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Chu: Expect more loan guarantee failuresBy Ben Geman - 02/10/12 05:47 PM ET Energy Secretary Steven Chu again warned Friday that more recipients of Energy Department green technology loan guarantees will likely collapse even as he touted the strength of the program overall. The warning comes as many Republicans are continuing to assail the green energy loan program as a risky use of taxpayer dollars. “We have always known that there were inherent risks in backing innovative technologies at full commercial scale, and it is very likely that there will be other companies in the portfolio that won’t succeed,” Chu...

Energy Secretary Chu defends loan program as White House report loomsBy Andrew Restuccia - 02/08/12 10:09 AM ET Just days before the White House unveils a post-Solyndra review of the Energy Department’s loan program, Energy Secretary Steven Chu defended the program Wednesday against sustained Republican attacks. Chu said the Energy Department made a series of changes to the program before and after the collapse of Solyndra, the California solar panel maker that received a $535 million loan guarantee in 2009. “Long before Solyndra became a common word, we have been looking at how, in everything we do in the Department...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced his second bio-fuels loan guarantee in a week, revealing that the Agriculture Department (USDA) is slated to loan an Oregon biorefinery $232.5 million for a project expected to create 65 jobs and support 38 others. "This project and others like it will help to establish a domestic advanced biofuels industry that will create jobs here at home and open new markets in the Pacific Northwest and across America," Vilsack said in a statement. ZeaChem Boardman Biorefinery, LLC (ZBB), "must meet specific conditions before the 60 percent loan guarantee can be completed."

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa today responded to the Energy Department's announcement that their $730 million loan to Severstal, a Russian steel company, will not be granted... "While I am pleased that the Department of Energy has reconsidered its decision to fund a $730 million loan to Severstal, it's deeply disconcerting to know that this loan would have gone forward had Congress not raised concerns… Following the waste of taxpayer dollars in the collapse of Solyndra, the Department of Energy needs....

Electric car company that received a $529M federal loan recalls vehiclesBy Andrew Restuccia - 12/30/11 10:31 AM ET An electric vehicle manufacturer that received a $529 million loan from the Energy Department is recalling 239 vehicles. The Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Thursday that the company, Fisker Automotive, will recall its Karma vehicles made between July 1, 2011, and Nov. 3, 2011, because of a faulty electric battery component that could cause a fire. “Within the high-voltage battery, certain hose clamps may have been positioned incorrectly during assembly. If positioned incorrectly, the batter compartment cover could...

Solyndra investor frequently visited White House officialsDaniel J. Goldstein, California Watch December 1, 2011 George Kaiser, the top investor in the failed company Solyndra and a chief fundraiser for the Obama campaign, visited White House officials at least 16 times between March 2009 and July 2011, including three times in one day shortly after the administration expressed second thoughts about granting the company a loan, according to White House visitor logs. Solyndra, a maker of thin-film solar panels, received a $535 million loan from the Department of Energy in September 2009. In August 2011, the company declared bankruptcy. Kaiser, an...

Energy Secretary Steven Chu defends Solyndra loanBy Neela Banerjee Washington Bureau November 17, 2011, 12:42 p.m. Energy Secretary Steven Chu firmly pushed back against Republican allegations that political favoritism and bureaucratic incompetence led his agency to approve a $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra, in a much-anticipated appearance by the highest level Obama administration member so far before Congressional investigators looking into the failed solar equipment maker. A Nobel prize-winning physicist and Washington outsider, Chu remained as unflappable as any seasoned Washington politico while parrying often-repetitive questions for more than four hours from the oversight subcommittee of the powerful House...

Second Solyndra Loan Discussed With Energy Dept., E-Mail SuggestsBy MATTHEW L. WALD Published: November 9, 2011 WASHINGTON — New e-mails released by a Congressional committee indicate that an executive of a venture capital firm owned by an Obama campaign donor discussed the possibility of a second loan to Solyndra, the solar power company that recently defaulted on a $528 million government loan, with the Department of Energy and with his boss. The committee is seeking to show that the donor, George B. Kaiser, an Oklahoma oil billionaire, pulled strings at the White House to get the original loan guarantee. The...

In June, the Department of Energy gave a “conditional commitment� to a firm called Severstal Dearborn LLC for a $730 million loan to help boost development of Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS), which the Obama administration believes will be key to developing lighter and more fuel-efficient vehicles. However, two Republican Senators want an investigation of the decision to hand this much money to a firm that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a foreign firm (OAO Severstal is based in Russia), for a product already available on the market from other manufacturers — and which Severstal already produces: Two GOP senators...

