$700 Billion Bailout

[kapkomet]

When Congress first created the TARP bailout, it required that the Congress had to approve any release of the 2nd half of the funds, so the current Secretary of the Treasury could only spend $350 billion without additional Congressional approval.

 

I'm sure you know where this is going. By multiple counts, we're up to about $358.4 billion pledged. And of course, Congress hasn't released the 2nd half yet.

 

Laws...HAH!

 

And for some more bailout fun while I'm at it...a few weeks back, Elizabeth Warren sent along a few questions to the Treasury about how they were using the money. Basically, the Treasury's reply winds up being some version of "Ha-Ha, you suck". An example:

They're copying and pasting talking points to fill space. These people can not be gone soon enough.

These people cannot be gone soon enough - only to be replaced by more of the same.

 

[Balta1701]

These people cannot be gone soon enough - only to be replaced by more of the same.

Still can't be worse.

[mr_genius]

Still can't be worse.

 

oh i'm sure the Democrats will come up with new ways to be worse than the GOP

[kapkomet]

oh i'm sure the Democrats will come up with new ways to be worse than the GOP

I don't think it will be "worse" but I do think it will be more of EXACTLY the same - just different issues.

[southsider2k5]

Next up will be the steel and auto parts companies. To everyone who didn't want to buy a US car, you pretty much just did, except you aren't getting the car out of it.

 

Well that took about eight weeks or so...

 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/02/business/02steel.php

 

Steel industry, in a slump, looks to U.S. stimulus

 

The U.S. steel industry, having entered the recession in the best of health, is emerging as a leading indicator of what lies ahead. As steel production goes — and it is now in collapse — so will go the national economy.

 

That maxim once applied to Detroit's Big Three car companies, when they dominated American manufacturing. Now they are losing ground in good times and bad, and steel has replaced autos as the industry to watch for an early sign that a severe recession is beginning to lift.

 

The industry itself is turning to government for orders that, until the September collapse, had come from manufacturers and builders. Its executives are waiting anxiously for details of President-elect Barack Obama's stimulus plan, and adding their voices to pleas for a huge public investment program — up to $1 trillion over two years — intended to lift demand for steel to build highways, bridges, electric power grids, schools, hospitals, water treatment plants and rapid transit.

 

"What we are asking," said Daniel DiMicco, chairman and chief executive of the Nucor Corp., a giant steel maker, "is that our government deal with the worst economic slowdown in our lifetime through a recovery program that has in every provision a 'buy America' clause."

 

Economists in the Obama camp said the president-elect's proposals to Congress will include significant infrastructure spending that draws on heavy industry.

 

New spending should provide an immediate jolt to the steel business, which has already gone through the painful makeover now demanded of automakers. Steel mills were closed, companies were consolidated, hundreds of thousands lost their jobs and the survivors agreed to concessions. As a result, productivity shot up and so did profits, to record levels in the first nine months of this year. Even as the economy wobbled, steel held its own.

 

But then the recession hit in force. Steel goes into nearly everything made in America, from homes and office buildings to cars, appliances and light bulb sockets, and as construction and manufacturing wound down, so did the output of steel, plunging 50 percent since September.

 

The steel industry's collapse closely tracks the alarming late-autumn swoon in the national economy, as the housing bust and the credit crisis converted a mild downturn into "a severe one that has much further to run," says Nigel Gault, chief domestic economist at IHS Global Insight, offering a view increasingly shared by forecasters.

 

Through August, steel production was actually up slightly for the year. The decline came slowly at first, and then with a rush in November and December. By late December, output was down to 1.02 million tons a week from 2.1 million tons on Aug. 30, the American Iron and Steel Institute reported. The price of a ton of steel is also down by half since late summer.

 

"We are making our steel at four mills instead of six," said John Armstrong, a spokesman for the United States Steel Corp., adding that two mills were recently idled and the four still operating are running at less than full capacity.

 

"The third quarter was one of the best in U.S. Steel's history," Armstrong added. "And it has been a very precipitous drop from there."

 

The cutback has been particularly hard on workers at the big integrated mills like those at U.S. Steel and Arcelor Mittal USA, with their blast furnaces and coke ovens converting iron ore and other materials into steel. Operated at less than full capacity, these mills are less efficient than the equally large "minimills," like Nucor, whose electric arc furnaces can be operated efficiently at lower speeds.

