http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/bailouts/ en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:20:57 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418542/posts There was supposed to be a protest yesterday at Brigade Capital Management, a Manhattan hedge fund. The teamsters, a group of union workers, had planned to protest Brigade, UBS, Barclays and the other creditors of YRC, a trucking company, in hopes of urging them to tender their bonds and cooperate with a debt to equity deal. Without the debt swap, which would allow YRC to "erase" or side-pocket their debt and restructure, the trucking company apparently might be forced into Chapter 11. But with a debt swap, the bondholders will get a 95% stake in the company. A protest at... The Business Insider http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418542/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:20:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418118/posts California Pushes for Federal Help By STU WOO Facing a $21 billion shortfall through June 2011, California leaders want billions of dollars in budget relief from Washington that could head off deep cuts expected to state programs. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will ask the White House to waive rules that require the state to spend its own money on certain programs to receive federal funds, according to California officials briefed on the Republican's coming budget proposal. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, shown in November, is seeking federal relief as part of an effort to close a $21 billion budget gap. If the... Wall St. Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418118/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:19:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417633/posts The government's move to ease the limits on the securities holdings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has ignited a debate among analysts about what the companies will do with their longer leash. When the Treasury Department took over Fannie and Freddie last year, one of the requirements they set for the companies required them to begin shrinking their portfolios of mortgages and related investments, which total a combined $1.5 trillion. The idea was to rein in the companies' size and growth. But last Thursday, the Treasury eased that requirement, meaning the companies won't be forced to sell mortgages next... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417633/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:09:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417560/posts This is one of the best videos I've seen in a while. www.moveyourmoney.info You Tube http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417560/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:12:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417298/posts Fiscal Follies: While Americans are distracted by the holidays and a failed terror attack, Washington is giving another blank check to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Say, isn't this how we got into trouble before? When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two bankrupt, government-sponsored mortgage companies, were first bailed out in 2008, Americans were stunned that they'd have to pony up $200 billion. But Congress and the White House assured us it was necessary. But lo, this year, as Fannie and Freddie continued to deteriorate and their loan portfolios imploded, Treasury handed over another $200 billion. Now, in a... Investors.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417298/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:28:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416161/posts The Democrats are right. Sleazy bribes and pork pay offs didn't start with their health-care-takeover bill. They've been doling out taxpayer-funded goodies for votes all year. Harry Reid's latest Cash for Cloture deals are the culmination of Washington's 2009 shopping spree at our expense. Go back to January and February. The multitrillion-dollar stimulus bill was the mother of all legislative Christmas trees. The ruling party used the downturn to redistribute wealth from struggling Americans to favored congressional districts, phantom districts and special interests from golf-cart makers to fly-by-night beauty salons. NY Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416161/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:44:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416117/posts Get ready for a wild ride on the long end of the curve, as the bond vigilantes go to work making Barack Obama and Tim Geithner pay for the bailout.. Bloomberg: Yields on benchmark 10-year notes will climb about 40 percent to 5.5 percent, the biggest annual increase since 1999, according to David Greenlaw, chief fixed-income economist at Morgan Stanley in New York. The surge will push interest rates on 30-year fixed mortgages to 7.5 percent to 8 percent, almost the highest in a decade, Greenlaw said. Investors are demanding higher returns on government debt, boosting rates this month by... The Business Insider http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416117/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:48:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416026/posts In 2008 and 2009, Washington strove to save the economy. In 2010, Americans will get a clearer picture of how Washington has changed the economy. Only as the recession recedes will it become fully evident how permanently the state's role has expanded and whether, as a consequence, a new, hybrid strain of American capitalism is emerging. One thing is clear: The government is a much bigger force in today's U.S. economy than it was before the financial crisis. "The frontier between the state and market has shifted," says Daniel Yergin, whose 1998 book "Commanding Heights" chronicled the ascent of free-market... