Free Republic

Don't blame Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., member of two influential banking committees - the Senate Finance Committee and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs - for IndyMac's collapse, says CNBC's Erin Burnett. Burnett, host of CNBC "Street Signs," disagreed with a claim by MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough that a letter to regulators from Schumer caused a run on the beleaguered bank IndyMac, which eventually led to its failure and takeover by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. "I don't think Chuck Schumer caused a run on the bank," Burnett said on MSNBC's July 24 "Morning Joe." "This...

In politics the game always goes to the politician who can stick the blame on the other guy.  Sometimes, like New York Senator Charles Schumer, you can even nudge a bank into receivership.  Loose lips sink ships, Senator! When things go wrong for the Ins the Outs make hay deploring the "mistakes" of the Ins.  Then the Outs get in and the game starts all over again. Right now we are in the middle of a perfect storm of "mistakes."  There's the mortgage meltdown, the food crisis, the gasoline price spike, the IndyMac bank failure, Obama's flip-flops, and the granddaddy...

H/t texascajun We can debate the propriety of mentioning the name of banks that might be in financial trouble. But one thing appears clear to Chris Cuomo [file photo]: it would be wrong to mention the name of a Democrat who could be in hot water. Wouldn't want to cause a run on the Dem's political capital, after all. Cuomo's discretion was on display during today's Good Morning America. Anchoring in the absence of Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts, Cuomo was discussing the run on Indymac and the advisability of publicizing the names of other banks that might be in...

Paper to blame for IndyMac troubles? Article Launched: 07/15/2008 10:38:12 PM PDT Blog Read more from Larry Wilson's Public Eye blog In a bit of a stretch, some had been blaming New York Sen. Charles Schumer for the IndyMac Bank collapse. A member of the Senate's banking committee, Schumer in late June wrote and then made public letters to federal agencies saying the Pasadena bank "could face failure if prescriptive measures are not taken quickly." Now, in a lollapalooza of a stretch, Schumer himself is blaming - get this - the newspaper you have spread out before you on your...

Great Moments in Chuck Schumer Historyby Mac Johnson (more by this author) Posted 07/15/2008 ET California based IndyMac Bank became the second largest bank failure in United States history Friday after a bank run straight out of “It’s a Wonderful Life” was triggered by publicity-seeking Senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer (D, NY).This is not merely my opinion, mind you, but the stated conclusion of John M. Reich, the Director of the federal Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), who publicly declared Friday that the run was triggered in large part because “The senator made comments in his letter questioning the viability...

We have a crisis today.... Banking interests are collapsing. Housing markets are in the tank. Banks like IndyMac, Countrywide and others are having financial meltdowns. Why is that? Well, let's look at some of the factors involved. Chuckie Schumer opened his big mouth. That lead to a panic that caused IndyMac to collapse. Now, would this have happened in a better market? Probably not. People would have laughed at BS CS. So, how did we get to this point where a raging Senator with no sense could cause the collapse of a bank? Let's do what is always required in...

Sen. Charles Schumer, hit with criticism from a federal regulator that he contributed to the failure of IndyMac Bank, said he may have caused some depositors to withdraw their money but said he wasn't responsible for the bank's downfall... He said he wrote letters to federal agencies in June, and then made them public... Sen. Schumer's office publicized the letter June 27... IndyMac...said Mr. Schumer's statements caused "elevated customer inquiries and withdrawals" ...and that about $100 million had been withdrawn. Traffic remained "somewhat elevated" on July 1, the bank reported, but was "substantially lower..." Sen. Schumer pointed to that statement...

PASADENA, California (Reuters) - IndyMac Bancorp Inc customers lined up outside a branch at the company's headquarters on Monday, hoping to withdraw their money after regulators seized what was once one of the largest mortgage lenders in the United States.

Obama’s “Flexible” Value System By Paul R. Hollrah July 14, 2008 In his book, Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military (University Press of Kansas, 2002) , author Bryan Mark Rigg, tells us that as many as 150,000 Jews and “partial-Jews” served in Hitler’s Wehrmacht.  Rigg tells us that “exemptions” were made in order to allow a soldier to stay in the military or to spare a soldier’s parent, spouse, or other relative from incarceration and the gas chambers. But as the war dragged on, politics soon...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Sen. Charles Schumer said Sunday the Bush administration is trying to "blame the fire on the person who calls 911" by suggesting he had a role in one of the costliest U.S. bank failures. Federal regulators with the Office of Thrift Supervision were "asleep at the switch" when it came to IndyMac's "reckless" behavior, the New York Democrat complained. Schumer, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, chairman of Congress' Joint Economic Committee and the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, rejected any suggestions of responsibility for IndyMac's collapse "OTS ought to stop pointing false fingers of...

$1.3 billion in losses, brought to you by Chuck Schumer We're seeing the third largest bank failure in United States history today with the seizure of IndyMac by federal regulators (emphasis added): IndyMac Bank, a prolific mortgage specialist that helped fuel the housing boom, was seized Friday by federal regulators, in the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history. IndyMac is the biggest mortgage lender to go under since a fall in housing prices and surge in defaults began rippling through the economy last year -- and it likely won't be the last. Banking regulators are bracing for a slew of...

...IndyMac Bank, F.S.B. had total assets of $32.01 billion and total deposits of $19.06 billion as of March 31, 2008. As conservator, the FDIC will operate IndyMac. IndyMac's failure is the first bank failure in California since 2003 and is expected to cost the FDIC between $4 billion and $8 billion. At the time of closing, IndyMac Bank, F.S.B. had about $1 billion of potentially uninsured deposits held by approximately 10,000 depositors, according to the FDIC.

Federal officials aren’t supposed to cause bank runs. In fact, much of the New Deal bank regulatory apparatus was set up for the purpose of eliminating such panics. When FDR was hit with a massive set of bank runs shortly after taking office, he gave an address in order to calm terrified depositors, assuring them that the banks would reopen shortly, and that everything would be fine. But Chuck Schumer is no FDR. He doesn’t stop bank runs; he starts them. Or, at least, has started one. The collapse of Indymac bank, the second largest bank failure in American history,...

In good times, they were superfluous. Now they're only as good as their U.S. guarantee Are Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) really too big to fail? That's certainly a widely held assumption across much of the political spectrum. Republican Presidential candidate John McCain voiced the conventional wisdom on July 10 when he said, "They must not fail." Democrat Charles Schumer, the New York senator, agreed, saying: "Markets should be assured that the federal government will stand by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." On July 11, shares in the two companies briefly dropped about 50%, but recovered late in...

The $32 billion failure of U.S. mortgage lender IndyMac demonstrates just how differently the United States is governed than Canada. This from today’s Wall Street Journal: The director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, John Reich, blamed IndyMac’s failure on comments made in late June by Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.), who sent a letter to the regulator raising concerns about the bank’s solvency. In the following 11 days, spooked depositors withdrew a total of $1.3 billion. Mr. Reich said Sen. Schumer gave the bank a “heart attack.” “Would the institution have failed without the deposit run?” Mr. Reich asked...

An important angle in the IndyMac failure that may get lost in ominous headlines tonight and tomorrow: federal regulators pointedly cited U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., in explaining the bank's failure. In simple language, federal regulators blamed Schumer for a run on the bank. Here's from the press release issued by IndyMac's regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision: "The OTS has determined that the current institution, IndyMac Bank, is unlikely to be able to meet continued depositors’ demands in the normal course of business and is therefore in an unsafe and unsound condition. The immediate cause of the closing was...

Reportedly the most dangerous place in Washington, DC is attempting to get between Senator Charles Schumer, the senior senator from New York, and a TV camera. Today federal regulators directly blamed Sen. Schumer for causing the third largest bank failure in history, a disaster that is likely to cost American taxpayers as much as $8 billion. Senator Schumer ten days ago wrote a letter to federal regulators that specifically named IndyMac, a $32 billion bank, as failing. Senator Schumer made the letter public, which caused a depsitor run on the bank. According to John Reich, the Director of the Office...

Sen. Charles E. Schumer publicly taunted bank regulators last week about IndyMac Bancorp's financial condition, which helped trigger a sudden outflow of deposits from the Pasadena thrift. Now the New York Democrat is getting some harsh blowback from one current and one former regulator. Their message, distilled: Zip it, Chuck. As noted here on Monday, Schumer sent letters to the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, saying he was "concerned that IndyMac's financial deterioration poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers." IndyMac, which has suffered huge losses...

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., asked several regulators to keep a close eye on the financial well-being of Pasadena, Calif.-based IndyMac Bancorp Inc., The Wall Street Journal reported June 27. In letters sent on June 26 to the FDIC, the OTS and the Federal Housing Finance Board, Schumer said the thrift's worsening financial situation posed major risks to taxpayers and borrowers, and "the regulatory community may not be prepared to take measures that would help prevent the collapse of IndyMac or minimize the damage should such a failure occur." The letter asked the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, from...

Sen. Charles Schumer on Friday blamed IndyMac Bancorp Inc's (IMB.N: Quote, Profile, Research) failure on its main regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and said it should start doing its job. "If OTS had done its job as regulator and not let IndyMac's poor and loose lending practices continue, we wouldn't be where we are today," said Schumer, a Democrat from New York. "OTS should start doing its job to prevent future IndyMacs."

On July 11, 2008, IndyMac Bank, F.S.B., Pasadena, CA was closed by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Conservator. All non-brokered insured deposit accounts and substantially all of the assets of IndyMac Bank, F.S.B. have been transferred to IndyMac Federal Bank, F.S.B. (IndyMac Federal Bank), Pasadena, CA ("assuming institution") a newly chartered full-service FDIC-insured institution. No advance notice is given to the public when a financial institution is closed. The FDIC has assembled useful information regarding your relationship with this institution. Besides a checking account, you may have Certificates of Deposit,...

IndyMac Bank, a prolific mortgage specialist that helped fuel the housing boom, was seized Friday by federal regulators in one of the largest bank failures in U.S. history. The Pasadena, Calif., thrift was one of the largest savings and loans in the country with about $32 billion in assets. It now joins an infamous list of collapsed banks, topped by Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co., which failed in 1984 with $40 billion of assets. IndyMac specialized in Alt-A loans, a type of mortgage that can often be offered to borrowers who don't fully document their incomes or assets....

We’re surprised that Sen. Chuck Schumer can keep straight which foreign countries he’s haranguing to pump more oil and which he’s haranguing to stop pumping more oil. A few weeks ago the New York senator and aspiring global Petroleum Czar was threatening to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia if it didn’t produce more oil. Now, he’s outraged that the Iraqi government may give modest no-bid service contracts to Western oil companies as a first step toward more fully exploiting the country’s vast oil reserves. Perhaps Sen. Schumer would approve if the Saudis were to agree to pump the Iraq...

It would be generous to say we were stunned," says a Republican House Judiciary Member, describing his response when Congressman and Obama Superdelegate William Delahunt (MA-10) yesterday asked the vice president's chief of staff David Addington about water boarding of terrorists. Addington declined to comment, citing President Bush's refusal to discuss techniques used to attain vital intelligence, and added that another reason not to respond was that Al Qaeda is probably watching. Congressman Delahunt's response: "I'm glad they finally have a chance to see you." (Emphasis added.) But the House Republican and Judiciary member was not so stunned to notice...

Oil for the Tanks of America by: Ben Giles, June 27, 2008 Witnesses at Tuesday’s Joint Economic Committee hearing stressed the need for a multifaceted, bipartisan approach to solve escalating gas prices. Senators on both sides of the aisle used the hearing to place blame for America’s gas woes on the opposite party. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), committee chairman, set the tone of the hearing with his opening statement. “With seven years under their belt, this White House has taken zero proactive steps to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” said Schumer. Schumer, who presented plans to lower the...

A group of Democratic senators led by Charles E. Schumer of New York is appealing to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to block a set of contentious no-bid oil contracts that Iraq has decided to award to the Western oil giants Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP. And if that appeal, which Mr. Schumer’s office said it faxed in the form of a letter to the State Department on Monday afternoon, is not heeded, the senators will try to cut off financing for as-yet-unspecified programs in Iraq that are not directly in support of American troops, Mr. Schumer said in...

WASHINGTON - Newly released documents show New York Sen. Charles Schumer made almost $100,000 in royalties last year from his book, "Positively American."

The first refuge of a politician panicked by rising prices is always to blame "speculators." So right on time for this election season, Congress has decided to do something about rising oil prices by shooting the messenger known as the energy futures market... And who are these "speculators"...? The ...Intercontinental Exchange says that an increasing share of its customers are not financial houses but commercial firms that need to manage oil-price risks – refiners, airlines, and other major energy consumers... the leaders of Capitol Hill's shoot-the-messenger caucus are among those most culpable for the lack of domestic oil supplies. Senator...

Senator Charles Schumer (D, NY), June 3, 2008: "we must treat Russia as an equal partner when it comes to policy in the Caspian Sea region, recognizing Russia's traditional role in the region... we must offer to make Russia whole if it joins in our Iranian boycott... we should tell Mr. Putin we will cease building the ineffective antinuclear missile defense sites in Eastern Europe in return for him joining the boycott... The antimissile system strengthens the relationship between Eastern Europe and NATO, with real troops and equipment on the ground. It mocks Mr. Putin's dream of eventually restoring Russian...

RISING in the Senate on May 13, Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat, explained: "I rise to discuss rising energy prices." The president was heading to Saudi Arabia to seek an increase in its oil production, and Schumer's gorge was rising. Saudi Arabia, he said, "holds the key to reducing gasoline prices at home in the short term." Therefore arms sales to that kingdom should be blocked unless it "increases its oil production by one million barrels per day," which would cause the price of gasoline to fall "50 cents a gallon almost immediately." Can a senator, with so many...

Senator Schumer is coming under sharp criticism from the government of the Czech Republic and from Polish-American and Romanian-American leaders in America after writing an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal suggesting that America should accommodate what he called Prime Minister Putin's "dream of eventually restoring Russian hegemony over Eastern Europe." Diplomats and community leaders who read the Journal article in response to inquiries by The New York Sun said they were taken aback by the suggestion by the New York Democrat that America should try to gain Russia's backing for tougher sanctions on Iran by abandoning NATO plans...

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton would agree to be Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate if offered the slot on the Democratic ticket, Sen. Charles Schumer said Friday. Schumer is Clinton's New York colleague in the Senate and a top supporter.

Sen. Schumer, New York Democrat, said arms sales to Saudi Arabia should be blocked unless "it increases its oil production by one million barrels per day," which would cause the price of gasoline to fall "50 cents a gallon almost immediately." Schumer does know that if you increase the supply of something the price will probably fall. One million barrels is what might today be flowing from ANWR if in 1995 Clinton hadn't vetoed legislation to permit drilling there. Seventy-two of today's senators - including McCain and Obama - have voted to keep ANWR's 10.4 billion barrels of oil off...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) imminent return to the Senate does not mean she will be greeted with a newly created position within her conference’s leadership, Democratic leaders said Thursday.Clinton has not sought a special leadership position and has made clear that she is open to being Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) vice presidential nominee. If she does not get chosen for the No. 2 spot, some have speculated that Democratic leaders might carve out a special position within the leadership as a way to appease her supporters and bring the party together.But so far, such a position has not been...

Europeans starting to focus on the post-primary debate in America — and on what an Obama administration might mean — will want to pay particular attention to the op-ed dispatch in the Wall Street Journal yesterday from Senator Schumer. The Democrat of New York proposes that America deal with the Iranian nuclear crisis by turning Eastern Europe back over to Russia. If that sounds like an exaggeration, we commend a reading of the article in full at WSJ.com. Sure enough, the senator claims that Prime Minister Putin "is an old-fashioned nationalist who seeks to regain the power and greatness Russia...

There are three reasons. First, Russia has a longstanding, close relationship with Iran and regards itself as Iran's protector. Second, the Russian economy benefits from its relationship with Iran by several billion dollars a year. Third and most important is leverage. Mr. Putin is an old-fashioned nationalist who seeks to regain the power and greatness Russia had before the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia's relationship with Iran is a key point of leverage over the West that he will not relinquish easily. To bring Putin's Russia on board we must make it an offer it cannot refuse. The offer...

As the oil executives hearings on Capitol Hill received great media attention given soaring gasoline prices, supposedly impartial press members missed a classic gaffe by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as it pertains to the benefits of OPEC raising production quotas versus America drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. On Wednesday, Schumer once again claimed "if [Saudi Arabia] did a million barrels of oil a day increase from today, it would go down about -- the translation to gasoline would be about $.50 a gallon, maybe $.62." Yet, on May 7, Schumer felt a likely similar increase from drilling in...

I watched Senators Durbin and Schumer lacerate the oil executives. Seemingly, the Senators believe "big oil" and "OPEC" are the ones to blame with an outside possible hedge fund assistance. Not only were the Senators rude and absolutely stupid in their allegations, but they seemed oblivious to the points the oil executives made including we need to drill more, etc. I then watched Neil Cavuto's program (Fox); he interviewed another Democrat Senator whose name I cannot recall. What I do recall is that every option--drilling, oil shale, coal to oil and nuclear are non starters for the Democrats. The key...

WASHINGTON - Apart from George McGovern, a plainspoken man who knows something about losing elections, not a single Democrat of national stature publicly urged Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday to end her campaign for the White House. They didn't have to. There was no shortage of other ways to signal, suggest, insinuate or instigate the same thing. And certainly no need to apply unseemly pressure to a historic political figure, a woman who has run a grueling race, won millions of votes and drawn uncounted numbers of new Democratic voters to the polls. Instead, many Democrats preferred to say softly...

Richard Reinwald sees the rising price of wheat and flour in the global economy - but his loyal customers at Reinwald's Bakery in Huntington only see the extra 80 cents they now have to pay for a loaf of rye bread... He had to raise the price to keep up with higher costs - such as the 100-pound sack of flour for which he pays three times more than just a year ago... New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, who convened the hearing... "They don't have extra income for higher food prices and have to stretch their dollars, or even...

New York's Sen. Chuck Schumer was on Fox this morning to discuss the trouble American Airlines has been having doing remedial maintenance to complete safety inspections on its aircraft. Schumer made numerous comments indicating that he will never move from being a socialist hack who has no clue about the real world. He excoriated the FAA as being "incompetent" because once in a while a scheduled inspection is missed or done incorrectly In fact, the FAA has been in trouble since non-flying "managers" with no knowledge of actually flying an aircraft were appointed to be administrator. (Why not appoint to...

An interesting recent claim about al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) says it is a totally homegrown and separate entity from the al Qaeda (AQ) that Osama bin Laden heads. Sen. Chuck Schumer, on Tuesday’s “Larry King Live” said, "The al Qaeda the president is talking about is different than the al Qaeda of Mesopotamia, which is the al Qaeda that's in Iraq. The al Qaeda that bin Laden is in charge of is a totally separate organization." And AP’s Jennifer Loven, in an article on the same day, claimed that AQI “"is mostly homegrown ... ". She further claims that,...

BALTIMORE -- Federal prosecutors have opened an inquiry into allegations that two Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee employees illegally tapped into Lt. Gov. Michael Steele's credit history. WBAL-TV 11 News reporter David Collins reported the workers obtained the report in July while executing opposition research on the lieutenant governor. In June, the Republican lieutenant governor announced he had established an exploratory committee to explore a candidacy for the U.S. Senate (Full Story). Paul D. Ellington, Steele's chief of staff, issued a statement late Wednesday afternoon in reaction to the allegations. "Lt. Gov. Steele was extremely disturbed to learn about the alleged...

A Democratic senator from New Jersey, Robert Menendez, introduced a bill late last night that would strike the Tiahrt amendment, a piece of gun legislation staunchly opposed by Mayor Bloomberg's anti-gun coalition. The introduction of the bill, called the Firearms Information Use Act of 2008, is prompting lobbyists for the gun industry to once again fight to protect the amendment. "Of course the NRA opposes the bill. We feel like the Tiahrt amendment is there for a reason and Congress intended that trace information be available for law enforcement in bonafide criminal investigations," a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association,...

It’s another sign that gas prices will probably be heading higher - oil prices surpassed $103 a barrel for the first time Friday as persistent weakness in the U.S. dollar and the prospect of lower interest rates attracted fresh money to the oil market. Some analysts are expecting prices to hit $4 dollars a gallon by this spring. At the Mobil gas station in DeWitt, the price for a gallon of regular unleaded is $3.34. That is slightly higher than the average price for a gallon of gas in the Syracuse area, $3.32 a gallon - up 12 cents over...

Following a spate of campus attacks and threats, including the fatal shootings at Northern Illinois University and a chilling message scrawled in a boys' bathroom at a Levittown high school, federal lawmakers are renewing a push to beef up gun-control laws, fund safety procedures and study the link between college shootings and mental illness. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), at a news conference yesterday in Manhattan, said he and congressional colleagues plan to step up efforts to close loopholes in gun-control measures and create a federal task force to come up with national school safety guidelines. They also plan to push...

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Sunday the use of super delegates in the Democratic Party's presidential nomination process could be problematic. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Durbin said it was troubling that Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., was leading among super delegates while Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was ahead in the number of states won and elected delegates. Yet Durbin said he was confident the elected delegates and the voters they represent would likely reveal a true winner at the Democratic presidential nominating convention in Denver. "You know, the voters will have the last word in November, the elected...

For a guy who's supposedly a savvy pol, Chuck Schumer has sure made a damning admission about the Dem presidential candidates. The senior senator from New York has flatly admitted that their word is worthless. View video.

Situated within a dense forest at the foothills of the Catskill Mountains on the outskirts of Hancock, New York, Islamberg is not an ideal place for a summer vacation unless, of course, you are an exponent of the Jihad or a fan of Osama bin Laden

Nineteen American senators are urging their government to scrap a new rule that will require travellers to show proof of citizenship and a photo identification card when entering the United States by car, boat, or on foot. The new rule takes effect on Thursday. The senators wrote a letter to Michael Chertoff, the U.S. secretary of Homeland Security, asking him to continue to allow travellers to cross land and sea borders with an official government-issued photo I.D., such as a driver's licence. As has always been practice, travellers would have to verbally state their citizenship, but would not have to...