GOP senators call for Energy Dept. probe of $730M steelmaker loanBy Ben Geman - 11/07/11 04:32 PM ET Two GOP senators want the Energy Department’s (DOE) internal watchdog to investigate a planned $730 million loan for a company to manufacture high-strength automotive steel in Michigan. Sens. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) are asking DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman to probe whether Severstal North America — a subsidiary of Russian steel giant OAO Severstal — should receive public financing to retool and expand facilities in Dearborn, Mich. “Given the tremendous fiscal crisis that we find ourselves in today, it...

(Reuters) - Beacon Power Corp filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, just a year after the energy storage company received a $43 million loan guarantee from a controversial Department of Energy program. The bankruptcy comes about two months after Solyndra -- a solar panel maker with a $535 million loan guarantee -- also filed for Chapter 11, creating a political embarrassment for the administration of President Barack Obama, which has championed the loans as a way to create "green energy" jobs. Beacon Power drew down $39 million of its government-guaranteed loan to fund a portion of a $69 million, 20-megawatt flywheel...

An investment firm whose vice chairman has been an adviser and fundraiser for President Obama saw one of its portfolio companies win approval this year for $50 million in loans from the administration’s clean-energy loan program. Washington-based Perseus says its affiliation with James A. Johnson, a major fundraiser for Obama’s campaign, played no role in persuading the Energy Department to award the loan to Vehicle Production Group, a Miami start-up that is manufacturing wheelchair-accessible cars and taxis. Johnson headed Obama’s vice presidential selection committee in 2008 and is the former chairman of housing mortgage giant Fannie Mae. He was listed...

Gingrich calls Obama student loan proposal a 'Ponzi scheme'By Justin Sink - 10/28/11 08:15 AM ET Newt Gingrich said that President Obama's recently announced student loan proposal was a "Ponzi scheme." Obama's plan would allow for easier consolidation of outstanding student loans, and would forgive outstanding balances on federal loans after 20 years of payments, rather than 25. Federal loan repayments would also be capped at 10 percent of a borrower's income, lowering payments, down from 15 percent now. The president would also begin implementing the changes next year, rather than 2014 as was currently planned. But Gingrich says that...

I can’t help but feel that President Obama’s new student loan proposal could take its title from William Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing.” Technically, on paper, the “Pay as You Earn” plan that the president began trumpeting Wednesday is new because he will authorize it through an executive order. But that authority is being used to expand an existing program. (SNIP) Let me put it another way so you are clear on who will benefit from this change. The president’s order does not affect borrowers who took on loans before 2008 and who do not take out a new...

Will the "Super Committee," otherwise known as the "Twelve Disciples of Congressional Partisanship," (TDCP), recognize that the Federal Student Loan Program is bankrupt by nearly 1 TRILLION dollars? Will the TDCP close the loan window to student loans? How much bankruptcy debt is required before the Federal Student Loan Program is closed forever?

As Obama's re-election campaign is in full swing he is seeking to regain the "Wet Behind The Ears" in debt up to their as! cash-strapped college graduates. Really creating Jobs aren't you Obama, what a guy.

Saving money on college loans: President changing programs to help millionsMichael Gorsegner - Staff reporter 6:44 a.m. EDT, October 26, 2011 SPRING GARDEN TOWNSHIP, YORK COUNTY— College is known as an investment in the future. But that investment is becoming a burden for many students. The President will announce some changes today that could lower the amount students pay for student loans. **SNIP** Graduates qualifying for the "Pay as You Earn" program will have to pay 10 percent of their discretionary income for up to 20 years. If there is still a balance after that time frame, the remaining due...

The Department of Energy is standing by a $529 million loan guarantee to a company building an electric car line in Finland. A department official, in a lengthy response posted on a government blog Thursday night, confirmed that the company Fisker is assembling its Karma electric car at its "overseas facility." The response comes after ABC News reported that the Obama administration gave the green light for the company to move the manufacturing to Finland two years after announcing the loan. The ABC News report noted the political connections enjoyed by Fisker and another company, Tesla Motors, which together received...

With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work. Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland. "There...

Our tax dollars at work… a half-billion dollar loan (actually $529 million) from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a hybrid toy for the wealthy and/or celebri-licious (like Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the first customers) that, in real world driving, won’t get much better mileage than your average crossover utility vehicle. Not only that, but the cars are manufactured in Finland — that’s right, Finland – and shipped here for sale, where their purchasers will then receive a $7,500 tax credit for buying one (the “cheap” base model starts at $96,895, with the full-zoot Eco Chic model going for...