 

So the plant closings have been mostly at the integrated mills, whose 50,000 workers — roughly 40 percent of the nation's steelworkers — are represented by the United Steelworkers. The union says that early this year it expects 20,000 workers to be on furlough.

 

Ten thousand already have been. Kathleen Loepker, a millwright and mechanic, is among the most recent to join their ranks. She was laid off on Dec. 19 from the U.S. Steel plant in Granite City, Illinois, which shut, putting more than 2,000 employees out of work. With nearly 30 years seniority, Loepker, 48, has worked through bankruptcies, union concessions and consolidations during which her mill was acquired by U.S. Steel in 2003.

 

Her income today is tied more to incentive bonuses than in the past. On layoff, she is collecting $20 an hour, which is 80 percent of her base pay of $25.12 an hour. That base pay, rather than rising significantly, is fattened by incentive bonuses tied to amounts of steel produced and to profits. It had been averaging an additional $7 an hour — money now gone until the mill reopens.

 

No one knows when that will happen," said Loepker, who lives by herself in a four-bedroom home she bought in nearby Belleville, three blocks from a married sister. "The company tells us the end of March, but they don't know either," Loepker said. "The uncertainty has everyone fearful."

 

Not since the 1980s has American steel production been as low as it is today. Those were the Rust Belt years when many steel companies were failing and imports of better quality, lower cost steel were rising.

 

Foreign producers no longer have an advantage over the refurbished American companies. Indeed, imports, which represent about 30 percent of all steel sales in the United States, also are hurting as customers disappear.

 

The industry, in response, is lobbying the Obama transition team for infrastructure projects that would require big amounts of steel. Mass transit systems are high on the list, and so is bridge repair.

 

"We are sharing with the president-elect's transition team our thoughts in terms of the industry's policy priorities," said Nancy Gravatt, a spokeswoman for the American Iron and Steel Institute.

 

The Obama team has not yet revealed details of the president-elect's soon-to-be-announced recovery plan other than to indicate that most of the package will probably go into infrastructure spending rather than tax breaks.

 

"If the president-elect really follows through, he'll fund a lot of mass transit projects," said Wilbur L. Ross Jr., the Wall Street deal maker who put together the steel conglomerate known as Arcelor Mittal USA. "All the big cities have these projects ready to go."

 

The sharp slide in steel production has several causes. Construction and auto production have fallen sharply; between them, they account for 57 percent of the steel bought each year in the United States, according to the Iron and Steel Institute. Appliances, machinery and other electrical equipment account for an additional 13 percent, and the fall-off in production of these goods has also reduced steel orders.

 

Then there are the wholesalers, known in the steel industry as service centers. They buy in huge quantities from the mills, building up inventories and selling to customers like a construction company that needs I-beams to build a shopping center, or a manufacturer of auto parts in need of steel tubing.

 

Until recently, the inventories were bought on credit, and the service centers constantly replenished these stockpiles as steel was sold to end users. But now the service centers, unable to borrow money easily and reluctant to borrow anyway in these hard times, have stopped buying from the steel mills. They are selling off their inventories instead, raising cash in the process. It is a tactic that annoys DiMicco, the Nucor chief, no end.

 

"They don't want to be without cash when they go into whatever the black hole is that is being created by the financial crisis," he said, and faulted the nation's lenders for collecting billions in government bailout money and then, in his view, refusing to lend it to the service centers on reasonable terms. "Credit completely dried up," DiMicco said, "and it is still hard to get."

[Balta1701]

General Motors Corp and its GMAC funding affiliate launched programs on Tuesday to lure U.S. car and truck buyers back into showrooms, as the nation's largest automaker tries to revive its sagging fortunes.

 

GMAC modified its credit criteria so that it could lend to a wider range of potential customers, two-and-a-half months after significantly curbing lending.

 

Meanwhile, GM is offering zero-percent financing on several vehicles, and rates no higher than 5.9 percent on more than three dozen 2008 and 2009 models. The offer expires on January 5. Many eligible vehicles also carry cash discounts of $500 to $4,250.

 

The changes came a day after the U.S. Treasury Department agreed to take a $5 billion stake in GMAC, and lend GM as much as $1 billion to support GMAC, in an effort to help ensure that both survive.

 

...

GMAC will now extend loans to retail customers with credit scores of 621 or higher, eliminating a restriction that required a score of 700.

