• Members of Congress were chasing profits while making policy
WASHINGTON — As financial markets tumbled and the government worked to stave off panic by pumping billions of dollars into banks last fall, several members of Congress who oversee the banking industry were grabbing up or dumping bank stocks.
Anticipating bargains or profits or just trying to unload before the bottom fell out, these members of the House Financial Services Committee or brokers on their behalf were buying and selling stocks including Bank of America and Citigroup — some of the very corporations their committee would later rap for greed, a Plain Dealer examination of congressional stock market transactions shows.
Financial disclosure records show that some of these Financial Services Committee members, including Ohio Rep. Charlie Wilson, made bank stock trades on the same day the banks were getting a government bailout from a program Congress approved. The transactions may not have been illegal or against congressional rules, but securities attorneys and congressional watchdog groups say they raise flags about the appearance of conflicts of interest.
“I don’t think that any of these people should be owning these types of financial instruments,” said Brian Biggins, a Cleveland securities lawyer and former stock brokerage manager. “I’m not saying they shouldn’t be in the stock market. But if they’re on the banking committee and trading in these kinds of stocks, I don’t think that’s right.”
For example, Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, a Florida Republican, bought Citigroup stock valued between $1,001 and $15,000 on Oct. 2, the day before the House passed the financial rescue bill and President George W. Bush signed it into law, records show. She opposed the bill.
Eleven days later, she bought $1,001 to $15,000 worth of Bank of America stock. It was on the same day that then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told leading banks that he expected them to accept billions in bailout money to prevent a financial meltdown.
Since your paycheck doesn’t go as far as it used to, and your job security is shot, you might not be able to pay full price, $1400!!!!! But you sure will look hot, and it might surprise you with a NEW source of income, courtesty of PRADA…
This might be a new interpretation of ’stimulus’ program… hehehehe
“Despite recent frugality, consumers have barely dented their debt load. The Federal Reserve will offer a fresh peek at that mountain on Thursday, when it releases its “flow of funds” data for the first quarter.
By the end of 2008, households were on the hook for $13.8 trillion in debt — nearly matching the $14.3 trillion output of the entire U.S. economy, not adjusted for inflation, that year.
Households are shedding debt; they’re just not doing it very quickly. They owed roughly 130% of disposable income at the end of 2008, down only slightly from a record 133% in the first quarter of 2008.”
Watch the first 1 minute to see her encapsulate the huge financial mess we are in:
“Very privileged and powerful bankers in our country have hurt our nation deeply yet it seems that they get special treatment from the Federal Reserve and other financial regulatory agencies that should be protecting the public interest. and these bankers have earned huge profits for themselves but when their imprudent behavior causes vast economic dislocation they throw the cost of that on the backs of taxpayers, raising our national debt. Taxpayers who are hurt, homeowners lose their homes, people lose jobs, people lose their companies, bankruptcies go up. They don’t get the same treatment. I’m interested in the favoritism exhibited towards theses bankers. as well as the non-transparency of financial rescues…”
Shirley Tan, in a 23 year relationship, has two twin 12 year old boys, cares for her aging mother in law, is active in her local church. A stand-up gal. But she’s being deported back to the Phillipines, even though a man who beat her and murdered her mother and sister is out free from jail. She has no protection here, because she can’t marry her partner of 23 years. So she’s testifying for a bill that would change that.
Leahy, running the testimony, has compassion for her crying son.
Jackie Speier has compassion for the crying boy.
Leahy offers the crying son a private room within which to recover himself, and mentions his own 12 year old grandson.
Leahy tells her crying son that his mother is a very brave woman and he should be proud of her.
Sessions apparently leaned over to an aide and said, ‘enough with the histrionics’, because the sight of a 12 year old boy about to be ripped from his mother’s side, perhaps never to see her again, is an annoyance.
I’d bet you ANYTHING that Sessions wasn’t home raising his own kids. Anyone that looks at a crying child and says ‘histrionics’ clearly has no empathy.
Q: When you hear President Obama talk about nominating someone to the court who has empathy and real-world experience, do you understand what he means? Sessions: I don’t know what he means. And it’s dangerous, because I don’t know what empathy means.
No, we don’t, Bill. We see White Men like Sessions as the problem, who haven’t actively raised their own kids, don’t have empathy for their fellow citizens and are only where they are in government because of back-scratching and white priviledge…
Sessions should personally ensure Ms. Tan’s safety by allowing her to stay in the US to raise her US citizen sons…
Burn your kids CDs so kids can feel the heat, so they can feel the eternal flames they’ll suffer in hell for listening to this music and being ‘gay friendly’.
