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US Watchdog Say Taxpayers Still Owed $132.9 Billion From Bailouts

Michael Redbourn — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:35:54 +0000

Bailed-Out Companies Pressured TARP Pay Czar To Keep …

www.huffingtonpost.com1/24/12

The official overseeing executive pay for bailout firms limited cash compensation and made some reductions in pay, but still approved compensation packages in the millions, the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) inspector general said in the report. Former U.S. pay … In Mexico in the mid-'90s Wall Street engineered a currency coup that tripled the debt owed by small businesses and family farms and also allowed for them to be massively ratejacked on top of it.

Taxpayers Still on the Hook for $133B from Bailouts | Nanavaty …

www.nndcpa.com1/26/12

The federal overseer of the government's bank bailout program says taxpayers are still owed $132.9 billion on investments in 458 bailed-out banks and companies, including failed insurer American International Group (AIG: 25.31, 0.00, 0.00%), General Motors (GM: 25.08, … SIGTARP now warns TARP could be cemented in the government's architecture as a permanent bailout program, even though the public initially “perceived TARP as primarily a bank bailout.” …

Government watchdog Christy Romero says that U.S. taxpayers are still owed $132.9 billion by companies that received bailouts, and adds that much of it will never be recovered.

TARP – Troubled Asset Relief Program

The bailout debt which was launched at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008 will continue for years, says a report issued Thursday January 26, 2012 by Christy Romero, who is the acting special inspector general for the $700 billion bailout.

What’s worse is that some bailout programs, such as the one to help homeowners avoid foreclosure by reducing mortgage payments, will continue into late 2017, and they will cost the government an additional $51 billion, plus or minus a few billion dollars.

The report also notes that the roller coaster stock market slowed the Treasury Department’s efforts to sell off its stakes in 458 bailed-out companies, which include insurers, American International Group Inc., General Motors Co. and Ally Financial Inc.

The Present Share Prices And Needed Share Prices

AIG’s shares closed Wednesday at $25.31, while GM ended at $24.92 and Ally isn’t publicly traded.

They were $28.73 a share for AIG, and $53.98 for GM so it could take a long time for the market to rebound to that level.

The report concludes that it will also be challenging for the government to get out of the 458 companies as the market remains volatile and banks struggle keep afloat in the tough economy.

The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP

Congress authorized $700 billion for the bailout of financial companies and automakers and $413.4 billion was paid out.

So far, the government has recovered about $318 billion.

The Treasury’s Response

Treasury spokesman Matt Anderson said the department,

"has made substantial progress winding down TARP and has already recovered more than 77% of the funds disbursed for the program, through repayments and other income".

"We’ll continue to balance the important goals of exiting our investments as soon as practicable and maximizing value for taxpayers".

To be fair however, it needs be said that the government has recovered its investments in four of the companies that received the most aid:

Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Chrysler Group LLC and Chrysler Financial, which is the automaker’s old lending arm.

Criminal Activity

In Romero’s quarterly report to Congress, she said her office,

"has uncovered and prevented fraud related to TARP".

Investigations by her office have resulted in criminal charges against ten people and three convictions.

Florida Couple Foreclose On Bank Of America

Michael Redbourn — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 07:34:39 +0000

Is it Time to Foreclose on Your Bank?

www.triplepundit.com12/5/11

A look back at the role of corporate banks during the financial crisis of 2008 and a look at other options such as Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).

Daily Kos: Bank foreclosing on businesses that have paid their …

www.dailykos.com12/24/11

First off, how in the hell can it be legal for a bank to foreclose on a loan if the payments have been made on time? Second, less operating income and falling property values “Compelled the bank to act.” Seriously? We are in …

It certainly is a changing globe!

Five months ago Bank of America filed foreclosure papers on a Florida couple who didn’t owe anything on their home.

The homeowner’s, the Nyergers, were later forced to take the case to court because Bank of America refused to accept their proof that they’d paid cash for their home.

A Collier County judge immediately accepted the family’s evidence, confirmed the Nyergers’ claims, and told Bank of America to pay all legal fees.

The bank refused, and the family’s attorney did exactly what the bank had tried to do to his clients, he seized the bank’s assets.

