By Toni Reinhold
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Where, oh where, did AIG's bailout billions go? That question may reverberate even louder through the halls of government in the week ahead now that a partial list of beneficiaries has been published.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that about $50 billion of more than $173 billion that the U.S. government has poured into American International Group Inc since last fall has been paid to at least two dozen U.S. and foreign financial institutions.
The newspaper reported that some of the banks paid by AIG since the insurer started getting taxpayer funds were: Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Deutsche Bank AG, Merrill Lynch, Societe Generale, Calyon, Barclays Plc, Rabobank, Danske, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Santander, Morgan Stanley, Wachovia, Bank of America, and Lloyds Banking Group.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Bank of America, Calyon, and Wells Fargo, which has absorbed Wachovia, could not be reached for comment.
The U.S. Federal Reserve has refused to publicize a list of AIG's derivative counterparties and what they have been paid since the bailout, riling the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.
Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn testified before that committee on Thursday that revealing names risked jeopardizing AIG's continuing business. Kohn said there were millions of counterparties around the globe, including pension funds and U.S. households.
He said the intention was not to protect AIG or its counterparties, but to prevent the spread of AIG's infection.
The Wall Street Journal, citing a confidential document and people familiar with the matter, reported that Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank each got about $6 billion in payments between the middle of September and December last year.
Once the world's largest insurer, AIG has been described by the United States as being too extensively intertwined with the global financial system to be allowed to fail.
The Federal Reserve first rode to AIG's rescue in September with an $85 billion credit line after losses from toxic investments, many of which were ...
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Uptick Rule to Bolster Markets
By Jesse Westbrook and Edgar Ortega
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may propose within a month that the so-called uptick rule be reinstated, as regulators aim to bolster markets roiled by the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The SEC staff may advise the agency’s five commissioners to vote on the proposal at a public meeting, SEC spokesman John Nester said today in a statement. The agency will solicit comment from market participants before deciding whether to bring back the rule, which bars investors from betting against a stock until it sells at a higher price than the preceding trade.
Lawmakers and companies including Charles Schwab Corp. pressed the SEC to bring back the restriction on short-selling after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell more than 50 percent since it was scrapped in July 2007. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd today said they support reinstatement.
“Short-selling has a value but it can be abused as well,” Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, told reporters after a hearing in Washington. “In my view, that’s been contributing to some of the problem” in the financial markets.
SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said in January during her confirmation hearings that examining the rule is “one of the things that I would be committed to doing very quickly.”
In addition to the uptick rule, the SEC may “consider other measures related to short sales,” Nester said today. The agency didn’t say what other steps might be taken.
Bear Raids
In a short sale, traders borrow stock and sell it, hoping to profit by replacing the shares at a lower price. The uptick rule required traders to wait for a price increase in the stock they wanted to bet against, and prevented so-called bear raids where successive short sales drive prices down.
The SEC eliminated the almost 70-year-old provision after a study in 2007 determined it was no longer relevant in markets dominated by fast-paced electronic trading.
Bringing back the uptick rule would restore investor confidence, Charles Schwab, founder of the San Francisco-based namesake brokerage, said in a December editorial in the Wall Street Journal. The rule “slowed the short-selling process” and limited manipulation of share prices by preventing traders from “piling on,” Schwab said.
Boom-and-Bust
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who has said the SEC should consider bringing back the uptick rule, today urged a sweeping overhaul of ...
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may propose within a month that the so-called uptick rule be reinstated, as regulators aim to bolster markets roiled by the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The SEC staff may advise the agency’s five commissioners to vote on the proposal at a public meeting, SEC spokesman John Nester said today in a statement. The agency will solicit comment from market participants before deciding whether to bring back the rule, which bars investors from betting against a stock until it sells at a higher price than the preceding trade.
Lawmakers and companies including Charles Schwab Corp. pressed the SEC to bring back the restriction on short-selling after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell more than 50 percent since it was scrapped in July 2007. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd today said they support reinstatement.
“Short-selling has a value but it can be abused as well,” Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, told reporters after a hearing in Washington. “In my view, that’s been contributing to some of the problem” in the financial markets.
SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said in January during her confirmation hearings that examining the rule is “one of the things that I would be committed to doing very quickly.”
In addition to the uptick rule, the SEC may “consider other measures related to short sales,” Nester said today. The agency didn’t say what other steps might be taken.
Bear Raids
In a short sale, traders borrow stock and sell it, hoping to profit by replacing the shares at a lower price. The uptick rule required traders to wait for a price increase in the stock they wanted to bet against, and prevented so-called bear raids where successive short sales drive prices down.
The SEC eliminated the almost 70-year-old provision after a study in 2007 determined it was no longer relevant in markets dominated by fast-paced electronic trading.
Bringing back the uptick rule would restore investor confidence, Charles Schwab, founder of the San Francisco-based namesake brokerage, said in a December editorial in the Wall Street Journal. The rule “slowed the short-selling process” and limited manipulation of share prices by preventing traders from “piling on,” Schwab said.
Boom-and-Bust
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who has said the SEC should consider bringing back the uptick rule, today urged a sweeping overhaul of ...