 

Many analysts consider borrowers with a credit score of 620 or lower to be "subprime." The median U.S. credit score is 723, according to Fair Isaac Corp's myFICO unit.

Link

[mr_genius]

Link

 

near subprime car loans to fix the subprime home loan crisis?

 

oh man this could backfire

 

 

 

 

[Balta1701]

near subprime car loans to fix the subprime home loan crisis?

 

oh man this could backfire

After giving it some more thought (you'll note I didn't comment on it earlier, just posted) I'm not sure this isn't a pretty good use of the bailout dollars. It does a number of things that giving big checks to banks that they can sit on does not do; it actually drives increased lending using the money, it creates something so that the people using the money get something tangible in return, and it keeps people employed.

 

Yeah, there's certainly a big downside too. But I'm at the worst conflicted on that right now. GM gets that bridge loan and suddenly starts selling their vehicles for below cost to keep their factories running. If nothing else, it's a better use for the money than a lot of the other ones we've seen.

[Cknolls]

After giving it some more thought (you'll note I didn't comment on it earlier, just posted) I'm not sure this isn't a pretty good use of the bailout dollars. It does a number of things that giving big checks to banks that they can sit on does not do; it actually drives increased lending using the money, it creates something so that the people using the money get something tangible in return, and it keeps people employed.

 

Yeah, there's certainly a big downside too. But I'm at the worst conflicted on that right now. GM gets that bridge loan and suddenly starts selling their vehicles for below cost to keep their factories running. If nothing else, it's a better use for the money than a lot of the other ones we've seen.

 

 

And it pushes the inevitable bankruptcies of these elephants out a few more months. This is assinine. Let them fail. Let them heal. Let us prosper. Pushing the timeline out will not save these companies. The auto industry as we knew it is DEAD. Accept it deal with it and move on with a leaner more efficient industry. Lowering 0% financing from FICO 725ish to FICO 600 is a great way to get back in black. Just ask WAMU, CFC, WAB, NCC.

[Balta1701]

And it pushes the inevitable bankruptcies of these elephants out a few more months. This is assinine. Let them fail. Let them heal. Let us prosper. Pushing the timeline out will not save these companies. The auto industry as we knew it is DEAD. Accept it deal with it and move on with a leaner more efficient industry. Lowering 0% financing from FICO 725ish to FICO 600 is a great way to get back in black. Just ask WAMU, CFC, WAB, NCC.

With the way the mess is right now, letting them fail does not let the economy heal, it pushes it down further and makes coming back even harder.

[scenario]

$700B is going to look like chump change by the time plans are finished and implemented.

 

 

[NorthSideSox72]

With the way the mess is right now, letting them fail does not let the economy heal, it pushes it down further and makes coming back even harder.

I don't necessarily agree. Letting them limp along only means they will go bankrupt later, which will stall the recovery, and cost money that will never get back into the economy. Fruthermore, the longer they limp along, the longer they are pummelled by their foreign competition, the weaker market position they will have, which makes the even worse case scenario that much more likely - shutting operations entirely. And that would be far more disastrous than a bankruptcy.

 

Bankruptcy gives them a chance to truly re-tool and start as a stronger business set.

 

[mr_genius]

With the way the mess is right now, letting them fail does not let the economy heal, it pushes it down further and makes coming back even harder.

 

thank you for the words of wisdom, Mr.Paulson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Balta1701]

Ok, that's it. Sorry President Jackson, it's time for a National Bank again. Really, we already own all the other ones anyway.

Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank, is seeking billions of dollars of government aid after it realized that credit losses at Merrill Lynch & Co, which it bought on January 1, were much higher than expected, a person familiar with the matter said.

 

A spokesman for the bank declined to comment. Bank of America has already received $25 billion under the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program. The bank is scheduled to report its quarterly results on January 20.

 

"Bank of America appears to be in meltdown," said Anton Schutz, president of Mendon Capital Advisors in Rochester, New York, which owns the bank's shares. "But what is the government going to do, and how big will it be? Everybody's assuming the worst."

 

Keith Davis, a bank analyst at Farr, Miller & Washington in Washington, expressed concern that Bank of America may have grown too fast, buying Merrill and the nation's largest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial Corp, since June.

Bank of America...already too big to fail, so what's the harm in letting them get bigger?

