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POPSBailout Bucks in Their Pocket, Citigroup Keeps Lobbying “We are significant investors in Citigroup and are also holding a significant amount of risk if some of these assets fail,“ Stephen Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense said. “The same guys who’ve got their hand out are also badgering and lobbying members of Congress to get other perks and sweetheart deals for themselves…Are we paying them to lobby ourselves?“ And we're supposed to be all freaked out about the automakers and the unions.
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POPSNot Rubinomics Part II Nice take from NYT's Jackie Calmes on the influence of Bob Rubin on Obama's economic team. But don't expect the Obama era to be a reprise of Rubinomics, which focused on balanced budgets and deregulation. There's going to be much deficit spending and a shift towards regulation in the next few years.
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POPSCitiGroup & Their $400Million Deal With The New York Mets. . . . . . . . . . . . And Their Naming Rights To The New Mets Stadium. . . . . . . . In the two years since, Citi shares (NYSE: C) have shed more than 90% of their value. Market analysts are cautiously optimistic that this more representative re-branding of the stadium will help restore investor confidence in the financial giant and the banking sector generally.
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POPS Somali Pirates To Acquire CitiBank The pirates will finance part of the purchase by selling new Pirate Ransom Backed Securities. The PRBS’s are backed by future ransom payments from hijackings in the Gulf of Aden. Moody’s and S&P have already issued their top investment grade ratings for the PRBS’s. Head pirate Ubu Kalid Shandu said, “We need a bank so that we have a place to keep all of our ransom money. Thankfully, the dislocations in the capital markets have allowed us to purchase Citigroup at an attractive valuation and to take advantage of TARP capital to grow the business even faster.” Shandu added, “We don’t call ourselves pirates. We’re coast guards. This will just allow us to guard our coasts better.”
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POPSU.S. Stocks Rally as Obama Picks Tim Geithner to Head Treasury and was poised for the worst annual decline in its 80-year history after economic reports depicted a deepening recession and lawmakers postponed a vote on a plan to salvage the auto industry. Citigroup, which has about $2 trillion of assets, has fallen for nine of the last 10 days on concern more companies and consumers will default as the economy worsens. The benchmark for U.S. equities trimmed its yearly loss to 46 percent today, still the worst year since 1931. The S&P 500 tumbled 8.4 percent this week. The Dow average declined 5.3 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 8.8 percent.
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POPSTop Trend-Caster: Prepare for Economic Winter Now! Get ready: He predicts bank runs by Feb. 2009. He is serious and he has been right on the mark in most predictions. His firm is Trends Research (here) and he is exposing the Goverment Lies and Big Banksters corruption. He has been interviewed as an acknowledged expert (which history proves) by such diverse media as CNN, Alex Jones (radio interview tonight), Fox News (where he said there would be a revolution against big government), and MSNBC, and Coast to Coast radio. His firm analyzes as "political atheists", they do not care about either political party, and consider them both corrupt. We forecast a high probability for the government to call a bank "holiday," at which time withdrawals will be drastically limited . Thus, while deposits will be FDIC insured, restrictions will be imposed on withdrawals. Is that why Obama is keeping Bush's new Executive Order for Martial Law upon any "nat'l emergency"?
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POPSObama's Pick for Chief of Staff. . . . . . 
. . . . . .Tops Recipients of Wall Street Money . . . . . Emanuel, who is currently the No. 4 Democrat in the House, has also collected $136,640 from the lobbying industry during his career, making K Street his 13th most generous industry. Since being elected to the House six years ago, he has collected $1.5 million from the investment industry , with lawyers and law firms and the entertainment industry coming in at a distant second and third place ($682,900 and $376,100). As a member of the powerful House Ways & Means Committee--which has jurisdiction over tax legislation, Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs--Emanuel is a popular industry target. Private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners has given Emanuel more than any other contributor over his career at $93,600. Emanuel and Obama have more than just Chicago in common; investment bank UBS, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are among both men's lists of top donors .
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POPSBush Looting Public Wealth. No-Risk Capitalist. There has been no nationalisation, partial or otherwise. American taxpayers have gained no meaningful control over the banks , which is why the banks are free to spend the new money as they wish. At Morgan Stanley , it looks as if much of the windfall will cover this year's bonuses. Citigroup has been hinting it will use its $25bn buying other banks, while John Thain, the chief executive of Merrill Lynch , told analysts: "At least for the next quarter, it's just going to be a cushion." The US government, meanwhile, is reduced to pleading with the banks that they at least spend a portion of the taxpayer windfall for loans - officially, the reason for the entire programme.
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POPSThe Next Card to Fall: Credit Cards? If the credit card industry is the next to fall, perhaps the silver lining will be restrictions on how much they can charge customers interest. As it is, current credit card interest rates, especially for those who fall behind in their payments, constitute usury.
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POPSAs Economy Slows, Lenders Begin to Curb Credit Cards It's about time!!!! Even after my parents "declared" bankruptcy after years of using them for medical, motor vehicle, what they considered necessities....my Mom is still receiving offers from Credit Card companies. Stop it!!! The elderly and the 20-40+ use these things like there is no tomorrow. Well, tomorrow has come. While the card-holders have a responsibility to pay their debts, so do those who *throw* cards at an irresponsible market bear major responsibility for their practices.
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POPSFinancial Crisis: The Great Bank Bailout The nine banks had "no choice" as the federal government (with money created by the Fed from thin air) is buying a portion of these banks, injecting cash into them to ease credit. This is a partial government takeover or pseudo-nationalization of these banks, also being done in the UK and Europe.
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POPSAsian Stocks Gain on Bank Stakes Plan; Treasuries,Yen Decline Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures gained 2.1 percent. S&P rebounded yesterday from its worst week in 75 years with an 11.6 percent advance, its steepest since 1939. Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index rose 9.9 percent, a record gain. The Bush administration will invest about $125 billion in nine banks including Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, said the people. France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Austria have committed $1.8 trillion to guarantee bank loans and take stakes in lenders. Governments across the globe stepped up measures to support banks after global stock markets lost $7 trillion of their value last week, driving the MSCI World Index down 20 percent, on concern frozen credit markets will trigger an economic collapse.
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POPSGOP: Lose Your Home, Lose Your Vote (cont.)McCain, who owns ten houses, has long been a lackey of the banking industry and a strong supporter of the industry's efforts to weaken government safeguards against irresponsible lending. Since 1989, the financial services, insurance and real estate industries have contributed $23.8 million to McCain's campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. This sector far outspent any other industry in making donations to the Arizona senator. Topping the list of McCain donors are Merrill Lynch ($366,035), Citigroup ($317,751), Goldman Sachs ($305,015), Morgan Stanley ($253,871), JPMorgan Chase ($207,728), Credit Suisse Group ($178,825), UBS ($178,515), Pinnacle West Capital ($164,050), Bank of America ($160,625), Lehman Brothers ($128,550) and Wachovia Corp ($121,346).
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