Chris Brown's Manager Reportedly Sent Text that Started Fight
The Text That Started It All -- From Chris Brown's Manager?
That's what gossip website TMZ is reporting today. The website, infamous for having posted a picture of a battered Rihanna, has reported that their source stated that Tina Davis, 39, is the woman behind the text. Davis has managed Chris Brown since he first debuted on the music scene. Apparently, there has always been speculation that there was a romance between the two, but it was repeatedly denied.
True or not, no one is talking. But there are talks that Brown and Rihanna are not only getting along, but looking to sing together.
According to E!Online, a source reported that Brown, 19, wants Rihanna to sing a duet with him on his new album, which will air later this year. Rihanna's producer, Adonis Shropshire, confirmed that Rihanna, 21, was indeed back in the studio.
I wonder what that doozy of a duet will be called and if anyone will even bother to listen.
Real Housewives Get In Trouble Too!
Though I've barely spent five minutes watching Bravo's "The Real Housewives of New York City," I know enough to say that these women and their men are ridiculous. New "Housewife," Kelly Killoren Bensimon, 40, was arrested for misdemeanor assault last week when her boyfriend, Nicholas Stefanov, accused her of punching him during an argument. Continue reading ...
Hollywood Gossip
That's what gossip website TMZ is reporting today. The website, infamous for having posted a picture of a battered Rihanna, has reported that their source stated that Tina Davis, 39, is the woman behind the text. Davis has managed Chris Brown since he first debuted on the music scene. Apparently, there has always been speculation that there was a romance between the two, but it was repeatedly denied.
True or not, no one is talking. But there are talks that Brown and Rihanna are not only getting along, but looking to sing together.
According to E!Online, a source reported that Brown, 19, wants Rihanna to sing a duet with him on his new album, which will air later this year. Rihanna's producer, Adonis Shropshire, confirmed that Rihanna, 21, was indeed back in the studio.
I wonder what that doozy of a duet will be called and if anyone will even bother to listen.
Real Housewives Get In Trouble Too!
Though I've barely spent five minutes watching Bravo's "The Real Housewives of New York City," I know enough to say that these women and their men are ridiculous. New "Housewife," Kelly Killoren Bensimon, 40, was arrested for misdemeanor assault last week when her boyfriend, Nicholas Stefanov, accused her of punching him during an argument. Continue reading ...
Hollywood Gossip
Maytag Refrigerator Recall Affects 1.6 M Units
This morning an enormous Maytag recall is announced. The fire hazard has prompted a Maytag Refrigerator recall, which affects 1.6 million units of refrigerators.
The The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Maytag announced that the company recalls the refrigerators that affect 1.6 million units. It's a voluntary recall and includes Maytag®, Jenn-Air®, Amana®, Admiral®, Magic Chef®, Performa by Maytag® and Crosley® brand refrigerators.
Maytag, a Newton, Iowa based corporation and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission say that Maytag recalls the refrigerators because an electrical failure in the relay, the component that turns on the refrigerator’s compressor, can cause overheating and pose a serious fire hazard.
There has already been a considerable damage done, which in turn prompted the voluntary Maytag refrigerator recall. The company informs of 41 reports of refrigerator relay ignition, including 16 reports of property damage ranging from smoke damage to extensive kitchen damage. The types of the refrigerators that are included in this Maytag recall are those that are side and top freezer refrigerators.
The refrigerators that Maytag recalls are sold at department and appliance stores and also installed by homebuilders nationwide. They have been in operation fromJanuary 2001 through January 2004 and have been sold between about $350 and $1600. Refrigerators with freezers on the bottom are not included in this recall.
Therefore, if you have a Maytag refrigerator that has been manufactured in USA between 2001 and 2004 of the above mentioned brands you need to contact Maytag toll-free at (866) 533-9817 anytime, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.repair.maytag.com. Continue article here.
For complete list of Maytag recalls.
The The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Maytag announced that the company recalls the refrigerators that affect 1.6 million units. It's a voluntary recall and includes Maytag®, Jenn-Air®, Amana®, Admiral®, Magic Chef®, Performa by Maytag® and Crosley® brand refrigerators.
Maytag, a Newton, Iowa based corporation and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission say that Maytag recalls the refrigerators because an electrical failure in the relay, the component that turns on the refrigerator’s compressor, can cause overheating and pose a serious fire hazard.
There has already been a considerable damage done, which in turn prompted the voluntary Maytag refrigerator recall. The company informs of 41 reports of refrigerator relay ignition, including 16 reports of property damage ranging from smoke damage to extensive kitchen damage. The types of the refrigerators that are included in this Maytag recall are those that are side and top freezer refrigerators.
The refrigerators that Maytag recalls are sold at department and appliance stores and also installed by homebuilders nationwide. They have been in operation fromJanuary 2001 through January 2004 and have been sold between about $350 and $1600. Refrigerators with freezers on the bottom are not included in this recall.
Therefore, if you have a Maytag refrigerator that has been manufactured in USA between 2001 and 2004 of the above mentioned brands you need to contact Maytag toll-free at (866) 533-9817 anytime, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.repair.maytag.com. Continue article here.
For complete list of Maytag recalls.
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