The Titans Of Finance

All your stuff are belong to us. The Fed (09.16.08), via Calculated Risk:

"The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday, with the full support of the Treasury Department, authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to lend up to $85 billion to the American International Group (AIG) under section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act. The secured loan has terms and conditions designed to protect the interests of the U.S. government and taxpayers."

FRB: Press Release

"The U.S. government will receive a 79.9 percent equity interest in AIG and has the right to veto the payment of dividends to common and preferred shareholders."

Another One Bites The Dust

This one's a biggie. "The collapse is expected to cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. between $4 billion and $8 billion, potentially wiping out more than 10% of the FDIC's $53 billion deposit-insurance fund."

WSJ (07.12.08), via Calculated Risk, via Eschaton:

"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."

Crisis Deepens as Big Bank Fails

"The director of the Office of Thrift Supervision [ed. - as in the guy who was supposed to be regulating the lending practices of financial institutions like IndyMac], John Reich, blamed IndyMac's failure on comments made in late June by Sen. Charles Schumer, 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.'"

Schumer sez fuck off you ass-covering moron. "'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,' Sen. Schumer said. 'Instead of pointing false fingers of blame, OTS should start doing its job to prevent future IndyMacs.'"

Long and short? IndyMac was going critical long before Schumer said anything.

Barry makes the point: "Why is it that all these rumor-mongerers and shorts are only bringing some firms to their knees? How come they always seem to be the over-leveraged, under-capitalized, unhedged, most poorly-managed companies?"

Holy Shit

From Xinjo.com, via Crooks and Liars, some graphs:

A Little Visual Perspective on the $87 billion being spent on Iraq

Visual Intermodal Prevention Response

These are at a couple of local city bus stops, mind you. Indianapolis Star (08.02.07), via DailyKos:

"Screeners from the Transportation Security Administration checked passengers at two Downtown city bus stops this morning, looking for weapons and suspicious behavior.

TSA checks IndyGo bus passengers

The TSA calls it a "'VIPR'" operation, which stand for (are you ready?) "Visual Intermodal Prevention Response." The TSA has "'plainclothes inspectors, blue-gloved uniformed security officers who are checking baggage, the behavior detection officers, and federal air marshals, which are the law enforcement arm of TSA.'"

"Some passengers were patted down or submitted to having bags checked."

The TSA "said the searches were 'by-permission,' meaning patrons could decline to be checked. Those who did would not be turned away, an official said, unless they otherwise appeared to be a security threat."

Is Al Qaeda issuing Metro Passes these days or something?

How To Save Your Job

McClatchy (04.14.07):

"A U.S. attorney in Wisconsin who prosecuted a state Democratic official on corruption charges during last year’s heated governor’s race was once targeted for firing by the Department of Justice, but given a reprieve for reasons that remain unclear.

A federal appeals court last week threw out the conviction of Wisconsin state worker Georgia Thompson, saying the evidence was 'beyond thin.'

Wisconsin prosecutor surfaced on "firing" list

"Congressional investigators looking into the firings of eight U.S. attorneys saw Wisconsin prosecutor Steven M. Biskupic’s name on a list of lawyers targeted for removal when they were inspecting a Justice Department document not yet made public, according to an attorney for a lawmaker involved in the investigation."

Steven was very, very diligent in prosecuting voting fraud. Out of the 2.16 million Wisconsinites who voted in 2004, Steven and his staff "looked at hundreds of potential violations based on 2004 voting records and eventually charged 14 Milwaukee area residents with violations...".

That included Kimberly Prude, who was convicted of voting while on probation, "an infraction Prude attributes to confusion. She says she thought she could vote so long as she wasn't in prison."

"She's in prison now because her conviction on the voting fraud charge ended her probation."

So for sure, she can't vote now. Good going Steven!