Economic Glance
Across America's upper strata, rich folk like Hirtenstein are experiencing an unfamiliar emotion: luxury shame. The late Coco Chanel, doyenne of 20th century fashion, long ago said that luxury is "the opposite of vulgarity," not of poverty. But in these recessionary times, it seems vulgar to flaunt one's luxurious lifestyle. And so the wealthy are going blingless and eschewing the spending sprees of the recent Gilded Age, giving new meaning to the phrase "embarrassment of riches."
US diluted loan rules before crash
The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.
As mortgages went bad, New Century executives cashed out
While the Irvine subprime lender was failing, key executives continually changed their stock trading plans and often sold within days of colleagues' trades, a Times investigation shows.
No charges have been filed, and attorneys for the company's former top executives say that none of the executives sold stock based on information that had not been disclosed to the public and that the executives retained most of their shares when the company went under.
Wachovia execs may get $98.1 million severance
Wachovia Corp (NYSE:WB), which lost $33 billion in the last two quarters, said 10 top executives may be entitled to $98.1 million in severance pay after the bank is acquired by Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC).
Wachovia also said a closing would entitle its 11 executive officers, who include Steel, as well as Chairman Lanty Smith to $2.5 million in equity-based awards under existing stock incentive plans. But the executives' stock options are worthless, the bank said.
Wealthy continue to get farm subsidies, GAO finds
Millionaire farmers continue to pluck crop subsidies they don't deserve, federal investigators say.
At least 2,702 farmers nationwide received subsidies between 2003 and 2006 even through they were making more than the $2.5 million gross income cutoff. The unwarranted payments totaled $49 million and exposed enduring Agriculture Department management problems, investigators concluded.
Citi, AIG Won't Drop Big Sports Sponsorships
AIG, Citibank and a number of other federally bailed-out financial institutions have no plans to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in sports team sponsorships, even as they take billions in taxpayer support, ABC News has found.
Struggling Citibank just sealed a multi-billion-dollar emergency "backstop" deal with the U.S. government. The financial behemoth, suffering with billions in bad mortgage-related assets on its books, recently shed 53,000 workers and saw its stock price lose over half its value. Yet it's in a 20-year contract to pay the New York Mets $400 million to name the team's new stadium "Citi Field."
TVNL Comment: So in essence you, the tax payer, subsidized the milti-million dollar baseball player, who PLAYS GAMES for a living! Not only that...they have made it so expensive to see games that many people can't afford to even go to a game anymore!
Government prepared to lend $7.4 trillion
The U.S. government is prepared to lend more than $7.4 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers, or half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, to rescue the financial system since the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.
The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $2.8 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The commitment dwarfs the only plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis.
TVNL Comment: First of all the "Fed" is not government. What they are doing is stealing the money of the next ten generations! The only way to stop this is to end the Fed.
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