A truck and sheriffs arrived at the bank with orders to remove assets from the bank and within an hour of being locked out of his bank, the branch manager handed over a check for the legal fees.

U.S. Housing Starts Unexpectedly Fall To Record Low

Michael Redbourn — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:50:12 +0000

Just released Commerce Department figures indicate that U.S. housing starts dropped to a record low of 458,000 in April.

A 13% decline to an annual rate of 458,000 was led by a 46% decline in multi-family starts, compared to March when builders broke ground on 525,000 homes.

Building permits, which are a sign of future construction fell by 3.3% to a record low rate of 494,000 and taken together the two declines suggest that house prices have not yet reached rock-bottom.

So called experts had forecast an increase to a 520,000 annual pace from a 510,000 previously estimated pace the prior month, and they also forecast that building permits would increase to 530,000 annual rate.

But to give credit where it’s due, Maxwell Clarke, who is the chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal Inc said even before the report came out that, “Weakness in housing continues. Declining prospects for developers should continue to act as a drag on investment and overall output in 2009″.

Mixed in with the bad news was a little good news however, because construction of single-family homes rose 2.8% to a 368,000 rate, and that was for the second straight month.

Overall the housing market is showing some signs of stabilization and confidence amongst U.S. homebuilders in May increased to the highest level since September, and although sales of new homes are still 70% below their 2005 highs, they have risen slightly from their record January lows.

April Retail Sales Fell As Unemployment Rose

Michael Redbourn — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:10:07 +0000

A just released report by the Commerce Department shows that retail sales unexpectedly dropped by 0.4% in April, following a revised drop of 1.3% in March and analysts contributed the drop to the biggest loss of household wealth on record, falling home values and rising unemployment.

Most economists had predicted that retail sales would rise by 0.2% after a 1% decrease a month earlier.

Bill Cheney, who is the chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services Inc. said in an interview that, “The second quarter is going to be tough. Consumers are losing their jobs, concerned about losing their jobs and losing wealth”.

Mike Niemira who is the chief economist at ICSC was a little bit less downbeat and said, “We’re still working our way through the slowdown. I think it will get better as the year progresses. The month of May will still be tough and I suspect by the summer that things will be a little broader in terms of the improvement”.

The decline in sales was led by falling demand at furniture, clothing, grocery and electronics’ stores, and even as fuel prices rose, receipts at service stations fell, indicating perhaps that Americans were driving less.

Clothing sales fell by 0.5% and sales at general-merchandise stores fell by 0.1%.

Auto sales unexpectedly gained by 0.2% after dropping by 2% in March, with automobiles selling at a 9.3 million annual pace in April, compared with a 9.9 million rate in March.

Chrysler, whose U.S. whose sales were down by 48% from the same month last year, started offering rebates of up to $6,000 on May 6 and the offers will continue until the end of the month.

The Labor Department reported last week that payrolls fell by 539,000 workers last month making it the smallest drop since October, but it took the unemployment rate to 8.9%, which is the highest level since 1983 and economists expect it to average 9.6% in 2010.

The Average Interest On U.S. Credit Cards Is Now 14.2%

Michael Redbourn — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:24:59 +0000

Put together, the seven biggest U.S. credit card issuers earned over $27 billion in operating profit in 2007.

Although banks can borrow at interest rates that are nearly as low as Treasury yields, they’ve been cutting credit lines and raising their fees, and the average annual percentage rate offered to new card customers in the U.S. is now 14.2 percent.

Just a few years ago, a booming economy kept loan losses in check and banks perfected marketing tricks and introduced the concept of teaser rates, and in just eight years Americans received around 44 billion pieces of mail jammed into their mail-boxes that promoted credit cards.

Now however, issuers are developing new models to calculate the fees and interest rates that they say are needed to cover the growing number of bad debts. New rules are being put into place too, and if somebody who’s had a card for a long period suddenly uses it at a grocery store for the first time, then it’s quite likely that he’ll be flagged as a potential credit risk and be added to a watch list.

It’s perhaps understandable that banks need healthy credit card earnings to ensure their survival because they can no longer rely on the securities markets that caused the economy to collapse, but it now appears likely that many of them will lose their long-term customers after the economy stabilizes.

