barack obama | Leave a Comment »
Posted by madmaxmacaw on March 16, 2009
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is increasingly concerned about a populist backlash against banks and Wall Street, worried that anger at financial institutions could also end up being directed at Congress and the White House and could complicate President Obama’s agenda.
The administration’s sharp rebuke of the American International Group on Sunday for handing out $165 million in executive bonuses — Lawrence H. Summers, director of the president’s National Economic Council, described it as “outrageous” on “This Week” on ABC — marks the latest effort by the White House to distance itself from abuses that could feed potentially disruptive public anger.
“We’ve got enormous problems that need to be addressed,” David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, said in an interview. “And it’s hard to address because there’s a lot of anger about the irresponsibility that led us to this point.” Breaking news
Posted in Obama, politics | Tagged: bailout, bank of america, barack obama, breaking news, finance, financial, government, politics, president barack obama, Wall Street, washington, wells fargo, whitehouse | Leave a Comment »
Posted by madmaxmacaw on March 10, 2009
Bernard Madoff exits Manhattan federal court.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Tuesday unsealed a document that charged Bernard Madoff with 11 felony counts including securities fraud, money laundering, perjury and making false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The charges against Mr. Madoff underscore that much of the money stolen from investors ended up paying other investors. The revelations in the document likely will dash the hopes of Mr. Madoff’s burned investors that he stocked away a large cache of money that could be retrieved and returned to them. Mr. Madoff is expected to plead guilty to the charges on Thursday. If found guilty of all counts, Mr. Madoff, who has been free on bail since his arrest on Dec. 11, faces a maximum of 150 years in prison. Legal experts expect the actual sentence to be much lower but would still be an effective life sentence for the 70-year-old. The charges were filed in what is called a criminal information, a document that details the crimes prosecutors say he committed. The document was filed by prosecutors in lieu of a grand jury indictment, which Mr. Madoff waived Breaking news
Posted in Business, Wall Street | Tagged: bernard madoff, breaking news, criminal, finance, financial, grand jury, invest, investments, money, police, ponzi scheme, Wall Street | Leave a Comment »
Posted by madmaxmacaw on March 7, 2009
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, left, shakes hands with President Mahmoud Abbas as he submits his resignation at Abbas' headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Saturday, March 7, 2009.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian Prime Minister submitted his resignation Saturday, a move that could help pave the way for an elusive power-sharing deal between Palestinian moderates and militants.
Salam Fayyad was appointed prime minister by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007, in response to the violent takeover of Gaza by the militant Islamic Hamas in June 2007. Mr. Abbas and the Fayyad government control the West Bank, while Hamas continues to rule Gaza, despite a recent three-week Israeli military offensive there.
Mr. Fayyad’s decision was meant as a confidence-building measure ahead of the resumption of Palestinian reconciliation talks on Tuesday in Cairo. Negotiators from Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah movement are trying to form a transition government that is to prepare for presidential and legislative elections by January 2010.
Mr. Abbas said Saturday that he hoped a transition government could be formed by the end of March, suggesting that power-sharing talks have moved into high gear, following failed attempts in the past. Mr. Fayyad’s resignation “comes to enhance and support the national dialogue to reach a national unity government,” Mr. Abbas said. Breaking News
Posted in World | Tagged: breaking news, cairo egypt, gaza, hamas, middle east, military us, palestinian authority, terrorism, terrorist, unconstitutional, west bank | Leave a Comment »
Posted by madmaxmacaw on March 7, 2009
Radio Host’s Prominence Underscores Party’s Challenge to Forge New Identity
Rush Limbaugh addresses a conservative conference in February
Rush Limbaugh is right where he wants to be and right where the White House wants him: in the news. But Republicans have more mixed feelings about the controversial talk radio host’s recent elevation.
Mr. Limbaugh dominated headlines this week, as a drive by the White House and other top Democrats to paint him as the leader of the Republican Party left the GOP flummoxed. Michael Steele, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, illustrated his party’s dilemma, first calling Mr. Limbaugh’s style “ugly,” then phoning him to apologize. One committee member labeled Mr. Steele’s handling of the matter a “Republican Horror Show” and called on him to step down just weeks after taking on the job.