WASHINGTON – Treasury Department officials testified Friday that they've never in their careers seen the government handle a loan quite like the Energy Department handled the $528 million in taxpayer dollars that was lent to failed solar firm Solyndra. At a tense hearing on Capitol Hill, two Treasury officials acknowledged that the government's restructuring of the loan earlier this year was unusual, if not unprecedented. Through that process, Solyndra investors, not taxpayers, were put at the front of the line for recovering money in case of bankruptcy. Gary Burner, chief financial officer of the Treasury Federal Financing Bank responsible for...

At Friday’s Solyndra hearing, an Obama administration Treasury Department official admitted that he’s never heard of taxpayer money being subordinate to outside commercial firms. That means the Obama administration is admitting it’s awfully suspicious that investors like George Kaiser’s firms and others got their cash back when Solyndra failed, but the taxpayers ended up on the hook for the $535 million the Department of Energy promised it via a loan guarantee.

The sister-in-law of John Podesta, President Obama's influential White House transition director, served as the lobbyist for a wind power firm that was just awarded a $135.8 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.

Congressman's Son Lobbied For Failing Solar Panel Company How did a failing California solar company, buffeted by short sellers and shareholder lawsuits, receive a $1.2 billion federal loan guarantee for a photovoltaic electricity ranch project—three weeks after it announced it was building new manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Mexico, to build the panels for the project. The company, SunPower (SPWR-NASDAQ), now carries $820 million in debt, an amount $20 million greater than its market capitalization. If SunPower was a bank, the feds would shut it down. Instead, it received a lifeline twice the size of the money sent down the Solyndra...

Obama doesn’t regret Solyndra loanBy Ben Geman - 10/03/11 04:38 PM ET President Obama on Monday defended the administration’s half-billion dollar financial support for the solar-panel company Solyndra which filed for bankruptcy in early September. Asked by ABC News if he regretted holding up Solyndra as a model for jobs and clean energy, Obama replied "No, I don't, because if you look at the overall portfolio of loan guarantees that have been provided, overall it's doing well." "And what we always understood was that not every single business is going to succeed in clean energy, but if we want to...

The Energy Department will announce later Wednesday that is has finalized a $737 million loan guarantee for a Nevada solar project. The decision comes several weeks after a California-based solar manufacturer that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration in 2009 filed for bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 workers, setting off a firestorm in Washington.

Obama was warned of loan dangers long before Solyndra sankSeptember 27, 2011 | 3:08 am Top economic advisors to President Obama warned him a year ago about the serious political and financial risks of the Energy Department's loan guarantee program that has resulted in taxpayers likely being responsible for the loss of $527 million loaned to the politically-connected California solar firm Solyndra. **SNIP** But on Aug. 31 the company, whose major owner was also a major fundraising bundler for the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign, filed for bankruptcy and eliminated most of its 1,100 jobs. In a detailed story posted overnight, The...

A clearer picture of the underlying insider scheme at Solyndra is beginning to emerge.(snip) There was another motivator -- Solyndra's management and investors had an eye on an initial public offering. "There was a perceived halo around the loan," said an investor with knowledge of the company. "If we get the loan, then we can definitely go public and cash out."

Solyndra Executives Postpone Testimony, As Emails Reveal Deeper Obama Administration Ties To Bad LoanZeke Miller | Sep. 14, 2011, 8:29 AM Executives of Solyndra, the solar company that was celebrated by the Obama administration before filing for bankruptcy earlier this month, postponed their testimony to a congressional committee investigating the $535 million it received through the encouragement of the White House. Internal emails obtained by The Washington Post show that White House officials tried to rush the review of the loan — so that Vice President Joe Biden could announce the award at the groundbreaking of the company's factory in...

Executives from solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, which received over a half a billion dollars in loan guarantees from the Obama administration before filing for bankruptcy last week, are in negotations with the House Energy and Commerce Committee to openly testify before Congress next week, according to Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., the chairman of the panel's subcomittee on oversight and investigations. The company's president and chief executive, Brian Harrison, and W.G. Stover, Jr., its chief financial officer, were asked to testify as part of tomorrow's committee hearing on the questionable loans, which have embroiled the Obama administration in what Stearns deemed...