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416026/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 02:40:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415807/posts California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, anticipating a $21 billion state budget deficit, plans to ask President Barack Obama to ease mandates and minimums on social programs to save as much as $8 billion. The Republican governor plans to seek the relief, according to a California official who asked not to be identified because details haven’t been resolved. Instead of seeking one-time stimulus money or a bailout, the most-populous U.S. state wants the federal government to reduce mandates and waive rules stipulating expenditures on programs such as indigent health care, the official said. California is among states most affected by the economic... Business Week http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415807/posts#comment Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:06:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2415830/posts Tis the season for political parodies with a Christmas twist. First there was Roland Burris' parody of Twas the Night Before Christmas that read more like a nightmare. Moe Lane advised Burris to fire his speechwriter and then showed him how it is done in his conservative take on the poem. Chris Wysocki at Wyblog created the bloggers version of the same poem when The TrogloPundit came down with a case of writer's block on Christmas Eve. Moving from poetry to songs, here is a clever and humorous parody of the Eartha Kitt rendition of "Santa Baby." I am not... Ruby Slippers http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2415830/posts#comment Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:45:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415440/posts ... [T]his is neither a housing crisis nor a Wall Street banking crisis. This is a monetary crisis, rooted in the lending of money created out of thin air. This is what leads to economic booms and busts. The current crisis goes back to the Asian Contagion of 1997 and the meltdown of the Long Term Capital Management hedge fund in 1998. In response to each of these situations, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates and rapidly expanded the money supply. This excess liquidity helped push stocks, especially tech issues, to unsustainably high levels. The excess money created by the... Barron's http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415440/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:49:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415429/posts As PIMCO's Bill Gross notes in this NYT article on zero-percent interest rates, the Fed's ongoing Wall Street bailout is coming at a cost: Anyone who has any cash savings is getting screwed. This includes retirees who did exactly what they were supposed to do--save. Their incomes are now getting clobbered. Meanwhile, for those who prefer to borrow money, the ongoing bailout has created the world's easiest way to make $1 billion. Borrow short-term from the taxpayers and lend the same money back to the taxpayers--and get a guaranteed risk-free spread. Here's Bill Gross: “What the average citizen doesn’t explicitly... The Business Insider http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415429/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:23:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415309/posts The Treasury snuck in another big bailout on Christmas Eve: It removed the cap on the amount of money it will provide to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to cover their ongoing mortgage losses. There is now no limit on how much we taxpayers will shovel down these black holes. The move is designed to reassure Fannie and Freddie bondholders, who provide a lot of the money the companies use to support the housing market. These bondholders have now apparently been given an explicit government guarantee, in perpetuity. The move is also obviously designed to continue to prop up house... The Business Insider http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415309/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:31:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415295/posts The Obama administration's decision to cover an unlimited amount of losses at the mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the next three years stirred controversy over the holiday. The Treasury announced Thursday it was removing the caps that limited the amount of available capital to the companies to $200 billion each. Unlimited access to bailout funds through 2012 was "necessary for preserving the continued strength and stability of the mortgage market," the Treasury said. Fannie and Freddie purchase or guarantee most U.S. home mortgages and have run up huge losses stemming from the worst wave of defaults since... WSJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415295/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:48:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410480/posts The Second Wave Is Already Ashore By Jim Nelson 12/17/09 Baltimore, Maryland – The second wave of ARM resets and foreclosures might come sooner than you think. According to Whitney Tilson and Glenn Tongue of T2 Partners, the experts on this subject, about 80% of option ARMs are negatively amortizing. Meaning these so-called top-tier borrowers are heading further into the hole. Once their rates reset, they could be in serious trouble. And that could be happening very soon: The chart above, which should look familiar, shows the two peaks in this long-term housing conundrum. The first mountain is comprised of... The Daily Reckoning http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410480/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:37:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-rlc/2414749/posts Earlier today the US Senate passed a sweeping new law of mind-numbing complexity and bureaucracy which dictates a vast government take-over of the medical industry, and which is likely to devastate virtually the entire health care sector. All these new government schemes, scams, mandates, and dictates just about gaurantee that health care costs will skyrocket, health care quality will plummet, and people will die like flys. Together with the recent, various, industry-wide "bail-outs," and economic "stimuluses" of the past two years, Big Brother has really hammered us in at least three different ways. It would have been far, far better... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-rlc/2414749/posts#comment Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:21:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2413336/posts The next generation has a message for Obama! Stayfree http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2413336/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:40:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412342/posts As the number of bank failures continues to rise, some industry representatives are making a case that amounts to political heresy: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. should prop up dying institutions rather than letting them collapse. They argue that the constant stream of failed-bank deals — in which the FDIC sells deposits on the cheap and guarantees some of the losses — has scared away potential buyers for open and operating institutions. If the FDIC were to consider open-bank assistance in just a few cases, this thinking goes, it could slow the pace of failures and save the government money.... IDD http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412342/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:56:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411178/posts Some mortgage insurers and lenders are beginning to relax their down-payment requirements, in a sign of increased confidence in the housing market. The changes, which are being done on a market-by-market basis, mean buyers in some parts of the country can now borrow 95% instead of 90% of a property's value. Until recently, mortgage companies had tighter standards for these markets because of falling home prices "We are feeling better about the economic condition of the marketplace," said Michael Zimmerman, senior vice president of investor relations at mortgage insurer MGIC Insurance Corp. Borrowers who want to finance more than 80%... WSJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411178/posts#comment Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:32:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409579/posts The nausea we feel with respect to Citigroup (C) and our Treasury Secretary just hit a new high. Perhaps it's true that civilization would have ended if we had just allowed Sandy Weill's colossal junk pile to finish blowing itself up. But at this point that seems a more attractive alternative. In case you missed it, here's the latest outrage: As of yesterday afternoon, the United States taxpayer owned 34% of Citigroup's common stock, in addition to a massive amout of TARP preferred stock. The US taxpayer did not own 34% of Citigroup's common stock by choice. We owned it... The Business Insider http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409579/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:42:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408880/posts One of the numerous adverse side-effects of the horrendous policy decision to start bailing out each and every risky bank, and thus allowing no more risk in any investment (for the time being), has been the very simple observation that massively mispriced risk has gotten concentrated to an unparalleled degree among very few players. The population of Big Banks has been massively trimmed (Goldman thanks everyone for allowing them to have massive Fixed Income bid/ask spreads) and now a mere five banks account for the bulk of loans, deposits, and derivative exposure. When the economy is faced with another Lehman... Zero Hedge http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408880/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:22:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408122/posts Sometimes, a bailout is not enough. When Dubai World black swanned global investors last month with what amounts to be a reported $80 Billion in debt liabilities, it sent shivers down the spine of many a financial manager and stock trader. For those who were paying attention, Dubai’s troubled assets were no surprise, it was simply a matter of time. Oft repeated by contrarian analysts and investors like Dr. Doom Marc Faber, Gerald Celente, Jim Rogers, and Karl Denninger, the mathematical certainty of the economic crisis would play out - eventually. It was a year ago that the entire global... Zero Hedge http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408122/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:37:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407980/posts If you needed a reason to buy today's deja vu listless and volumeless tape, here it is. Mexico cut by S&P from BBB+/A-2 to BBB/A-3. Outlook is "stable"... absent a hyperinflationary collapse. Expect a rebuttal from Goldman Sachs, which has been axed the wrong way for quite a while. Zero Hedge http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407980/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:18:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407872/posts Global Financial Crisis, No Bailout Will Stop It Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2009 Dec 15, 2009 - 04:21 AM By: Mac Slavo Sometimes, a bailout is not enough. When Dubai World black swanned global investors last month with what amounts to be a reported $80 Billion in debt liabilities, it sent shivers down the spine of many a financial manager and stock trader. For those who were paying attention, Dubai’s troubled assets were no surprise, it was simply a matter of time. Oft repeated by contrarian analysts and investors like Dr. Doom Marc Faber, Gerald Celente, Jim Rogers, and Karl... The Market Oracle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407872/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:13:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407627/posts Matt Taibbi gave a very good interview on CNN this afternoon, discussing his recent Rolling Stone piece on Obama's sellout. One of the more interesting points came when Taibbi was asked about some criticism from Andrew Ross Sorkin. Taibbi's response, basically: sorry maisntream jouranlists, I don't have to be evenhanded. Good answer. Video at site The Business Insider http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407627/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:23:42 GMT