Behind the political theater lay a fundamental challenge for a party seeking a way out of the wilderness after last November’s drubbing. Republican leaders and activists are grappling with how to joust with a popular new president, particularly after years of being accused of embracing a cutthroat style of politics. Breaking News
Posted in Obama, politics | Tagged: barack obama, breaking news, democrats, government, politics, president barack obama, republicans, rush limbaugh, washington, whitehouse | Leave a Comment »
Posted by madmaxmacaw on March 7, 2009
NEW YORK (Reuters) - With “no end in sight” for U.S. job losses amid a recession that could stretch into 2010, American workers will soon have to contend with another blow to their confidence: stagnant, or even falling wages.
Job seekers — already coping with the highest unemployment rate in a quarter century, their savings mugged by a plunging stock market — can also expect lower pay once they land a new job, labor market experts say, because the current downturn shows no signs of turning around anytime soon.“There’s no end in sight,” said Tig Gilliam, chief executive of Adecco Group North America, the third-largest U.S. employer behind Wal-Mart Stores and the postal service.
“March is going to be the same, and I don’t see anything that will make April better.”Lower wages, in turn, could further erode the outlook for the U.S. economy by hurting consumers’ spending power. The government’s February employment report showed 651,000 jobs eliminated outside the farm sector, while losses in the previous two months were revised upward. The unemployment rate jumped to 8.1 percent, highest since 1983. Breaking News
Posted in economy | Tagged: breaking news, economic crisis, economy, Health, job loss, layoffs, life, money, pay cut, unemployment | Leave a Comment »
Posted by madmaxmacaw on March 7, 2009
One of the many large U.S. military bases in Iraq, Forward Operating Base Remagen is seen in a photo relased by the U.S. military in March 2006.
Measured in blood, the price tag in Iraq is absolute: 4,238 Americans have died during America’s six-year war. For Iraqis, the toll is far greater. Icasualties.org, which tracks body counts reported by the media, notes nearly 45,000 civilians have been killed since Iraq’s Shiite-led government was formed in April 2005; another Web site puts the tally since 2003 close to 100,000.
Yet as the Pentagon prepares its exit strategy in line with President Barack Obama’s announced plans to end the war by 2012, a wholly different calculus is emerging. With the end of combat rhetorically on the horizon, the cost of leaving is now measured in financial, logistical and, above all, political terms.
Obama told Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C., that while the United States would leave Iraq “sovereign, stable and self-reliant,” the price of staying had become too great. “What we will not do is let the pursuit of the perfect stand in the way of achievable goals,” the president said. “We cannot sustain indefinitely a commitment that has put a strain on our military and will cost the American people nearly a trillion dollars.” Breaking News
Posted in Military, U.S | Tagged: afghanistan, americans, americas army, army, barack obama, breaking news, iraq, Military, pakistan, politics, president barack obama | Leave a Comment »
Posted by madmaxmacaw on March 6, 2009
Eliot Spitzer is buying 1615 L St. NW in Washington, above.
Eliot Spitzer is returning to Washington, D.C., but this time as an investor in the commercial real-estate market.
The former New York governor, who resigned in disgrace a year ago after getting caught patronizing a prostitute in a Washington hotel, has purchased a prominent office building blocks from the White House through his father’s real-estate company.
The Spitzers are paying $180 million to buy 1615 L St. NW, a 13-story dark-glass building whose tenants include the public-relations firm Fleishman-Hillard, the Washington outpost of the Nixon Presidential Library and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.
The move is part of the ex-governor’s re-emergence into public life and a renewed interest in the successful real-estate business founded by his father, Bernard Spitzer. In an interview, Mr. Spitzer spoke about the investment, the economy and about his new life in business after “a detour along the way” as New York’s attorney general and governor.
“Obviously it brought great joy for a great period of time,” Mr. Spitzer said about his years in government. Mr. Spitzer declined to discuss the scandal that led to his resignation. Breaking News
Posted in Business, Wall Street | Tagged: breaking news, Business, buy, elliot spitzer, investing, investment, money, real estate, stock exchange, stock market, Wall Street | Leave a Comment »
