Results tagged “bailout”

On Sunday, The American Bankers Association begins a four day long convention that hopes to “rebuild our future, community by community.” The conference features a who’s who of financial celebrities including FDIC Chair Sheila C Blair along with conservative political columnist George Will and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. With plenty of power breakfasts, optional tours and fancy receptions, this year’s $1600+ convention is a must attend for anyone interested in hobnobbing with bailout beneficiaries.

Northern Trust, after receiving $1.5 million in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds, has apologized for sponsoring the PGA Northern Trust Open golf tournament in Los Angeles last weekend, and has pledged to repay the bailout funds it has received. Northern Trust CEO Frederick Waddell wrote in a letter to U.S. Rep Barney Frank, D-Mass.:

At a press conference today, President-Elect Barack Obama presented what is being called his "money team," his economic advisers who will attempt to help him turn the economy around once he takes office in January. At the presser, his second since his November 4 election win, he announced the following members of his economic team:

Watching the Dow rise and fall in recent weeks has been like riding a roller coaster with a bad case of stomach flu. It sank like a stone last week after Congress approved a $850 billion bailout and the credit markets remained frozen. This week, upon news that the Federal government will be partially nationalizing the nation's major banks, the Dow saw its biggest one-day increase ever. In a year in which we've seen skyrocketing grocery prices in relation to increased oil costs, the thought of paying even more for provisions crossed us more than once.

Yesterday we were walking around Daley Plaza, looking to get a little photo-artistic during our lunch break, when we came across this guy exercising his First Amendment right the old-fashioned, analog way. His name is Paul, and his Website, advertised on his placard, attempts to expose "the lies, manipulation and counterfeiting on Wall Street." Let's hope he's got enough bandwidth! ROMS features, among other things, links to bailout coverage, YouTubes of news interviews, and other stuff related to naked short selling and other financial things we don't understand (because we don't have any investments...or own any money, come to think of it).

Since none of us have anything better to do while waiting around for Congress to get its collective head out of its ass and crank out a bailout plan, we thought: $700 Billion is a metric shit-ton of money. What could it buy?

Yesterday, Washington and Wall St. descended into chaos as the bailout plan was voted down by the House of Representatives. But why? What happened? Some House Republicans blamed a speech by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), “I do believe that we could have gotten there today, had it not been for the partisan speech that the Speaker gave on the floor of the House. We put everything we had into getting the vote to get there today.” Here's the speech. Does Pelosi speak the truth? Or is it an unnecessary poke in the eye? And is it really a valid excuse by Republicans? Somehow, we don't see this speech also causing 40 percent of Democrats to vote against the bailout.

At least, if you take what he says as gospel truth. With all the financial stories swirling around our heads these days, it's hard to know what's for real and what's just blithering...but in this case, it is Sam Zell, master real estate investor billionaire and not Sam Zell, Tribune Company executive. Crain's has the details: