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Exclusive: Obama budget likely to include (as yet undetermined) fee on banks to help taxpayers recoup cost of bailout -- Romer still sees recovery beginning in spring
By: BEN WHITE & VICTORIA MCGRANE & MIKE ALLEN on January 11, 2010 @ 5:57 AM______________________________________________________________________________-
EXCLUSIVE: Top administration officials tell Morning Money that President Obama’s budget, to be unveiled next month, is likely to include a fee on banks designed to recoup some of the cost taxpayers incurred in the bailout, which specified that the U.S. government should be made whole. This will stop short of a financial transactions tax, and the administration has decided that a tax on compensation packages would be too easily evaded. The officials said the final approach has not been locked down. The chief goal is a fee that is not easily passed along.
BREAKING: New York Fed general counsel Thomas C. Baxter writes in a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), ranking members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee: “I write to clarify that matters relating to AIG securities law disclosure were not brought to the attention of Mr. Geithner. … In my judgment as the New York Fed’s chief legal officer, disclosure matters of this nature did not warrant the attention of the president. Further, Mr. Geithner played no role in, and had no knowledge of, the disclosure deliberations and communications referenced in those e-mails.” We posted Baxter’s letters to Issa and Chairman Townes (misspelled on letter)
FROM ISSA’S RESPONSE LAST NIGHT: “Mr. Baxter statement’s provides a very short and narrow account that addresses specific e-mails and related deliberations but not larger questions about Secretary Geithner’s role in approving payments for AIG counterparties.”
WHITE HOUSE AND HILL HAVE GEITHNER’S BACK, Bloomberg’s James Rowley and Edward Chen: “Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner retains the confidence of President Barack Obama as he faces questions … Aides to top congressional Democrats also said that Geithner has support on Capitol Hill as lawmakers prepare hearings into why the New York Fed in December 2008 asked [AIG] to scale back disclosures of the government’s $182.3 billion bailout of the New York-based insurer. … Asked yesterday for comment, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he stood by his earlier statements that the president had full confidence in Geithner. Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, said ‘Secretary Geithner enjoys the strong support of the Senate Democratic caucus.’”
Good Monday morning. Hope everyone got to see the 96-point madness in Arizona. Redeemed a weekend’s worth of snooze-worthy football.
DRIVING THE WEEK: Bonus season kicks off as banks begin informing employees of their number while justifying the huge payouts to an angry public and an election year Congress … The awards just happen to coincide with the first hearings on Wednesday and Thursday of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Wednesday’s hearing will include CEOs Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase, Brian Moynihan of Bank of America and John Mack, chairman and former CEO of Morgan Stanley. Also on Wednesday, the Fed releases its Beige Book of economic conditions based on anecdotal reports from its 12 districts. … On Thursday, the crisis commission hears from Attorney General Eric Holder, FDIC chairwoman Sheila Bair, SEC chairwoman Mary Schapiro and Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general, criminal division. … Consumer Price Index is out Friday; it should offer a hint on whether the Fed will face more pressure to start tightening. Price rise of 0.2 percent expected, which is pretty tame. … Quarterly earnings flowing in all week. They will be WAY up but only compared to TERRIBLE prior year comparisons.
ROMER SAYS OBAMA UNHAPPY WITH JOBS NUMBER, POLITICO’s Mike Allen reports: “Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said Sunday that President Barack Obama was ‘subdued’ and ‘disappointed’ upon learning of Friday’s jobless number and said the administration favors further government action. ‘The sense that we need to do more is overwhelming,’ Romer told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s ‘This Week.’ ‘We know there are things that have been working in the Recovery Act that are expiring, like some of the provisions for longer unemployment benefits. Some of the state fiscal relief — I think that’s going to be critically important to making sure we keep making progress.’ … Asked about earlier administration estimates that job growth would begin by spring, Romer replied: ‘I think that’s still a very realistic estimate.’” Romer on CNN’s “State of the Union” called Wall Street bonuses “ridiculous” and “offensive.”
READ THE WHOLE POST: Exclusive: Obama budget likely to include (as yet undetermined) fee on banks to help taxpayers recoup cost of bailout -- Romer still sees recovery beginning in spring
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WWWTTFFFF?
? Here we go again, an ass raping of the taxpayer. The banks will simply pass these fees along and steal more of our money.
Also - how about POFS and top dems still supporting Geithner after the AIG revelations?
PRICELESS!
