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Must reads from the Insomniac
The Anchoress —
... This headline is a masterpiece of the obvious: Political Interference Seen in Bank Bailout Decisions. Really? Do you think? ...
TARP funds go to the politically connected
Hot Air » Top Picks —
... The Wall Street Journal reports on what everyone already knows: the federal bailout serves as nothing more than a political payoff machine. As long as lenders have friends in Washington, they’ll get TARP funds, regardless of how they’ve run their bank or their current health as a lender. Barney Frank leads the pack in the new version of pork: Troubled OneUnited Bank in Boston didn’t look much like a candidate for aid from the Treasury Department’s bank bailout fund last fall. The Treasury had said it would give money only to healthy banks, to jump-start lending. But ...
News Flash: Democrats Use TARP to Protect Friends and Shady Bankers
Weekly Standard Blog —
... The Wall Street Journal reports on the suspicious case of OneUnited Bank, which received a TARP bailout thanks to Barney Frank, despite running afoul of state and federal regulators due to shady investing and lending practices, as well as the perks it granted to senior executives. The case is an object lesson on the opportunities that massive bills like TARP create for payoffs by those in power, and the power to hide those payoffs. First, the background: ...
More Bailout Money Put to Good Use
The Corner on National Review Online —
... : Boston s OneUnited Bank received $12 million in federal rescue funds last month just weeks after regulators issued a cease-and-desist order to overhaul some of its lending and executive compensation practices. Details of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. s official enforcement action against OneUnited and the bank's pending $12 million infusion were first reported Dec. 5 in a Page 1 article in the Boston Business Journal. The Wall Street Journal ...
A small bank with big friends
Power Line —
... Yesterday's Wall Street Journal featured a page-one story noting Rep. Barney Frank's support of the troubled OneUnited Bank in Boston. Rep. Frank earmarked $12 million in TARP funds for the bank, already operating under remedial orders from state banking authorities for bad loan practices and excessive compensation, purportedly because the bank invested heavily in FNMA stock which was made worthless by the government takeover. The Journal describes the earmark: ...
Democrat-Controlled Government Nationalizes Citi, Bank of America
The Jawa Report —
... America, it was nice knowing you. Meanwhile, one of the blustering anthropoids who destroyed the mortgage market and started the world-wide spiral is now merrily "saving the banks" he chooses to. When does ...
Here, Piggy Piggy Piggy!
Daily Pundit —
Political Interference Seen in Bank Bailout Decisions - WSJ.com
Troubled OneUnited Bank in Boston didn’t look much like a candidate for aid from the Treasury Department’s bank bailout fund last fall.
The Treasury had said it would give money only to healthy banks, to jump-start lending. But OneUnited had seen most of its capital evaporate. Moreover, it was under attack from its regulators for allegations of poor lending practices and executive-pay abuses, including owning a Porsche for its executives’ use.
Nonetheless, in ...
Arianna Huffington: The Era of Not Getting It: The Marie Antoinettes of the Meltdown
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... But this is about more than a few rotten apples. And the Era of Not Getting It is not yet behind us. Nor is it limited to one side of the aisle. The Wall Street Journal reports that last month Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, secured a $12 million TARP payment to the OneUnited Bank in Boston. OneUnited was an unlikely candidate for bailout money, having been accused of poor lending practices and Marie Antoinette moves such as providing a Porsche SUV for bank executives to use. Not Getting It: There is no substitute. ...
"Indispensable/That's What You Are"
A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days —
... Now, a churlish soul (like me, perhaps) might remind you that the TARP program Geithner helped design and whose implementation Geithner urged has turned out to be something of a disaster; its accounting procedures are opaque, its functions are haphazard at best and its original mission has been drastically altered from purchasing toxic assets and taking them off of the balance sheet of financial institutions, to injecting capital into banks in exchange for stock. Oh, and TARP has encouraged appalling amounts of ...
Whatever Happened to the Last Big Infrastructure Bill?
The Volokh Conspiracy —
... of it went to politically connected interest groups and districts rather than genuinely valid infrastructure priorities. But if the 2005 bill indeed failed for that reason, why would we expect a different result this time around? You have to be a very committed partisan to believe that today's Democratic Congressmen and senators are any less committed to lining the pockets of their favored interest groups than their Republican predecessors were in 2005. Certainly, Democrats such as Barney Frank have been more than willing to do that with the funds allocated in the bailout ...
“Indispensable/That’s What You Are”
RedState: Conservative News and Community —
... Now, a churlish soul (like me, perhaps) might remind you that the TARP program Geithner helped design and whose implementation Geithner urged has turned out to be something of a disaster; its accounting procedures are opaque, its functions are haphazard at best and its original mission has been drastically altered from purchasing toxic assets and taking them off of the balance sheet of financial institutions, to injecting capital into banks in exchange for stock. Oh, and TARP has encouraged appalling amounts of ...
Dwayne Horner: Democrats by the Numbers
Townhall.com Blog's TownHall Blog —
... , wife of fugitive Marc Rich, to Democrat interests and the William J. Clinton Foundation in an apparent quid pro quo deal that resulted in a pardon for Mr. Rich. The pardon was reviewed and blessed by Obama Attorney General and then Deputy AG Eric Holder, despite numerous requests by government officials to turn it down. $12,000,000: the amount of TARP money provided to community bank OneUnited despite the fact that it did not qualify for funds, and was "under attack from its regulators for allegations of poor lending practices and executive-pay abuses." It turns out that ...
Specter’s Weak Tea
The Sundries Shack —
... ). Some of it was spent on a bank in Barney Frank’s home state at his behest. We have no idea what’s happened to most of the money. Indeed, we have no way at all of knowing whether that money will stimulate the economy. Let me suggest an alternative theory. The reason the economy is bad right now is because of Congressmen like Arlen Specter, who can’t see how dumb a rationale “we have to do something” really is. His second reason is exactly as brilliant as his first. “In politics,” John Kennedy used to say, “nobody gets everything, nobody gets nothing and everybody gets ...
Treasury Defends Bailout Decision-Making Process, Admits it 'Gets Calls' From Congress
TPM Election Central —
... Kashkari's admission came in response to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who asked him about a recent report that House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ohio lawmakers interceded with Treasury to help win aid for their home-state banks. ...
Maxine Walters - Crony Capitalist
Betsy's Page —
... Boston Business Journal, OneUnited CEO Kevin Cohee was cruising around in a 2008 Porsche SUV), and cease payments on a $6 million Santa Monica beachfront home purchased by Cohee, his wife, Teri Williams, who served as bank president, and others. Responding to scrutiny of the bank's special treatment, Cohee is now accusing critics of -- yep, you guessed it -- racism. How convenient. Having your demagogic rant and then sending money to your own favorite banker. Just as a reminder, here's the story about Barney Frank slipping TARP money to his local favorite bank, the same ...
Luskin: TARP Looking More Criminal by the Minute
Articles on National Review Online —
... Barofsky says he s doing an audit to respond to reports that external parties may have sought to influence decision making by Treasury or bank regulators in considering and deciding on applications for funding from TARP. Perhaps this refers to the controversy that surfaced last January when it was said that Barney Frank (D., Mass.), the powerful head of the House Financial Services Committee, intervened to get TARP funding for a favored constituent, Boston s OneUnited Bank. According to the ...