 

If it wasn't for the FDIC I'd be part of a run right now.

[Balta1701]

Seriously...it's already the Bank of America, we now own it, why not just own them the whole way? In 5-10 years we can privatize the banking system again if we really want.

Kenneth D. Lewis gambled on bold acquisitions to build Bank of America into the nation’s largest bank.

 

But the need for fresh government support to grapple with the newly revealed losses at Merrill Lynch, the brokerage firm he snapped up in a rapid-fire arrangement at the height of the financial crisis in September, is raising questions about whether the bank has gone a deal too far.

 

Two weeks after closing its purchase of Merrill Lynch at the urging of federal regulators, the government was near a deal late Thursday to supply Bank of America with a fresh $20 billion capital injection and absorb as much as $98.2 billion in losses on toxic assets, according to people involved in the transaction. The bank had been pressing the government for help after it was surprised to learn that Merrill would be taking a fourth-quarter write-down of $15 billion to $20 billion, much larger than expected, according to two people who have been briefed on the situation, in addition to Bank of America’s rising consumer loan losses.

 

The second lifeline brings the government’s total stake in Bank of America to $45 billion and makes it the bank’s largest shareholder, with a stake worth about 6 percent.

[Rex Kickass]

And it pushes the inevitable bankruptcies of these elephants out a few more months. This is assinine. Let them fail. Let them heal. Let us prosper. Pushing the timeline out will not save these companies. The auto industry as we knew it is DEAD. Accept it deal with it and move on with a leaner more efficient industry. Lowering 0% financing from FICO 725ish to FICO 600 is a great way to get back in black. Just ask WAMU, CFC, WAB, NCC.

 

People with 620 FICO scores are not going to get a 0% loan. They are just going to get a loan, which is something GMAC wasn't offering in the last four months.

[Rex Kickass]

I don't necessarily agree. Letting them limp along only means they will go bankrupt later, which will stall the recovery, and cost money that will never get back into the economy. Fruthermore, the longer they limp along, the longer they are pummelled by their foreign competition, the weaker market position they will have, which makes the even worse case scenario that much more likely - shutting operations entirely. And that would be far more disastrous than a bankruptcy.

 

Bankruptcy gives them a chance to truly re-tool and start as a stronger business set.

 

Maybe, unless the vendors they work with start demanding COD for supplies as a result of the bankruptcy filing. And indications are that's what would happen. And that would basically make a Chapter 11 turn into a Chapter 7 super fast. I don't think GM or Chrysler could get the financing necessary right now to make a Chapter 11 work for them at the moment.

 

So a bankruptcy, in my opinion, would probably be the end for either of these companies. Although that might not be the worst thing for Chrysler, it would be for GM given how large the company is.

 

And that would be bad for Ford in the medium term. Although it does have enough cash reserves to make it through the next couple years provided the Big 3 stays intact, a major automaker default would change that situation too, and not for the better.

[Balta1701]

Merrill Lynch dumped about $4 billion in executive bonuses out on an accelerated schedule at the end of December right before the Bank of America merger became final. The $4 billion was dumped out as they were seeking TARP money to replace Merrill's losses. Including those $4 billion, of course.

 

I want to be a bank.

[Cknolls]

Merrill Lynch dumped about $4 billion in executive bonuses out on an accelerated schedule at the end of December right before the Bank of America merger became final. The $4 billion was dumped out as they were seeking TARP money to replace Merrill's losses. Including those $4 billion, of course.

 

I want to be a bank.

 

 

MER just layed off 6-8 employees on the CBOE yesterday. I fear more are on the way.

[Balta1701]

MER just layed off 6-8 employees on the CBOE yesterday. I fear more are on the way.

It appears that last fall, Merrill's CEO and top guys decided that the mortgage market had finally bottomed out and it was time to buy more of those assets. Those purchases of course, have wound up causing this additional bailout money.

 

Clearly, these people deserve a major, major retention bonus. Gotta, gotta retain that kind of talent.

[lostfan]

Obama said whenever the stimulus passes they're going to set up a site called www.recovery.gov to show where the government spending is going.

 

Sounds like a good idea, but I still agree with the Republicans in that there is a whole lot of wasted money being proposed in the Democratic version.

[BigSqwert]

JUST PLANE DESPICABLE

'RESCUED' CITI BUYING $50M JET

 

By JENNIFER KEIL and CHUCK BENNETT

 

Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed.

