Obama's Plea To Banks

"Video: Obama: Banks Need to Help Small Businesses"

After flooding banks with more cash than is safe for the economy, U.S. President Barack Obama, is now imploring said financial institutions to lend to creditworthy small businesses, in a bid to unclog the revenue block that has gripped the corporate sector.

As mentioned previously, a handful of corporate conglomerates gobbled up many smaller companies, then collapsed due to crooked business practices.

Yes, sometimes mergers and acquisitions are a bad thing, as smaller companies become soulless and bland.

Effectiveness Of Stimulus Questioned

U.S. President Barack Obama

The effectiveness of the stimulus bills by former President George W. Bush and White House incumbent, Barack Obama, is being questioned, as the numbers are not adding up and equaling growth.

Certain companies such as AIG and a few automakers needed the assistance, to save a multitude of jobs, but the government lost its way in throwing billions at banks and numerous other financial entities and business enterprises, some of which have misused the funds, not producing anything of value for the American people. Some banks, such as Northern Trust, received massive sums of money they didn't even need.

I question the logic of having done this, rather than focusing on a few U.S. corporations that anchor the American economy.

Additionally, bailout money, by law, should have been stipulated as funds that must be repaid, as corporations improved their financial outlook.

As it stands, many business recipients have no intention of repaying a dime, as they are not legally compelled to do so. Christmas came early for the corporate sector courtesy of the American taxpayer.

Bush's Bailout Full Of Lies

The inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program stated, via his investigation, which revealed, the Treasury officers of former President George W. Bush, lied to the nation and the world, regarding the condition of the U.S. banking system, painting a "rosy picture" that was a complete lie. From 2007 to the present, the Judiciary Report insisted in numerous articles that the U.S. economy, including the banking sector was in very bad condition, despite the government's proclamations declaring the opposite in 2008. In 2006, the Judiciary Report's sister site, The Sound Off Column, began declaring there is a problem with the economy. Therefore, if this site knew from then, so did they, but they were lying to you, as Bush hoped to leave office and let the house of cards collapse on the next President. However, it began collapsing on the non-math wiz, during his last year in office, where the dire monetary mess became so visibly apparent, he was rightfully slapped with the blame for the financial fiasco that was of his own making. U.S. Lost Credibility by Saying Banks Were Healthy, Audit Says Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The Treasury Department “lost credibility” when it said its first capital injections from the $700 billion financial rescue were for healthy banks, the inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said... Barofsky said that the Treasury should have been more open about potential financial problems with the biggest banks when it began the TARP a year ago. “Treasury may have created unrealistic expectations about the institutions’ condition and their ability to increase lending,” he wrote. “Treasury and the TARP program lost credibility when lending at those institutions did not in fact increase and when subsequent events -- the further assistance needed by Citigroup and Bank of America being the most significant examples -- demonstrated that at least some of those institutions were not in fact healthy.” http://www.bloomberg.com Bailout cop: Treasury fibbed to save economy Last Updated: October 5, 2009: 4:31 AM ET - WASHINGTON - A government watchdog says federal officials weren't entirely honest with the public about the health of the first 9 financial firms that got federal bailouts, according to a report released Monday. Bailout special inspector general Neil Barofsky says in an audit that Treasury Department officials painted an overly rosy picture, creating "unrealistic expectations," when they called the first bailout banks "healthy" institutions that would be able to lend more with government help. "It is not our intent to suggest that government officials should make public their concerns over the financial health of individual institutions, but rather that government officials should be particularly careful, even in a time of crisis, of describing their actions (and the rationales for such actions) in an accurate manner," the report stated... http://money.cnn.com

Banks Still Not Helping Homeowners

The Economic Numbers Confirm It

As I have stated for months, banks are not doing enough to help distressed homeowners and it is driving up the foreclosure rate in America to record highs.

Government data released yesterday, affirms what I have been writing for months regarding the aforementioned matter, as it has been revealed this week, via national figures, only 9% of eligible homeowners have been helped by the billions in bank bailouts, funded by U.S. taxpayer money, which is a disgrace.

Banks are holding on to the money, investing it in other endeavors and not helping the American people, whose homes are at stake. Hence the higher foreclosure rates.

Had the banks held up their end of the bargain, in accepting enormous sums of taxpayer money and actually used it for what the funds where earmarked for, the economy would have experienced a better quarter.

As I have also stated for months, the government cannot play nice with a lot of these banks, as they do not understand that sort of language and conduct, interpreting it as weakness.

We see the end result of that this week, as the numbers confirm, banks have been audaciously hording taxpayer money. It is the equivalent of one's car breaking down, sending an assistant to buy a container of gas, they return with the gas purchased with your money and state, "I'm only going to give you 9% of the gas in this full container, bought with your money. It really won't get you very far, but that's your problem."

Side Bar: If I were head of state anywhere in this world and had to deal with an unruly banking sector, when I called them together in the aforementioned meeting Obama convened a few months ago, I would have let them talk their butts off then simply stated, "Thank you for coming here today. Let's cut to the chase. If I don't see a massive drop in fraud, a sizeable reduction in unjustifiable bonuses and more legitimate consumer loan modifications of a fair and sustainable nature, I'm going to start locking your employees up and I cannot guarantee it won't reach your personal executive office."

Then, I would offer them some coffee, as business people like that after they've been given soul shaking news. It aids in calming their nerves and temporarily helps them not to think about the human lion that's about to figuratively maul them, if they run amok at the taxpayers' expense (grin).

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U.S. Effort Aids Only 9% of Eligible Homeowners

Published: August 4, 2009 - WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department said on Tuesday that only a small number of homeowners — 235,247, or 9 percent of those eligible — had been helped by the latest government program created to modify home loans and prevent foreclosures.

A report released by Treasury officials identified lenders who had made slow progress in offering more affordable mortgages, naming Bank of America and Wells Fargo as among those failing to reach large numbers of eligible borrowers.

While 15 percent of eligible homeowners have been offered help through the mortgage modification program, the low rate of actual mortgage reductions has frustrated administration officials.

Michael S. Barr, the assistant secretary for financial institutions, said in a news conference that there were “significant variations” in performance and that some institutions had made “an infinitesimally small amount” of progress.

“I think it’s safe to say we’re disappointed in the performance of some of the servicers,” Mr. Barr said. “We expect them to do more.”

The release of data showing the progress of individual institutions is part of a Treasury effort to push banks to modify loans faster.

Under the $75 billion program, homeowners whose monthly mortgage payments are more than 31 percent of their gross income are eligible for modified loans, with interest rates as low as 2 percent.

Bank of America has modified only 4 percent of the eligible mortgages, and Wells Fargo has modified 6 percent.

Citimortgage, a unit of Citigroup, fared better at 15 percent, while JPMorgan Chase was among the most successful, modifying loans for 20 percent of eligible borrowers. All four institutions received federal bailout money...

http://www.nytimes.com

Stocks Slide on Worse-Than-Expected Jobs Report

On Wednesday the focus was on a report showing that the number of private-sector jobs fell by 371,000 in July, according to payroll company Automatic Data Processing and Macroeconomic Advisers. That was slightly worse than analysts were expecting and indicated that employers continue to slash jobs, though at a lower rate than earlier this year.

The data "suggest the unemployment rate continues to rocket and household cash flows continue to fall. Not a great outlook for spending, we'd say," said Ian Shepherdson, an economist for High Frequency Economics.

http://www.washingtonpost.com