House Republicans are demanding White House paperwork related to a $535 million loan guarantee to a solar company that shut down this week. The Republicans are probing the White House role in the 2009 federal loan guarantee to Solyndra Inc., a California solar panel manufacturing company that ceased operations and is filing for bankruptcy, resulting in 1,100 layoffs. The shutdown is a bit of an embarrassment for the administration, as the company was the first selected to receive the loan guarantee under a stimulus-backed renewable energy program.

Solar company to file for bankruptcy despite $535 million loan guaranteeBy Andrew Restuccia - 08/31/11 12:45 PM ET “Regulatory and policy uncertainties in recent months created significant near-term excess supply and price erosion,” Solyndra's CEO said. A California-based solar company that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration announced Wednesday that it will shut down. The company, Solyndra Inc., said Wednesday it would suspend its manufacturing operations and lay off 1,100 employees effective immediately. The company said it intends to file a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. “Regulatory and policy uncertainties in recent months created significant...

A steady stream of people in need flows through Granters Jewelry & Loan, an El Cerrito pawn shop with a carved carousel horse in the window and a cigar-store Indian in the vestibule. Two guys hock a guitar for $300 to get rent money. A woman offers up a diamond ring for cash to pay her PG&E bill. A man pawns a laptop for $40 to last until payday. A mother with two toddlers in tow counts out $99 to repay a loan plus interest so she can retrieve a necklace and some rings. "It's hard times," said Tammi Owens...

An internal report of the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of State recommends terminating the U.S. loan guarantee program to Israel at the end of 2011. The report, which deals with the performance of the U.S. embassy in Israel, says American diplomats have difficulty mustering support for the Obama administration's policies and implies the embassy failed completely in its PR efforts during the Obama administration.

WASHINGTON - Like many members of Congress, Rep. Michele Bachmann has been a fierce critic of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, blaming the government-backed loan programs for excesses that helped create the financial meltdown in 2008. And like millions of other home purchasers, Bachmann took out a home loan in 2008 that offered lower costs to the borrower through one of the federally subsidized programs, according to mortgage experts who reviewed her loan documents. Just a few weeks before Bachmann called for dismantling the programs during a House Financial Services Committee hearing, she and her husband signed for a $417,000...

The Department of Energy announced Thursday that it has awarded First Solar, America's dominant solar manufacturer, nearly $4.5 billion in conditional loan guarantees to support the construction of three solar power plants in Southern California. With the latest awards, First Solar, headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., has nabbed a third of the $16 billion in loan guarantees the DOE has granted for solar generation to date. In January, First Solar was awarded a nearly $1 billion loan for its 290-megawatt Agua Caliente project in Arizona. First Solar expects the three projects, which should begin delivering electricity in 2014, to create 1,400...

About a year ago Zero Hedge posted an article titled: "Record Number Of Americans Using Retirement Funds As Source Of Immediate Cash" after a report by Fidelity uncovered that "plan participants with loans outstanding against their 401(k) accounts had reached 22 percent versus 20 percent a year earlier." It is now time to revisit this very important topic because if recent press reports are true, last year's record number has just increased by another 50%. "On "The Early Show" Thursday, financial journalist and Newsweek columnist Joanne Lipman said, "Right now we have 30 percent of people who have 401(k)s have...

This week Chrysler went through the same sort of shenanigans American taxpayers have already spent more than $13 billion bailing out Chrysler. The Obama administration already forgave more than $4 billion of that debt when the company filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Taxpayers are never getting that money back. But how is Chrysler now paying off the rest of the $7.6 billion they owe the Treasury Department? The Obama administration’s bailout agreement with Fiat gave the Italian car company a “Incremental Call Option” that allows it to buy up to 16% of Chrysler stock at a reduced price. But in...

As the popularity challenged President Barack Obama heads to Rio de Janeiro on an official visit of Latin America this weekend, talks about the “Obama loan” to Brazilian oil major Petrobas (PBR) have returned to the “internets”. The rumor started back in the summer of 2010, when Fox News’ controversial conspiracy theorist Glenn Beck said that Obama had lent Petrobras $2 billion for its deep ocean oil drilling off the Atlantic Coast of Espirito Santo and Rio de Janeiro states. (Snip) Obama will head to Brazil on Saturday. The narrative from many right-thinking news commentators like Beck will be that

Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi is well known now for the abuses he has inflicted on his own people during more than four decades of brutal rule in Libya, but few remember the vast campaign of carnage and terrorism he orchestrated across West Africa and Europe when he was at the height of his powers. Nor are his more recent alliance with Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and his long-standing relationship with Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua -- both of whom are busy trampling their constitutions and moving toward dictatorship -- well understood. And the fact that all three governments support the Revolutionary Armed...