 

Even though the bank's stock is as cheap as a gallon of gas and it's burning through a $45 billion taxpayer-funded rescue, the airhead execs pushed through the purchase of a new Dassault Falcon 7X, according to a source familiar with the deal.

 

The French-made luxury jet seats up to 12 in a plush interior with leather seats, sofas and a customizable entertainment center, according to Dassault's sales literature. It can cruise 5,950 miles before refueling and has a top speed of 559 mph.

 

There are just nine of these top-of-the-line models in the United States, with Dassault's European factory churning out three to four 7Xs a month.

 

Citigroup decided to get its new wings two years ago, when the financial-services giant was flush with cash, but it still intends to take possession of the jet this year despite its current woes, the source said.

 

"Why should I help you when what you write will be used to the detriment of our company?" replied Bill McNamee, head of CitiFlight Inc., the subsidiary that manages Citigroup's corporate fleet, when asked to comment about the new 7X.

 

"What relevance does it have but to hurt my company?"

 

It's not uncommon for large companies to pay a deposit on a new plane then cancel the order before delivery, according to a source in the corporate aviation business.

 

Citigroup execs are also quietly trying to unload two of their older Dassault 900EXs.

 

Those jets, nearly 10 years old, are worth an estimated $27 million each. They were still listed for sale yesterday on the Web site of Citigroup's aviation broker, Aviation Professionals.

 

A company representative said she would not comment on "brokering both sides of the deal" when asked about the incoming Falcon 7X.

 

The Dassaults are part of CitiFlight's Gulf Sierra fleet, which includes the two Falcon 900EXs, tail numbers N399GS and N588GS, currently for sale. FAA records show Citigroup reserved a new tail number, N488GS, possibly for the incoming 7X on Nov. 10 last year.

 

A woman answering the phone at CitiFlight's private hangar in White Plains said she was "not authorized to release information" about the new jet.

 

Dassault's US sales office declined to comment.

 

Citigroup spokesman Stephen Cohen declined to comment.

 

LINK

[southsider2k5]

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/pos...TMzNzUxYjU1ZjQ=

 

The Blagojevich Provision in the Stimulus Bill

 

I have a nagging worry about the impending impeachment of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. While the criminal complaint against him filed by Patrick Fitzgerald is full of lurid detail, and the description of his comments on the audiotapes, etc., suggest he's guilty as sin, he has not yet been convicted of any crime. In fact, he has not even been indicted. Under the Illinois state constitution, the state legislature can apparently impeach the governor for any reason; it doesn't even have to be a criminal offense. But Blago is merely accused of a crime, and the legislature is concluding that an accusation of a criminal act is sufficient to remove him from office.

 

You don't have to like Blagojevich to wonder if this is a dangerous precedent. Couldn't some future governor be falsely accused of a crime, be removed from office before facing trial, and later be acquitted? Where would, say, (since we're talking about Illinois) Gov. "Richard Kimble" go to get his public office back?

 

Anyway, Congress has given the Illinois legislature one more incentive to remove Blago from office as quickly as possible—in an unusual venue: The stimulus bill:

 

None of the funds provided by this Act may be made available to the State of Illinois, or any agency of the State, unless (1) the use of such funds by the State is approved in legislation enacted by the State after the date of the enactment of this Act, or (2) Rod R. Blagojevich no longer holds the office of Governor of the State of Illinois.The preceding sentence shall not apply to any funds provided directly to a unit of local government (1) by a Federal department or agency, or (2) by an established formula from the State.

 

No federal cash until Blagojevich is gone? They'll have him out by lunch.

 

UPDATE: From a reader:

 

A careful reading of the section you cite has the ever-important “or” stipulation, as well as other loopholes listed immediately after the Blago clause. Nevertheless, doesn’t the wording of this clause create a Bill of Attainder, specifically prohibited by the U.S. Constitution? I’d think the state of Illinois would have a good case to sue here, wouldn’t you?

[kapkomet]

Wow. That's pretty much unconstitutional.

[lostfan]

lol. I haven't even looked at the constitution but that sounds pretty flagrantly in violation.

 

Someone pulled the thing out, set it on fire, and s*** on the ashes apparently. Since when can the federal government tell a state who their governor is?

Edited January 26, 2009 by lostfan