Credit cards have become a mainstay of U.S. banking in recent years because the offer a steady income without the volatility that goes with trading and investment banking, but loans on credit cards are unsecured, and the industry absorbed about $55 billion in credit card defaults last year, which is up from $43 billion in 2007.

Fed rules, which will curb sudden changes in interest rates are set to go into effect on July 1, 2010 – but many Democrats in Congress are now pushing to have the legislation advanced, and they also want greater built-in consumer protection.

The Economic News Is Both Good And Bad

Michael Redbourn — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:23:23 +0000

New home sales did better than expected in March.
But they still fell by 0.6% last month.

Median home-sale prices in March were around $7,000 higher than in February.
But they are still far lower than they were a year ago.

Some banks have started returning bailout money amid reports of better than expected profits in the first quarter of 2009, and the stock market has rebounded since early March.
But, the value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average is still at around 60% of what is was a year ago.

Consumer confidence is rising, and consumer spending rose 2.2% in the first quarter which is the most in two years.
But businesses cut spending on equipment and software by 33.8% in the first quarter.

The administration claims that 2,000 new transportation projects have already been approved under the stimulus package.
But the construction sector lost 626,000 jobs between December 2008 and March 2009.

And whilst we’d truly love to believe that the economic crisis has bottomed out, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) estimates that the global economy will contract by 1.3% in 2009 and the U.S. economy by 2.8% which would be the most since 1946.

As Stocks Advanced The Number Of Defaulting Homebuyers Rose By 50%

Michael Redbourn — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:24:33 +0000

Consumer confidence is important, but what should we believe when one headline tells us that, “The banks have enough cash”, whilst another screams, “Mortgage delinquencies among the most creditworthy homeowners rose by 50% last month”.

After Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said, “the vast majority of the nation’s banks have enough capital”, U.S. stocks advanced the most in almost two weeks, and Walter “Bucky” Hellwig, who helps oversee $30 billion at Morgan Asset said, “Geithner’s comments that most banks are OK got money coming back into stocks because that pretty much allays yesterday’s fears about stress tests and banks having to raise more capital”.

Even General Motors Corp. rose 2.4 percent to $1.70 after a government auditor said the Treasury will supply the automaker with $5 billion in additional aid.

Meanwhile, David Heupel, who helps manage $60 billion at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans said, “There are still signs of a tough economic environment, but companies that have really cut down their expenses are starting to see a little glimmer of life”.

The “tough economic environment” part of his comment would appear to be something of an understatement however, because the number of so-called prime borrowers who are at least sixty days behind on mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rose to 743,686 in January, from 497,131 in December, and that’s almost double the October total.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who are the biggest U.S. mortgage-finance companies, either owning or guaranteeing 56% of all U.S. home loans, just announced that mortgage delinquencies among their “most creditworthy homeowners”, rose by 50% in just one month, and they blamed the fall on both drops in income and too much debt, with 34% of borrowers telling Fannie and Freddie that they were earning less money, and around 20% citing too much debt as their reason for missing their mortgage payments, with a further 8.1% blaming unemployment.

Bill To Limit Credit Card Increases To Be Advanced

Michael Redbourn — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:46:05 +0000

Although the Federal Reserve finalized new regulations that will limit various credit-card rate increases last December, the rules won’t come into effect until July 2010, and there is now mounting pressure to implement the regulations at a much earlier date.

Not surprisingly, the banking industry says that both the White House and Congress should wait for the Fed’s new rules to take effect before taking any additional action, and Edward Yingling, who is president of the American Bankers Association, said last Sunday, “The banking industry understands the concerns about credit cards, but the administration should fully recognize the impact of the Federal Reserve Board regulation, which is one of the strongest consumer protection regulations ever adopted. As we go forward we need to be careful about piling on rules that very much may have the impact of restraining the availability of credit”.

Democratic lawmakers have already begun advancing legislation that would limit certain credit card fees and other practices and Larry Summers, who is scheduled to meet with the heads of several of the largest U.S. credit card issuers at the White House on Thursday, recently said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’, “The president is going to be very focused, in a very near term, on a whole set of issues having to do with credit-card abuses”, and then added, “their abuses include charging consumers extraordinarily high rates that they wouldn’t have paid if they knew what they were getting themselves into”.