Budget shortfalls and subsequent muni bond defaults "could derail the recovery, cost a million public employees their jobs and require another big bailout package that no one in Washington wants to talk about," ... Gov. Christie does an excellent job of framing this discussion by pointing out the huge disconnect between the benefits of public sector employees vs. their private-sector counterparts. "I think the general public thinks, 'I can't believe anybody gets a pension anymore. I've got a 401(k). It got killed in the stock market. I don't know what I'm gonna do for my retirement. I can't believe people...

Unemployment Insurance: State Trust Fund LoansUpdated Dec. 15, 2010 The Federal Unemployment Account (FUA) provides for a loan fund for state unemployment programs to ensure a continued flow of benefits during times of economic downturn.  According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, 30 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands are currently borrowing to cover unemployment benefits.  Four states, Maryland, New Hampshire, South Dakota, and Tennessee, have repaid their loans in full.     As of December 13, 2010, the most recent balances of outstanding state loans from the FUA are: State Loan Balanceas of Dec. 13, 2010 Began Borrowing Alabama $283,001,164.19 September, 2009 Arizona $212,184,077.48...

Patsy Campbell could tell you a thing or two about fighting foreclosure. She's been fighting hers for 25 years. The 71-year-old retired insurance saleswoman has been living in her house, a two-story on a half acre in a tidy middle-class neighborhood here in central Florida, since 1978. The last time she made a mortgage payment was October 1985. And yet Ms. Campbell has been able to keep her house, protected by a 105-pound pit bull named Dodger and a locked, rusty gate advising visitors to beware of the dog. "They're not going to take this house," says Ms. Campbell. "I...

Tax the poor some more. That is exactly what one of Mark Dayton's tax hike proposals will do. He proposes a 30 percent surtax on consumer loans that carry an interest rate in excess of 15 percent annually. Minnesota would become a national outlier as the only state with a surtax on loans. The Minnesota Legislature passed this surtax on consumer loans in 2009 and it was vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. The authors of this surtax said they wanted to tax predatory credit card companies instead of taxing their constituents. Some lawmakers were concerned that this surtax would hurt...

A consumer advocacy Web site has obtained some mortgage paperwork for President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama's home in Chicago. The documents, which show that the couple's mortgage of $210,000 was fully paid on May 10, 2005, are signed by a Chase Home Finance vice president Marshe Craine. The interesting thing about the documents is that Craine's signature on court documents related to other people's homes looks radically different from the version on the Obamas' paperwork. In other, unrelated cases, attorneys for homeowners have accused loan processing companies of allowing employees to forge other people's signatures.

Unemployed homeowners in Massachusetts will be able to take out interest-free loans of up to $50,000 to help them make mortgage payments, under a $1 billion federal program unveiled today in Roxbury by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The program will provide about $61 million to struggling property owners in the state, according to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "Countless people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own temporarily lack the steady income they need to pay their mortgage,'' Donovan said in prepared remarks. "That's why the Emergency Homeowner Loan Program will provide limited...

Hi FReepers, I was reading on FR about a new loan package which featured downpayments as low as 3%. Can anyone help me locate that post, it's author, or a bank participating? Thanks Sisters & Brothers, we'll get through this together guys!

Student loans overtakes credit debtBy Peter Kerwin of RIHEAA Updated: Tuesday, 17 Aug 2010, 10:11 AM EDT (FOX Providence) - A surprising series of reports from the Federal Reserve Bank and an expert who tracks student loan debt suggest came out last week. These reports suggest that for the first time, student loan debt in the United States is actually greater than credit card debt. Here to talk about this development and what it means for students is Peter Kerwin from the Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority . We’ve heard a lot of talk about the staggering levels of...

PITTSBURGH -- One look at Charles Fedunok reveals that he’s alive and well, so he said it came as quite a shock when he went to apply for a car loan on Monday and was told he was dead. Fedunok said that he shares the same name as his father, World War II veteran Charles Fedunok Sr., and lives a stone’s throw away from his old house. But the elder Fedunok died three years ago. "They come back after all the deal and the going back and forth on price and everything and interest rates and they said, ‘Well, you...

Link only - Government Backed Lender Will Impose 7 Year Loan Sanctions on Those Who Strategically Default