Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd has had better days. Looks like the AIG bonus scandal just found a political whipping boy: Dodd just admitted on CNN that he inserted a loophole in the stimulus legislation that allowed million-dollar bonuses to insurance giant AIG to go forward – after previously denying any involvement in writing [...]

AIG’s decision to pay out bonuses despite the financial company’s massive troubles has angered a lot of people. Place the president in the angry category. Joining a wave of public anger, President Barack Obama blistered insurance giant AIG for “recklessness and greed” Monday and pledged to try to block it from handing its executives $165 [...]

The plan is pretty straight forward. Bankruptcy judges can modify loan terms and lenders will get assistance if the agree to modify existing loans so people aren’t paying more than their homes are worth. From Bloomberg: Obama intends to make loan modifications the centerpiece of plan that also gives bankruptcy judges more power to help [...]

“It may be necessary to temporarily nationalise some banks in order to facilitate a swift and orderly restructuring. I understand that once in a hundred years this is what you do.” – Alan Greenspan in an interview with Financial Times Here’s more… Mr Greenspan’s comments capped a frenetic day in which policymakers across the political [...]

I don’t think they’ll make the same mistake twice. Whenever the fully fleshed out plan is unveiled, I expect it will be to a positive market reaction.

Here’s the preview, presented in two parts. Part One Part Two You can find it on air & online today at 9 pm EST on PBS. And here’s the website.

“Nobody is going to put fresh capital into the banking business when your major competitor is going to be continuously bailed out by the United States government with more and more money.” – Rusty Cloutier, President/CEO of MidSouth Bank So there’s that. And then I keep hearing the word “nationalization” being bandied about by leading [...]

As widespread and difficult as the recession has become, it’s easy to forget it all began with a housing crisis. Not only is that crisis still ongoing, it still threatens the stability of our economy. The Obama Administration is expected within the next few weeks to announce an initiative of $50 billion or more to [...]

Pay no attention to the content (massive pork) in the bill. Pay no attention to the fact that it will not solve the root problem and will at best delay a day of reckoning. Pay no attention that it will add a trillion dollars of debt that we do not have and will have to borrow from the Chinese or tax from Americans or devalue the currency to repay. Just pass it, because an economic fear-mongering President says it should be passed.

If you thought $700 billion was a lot of money, well.. It is. But $2 trillion is.. ridiculous. This is Danielle Ivory from ANP. Congress and the new administration have been focusing their attention on strengthening oversight for the Treasury’s TARP program, but meanwhile few are paying any attention to the Federal Reserve. Since September, [...]

Liquidity Crisis 2.0 is right around the corner. From WSJ: Nearly $750 billion of option adjustable-rate mortgages, or option ARMs, were issued from 2004 to 2007, according to Inside Mortgage Finance … Rising delinquencies are creating fresh challenges for companies such as Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & [...]

In this economy, would you pay $149.99 for a Bernie Madoff action figure? Would your answer be influenced if you knew it was a limited edition action figure? Herobuilders.com is no stranger to controversy, brazenly giving G.I. Joe collectors the meanest enemies possible to wage war on — Saddam, Osama, Hugo Chavez.  Without bad guys, [...]

You’d think that Ron Paul, CEO of Eagle Bank, would be thrilled to receive $38 million dollars in TARP funds. But, it turns out, he’s pretty frustrated. This is Danielle Ivory from the American News Project. As another $350 billion goes out the door, ANP looks at one small bailed-out bank. Eagle Bank is having [...]