Summers’s comments were also underlined by White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki who said, “Addressing abuse in the credit card industry and standing up for consumers is a priority for the president and his economic team, and we look forward to working with Congress on these issues”.

Whereas banks claim that market conditions and changes in borrowers’ credit scores necessitated the increases, consumer advocates want new legislation that would not only limit rate increases on existing balances, but would also require credit card companies to provide more information on their rates, and they are particularly critical of banks that raised interest rates whilst receiving federal bailout funds.

Who Will Have To Pay More Tax?

Michael Redbourn — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:48:19 +0000

The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) just released some very enlightening figures, about who paid how much tax in 2006.

The top 20% of earners paid 70% of all federal taxes.

On average, they paid 26% of their income to the government.

The very the top 1% of taxpayers, who had household incomes of over $332,000, paid 28% of all taxes, which was 31% of their income.

The three groups in the middle of the highest and lowest paid 10, 14 and 18%.

The lowest 20% of households paid only 0.8% of all federal taxes.

The bottom 90% of all households combined, paid only 45%.

The above figures demonstrate very convincingly that the U.S. already has a very progressive tax system, that isn’t seriously stacked for or against any group in society, and this is noteworthy, because taxes will have to go up in the coming years.

The government is already running huge deficits, that are only going to get bigger, and the country will go bankrupt if no attempt is made to close the gaping hole. Under different circumstances, one would expect the government to enact spending cuts, but no budget proposal presently on the table even comes close to what will be needed.

The generally accepted political definition of ‘rich’ right now, is $250,000, whereas it was $100,000 not so long ago. Bluntly put, this means that unless the definition is changed, that the ‘middle class’ will soon have to pay more taxes, if the tax code is going to remain progressive.

Obama promised that taxes would not be increased for families making under $250,000, but there simply isn’t enough available revenue above that figure, unless the system becomes totally out of kilter, which could lead to voters demanding more and more government spending at the expense of fewer and fewer people.

Professor Alexander Fraser Tyler, a Scottish historian who in 1787, writing about the decline and fall of the Athenian Republic over two thousand years before, said:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith
From spiritual faith to great courage
From courage to liberty
From liberty to abundance
From abundance to complacency
From complacency to apathy
From apathy to dependence
From dependence back again into bondage”.

Our Economy – When Even The Ugly Looks Pretty.

Michael Redbourn — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 06:05:45 +0000

The American consumer cut back so much during the last quarter of 2008, that two recent reports showing that a slight leveling off had occurred in February and March caused many supposed economic pundits to suggest that a bottoming out had occurred and that it was possible to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The cause for such jubilation?

The Commerce Department announced a rise of 0.2% in consumer spending in February, and the University of Michigan’s index of consumer confidence edged up slightly in March, whilst remaining at near historic lows.

Richard T. Curtin, who has run the University of Michigan survey for decades, said in a just published report, “The good news is that the free fall in confidence has ended. The bad news is that consumers expect their financial situation to remain dismal for the rest of 2009″.

Not only were the increases miniscule, but there were obvious reasons for them. Spending was higher due to higher gasoline prices, and the fact that personal income fell by 0.2% in February got scant attention, even though it most likely means that consumers will have to cut back even further on purchases.

House prices are still falling, the stock market is way down for the year and unemployment continues to rise, but there are a number of economists who believe that consumers who are still delaying the purchase of major items such as a house, a car, or new appliances will soon be forced into buying them, which will in turn create a bounce in the broader economy.

It is totally unclear to me however why the consumer will suddenly feel that he must buy a new car, a new house or a new appliance etc. and I would strongly agree with Howard Davidowitz, who is the chairman of the retail consultancy Davidowitz & Associates who said, “When you’ve got exploding job losses like we have, how would that lead to any improvement in consumer spending? If you don’t have jobs, you cannot possibly have a change in psychology”.

Perhaps ironically, if the consumer’s confidence and appetite do grow, it could well create new problems because the purchasing of big-ticket items in large numbers could create a snap-back in gross domestic product, followed by another recession because of business conditions that are still extremely weak, companies that are still not investing, and weakness in the rest of the world’s economies.