Big Financiers Start Lobbying for Wider Aid

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times

Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury’s proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions.

“The definition of Financial Institution should be as broad as possible,” the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents big financial services companies, wrote in an e-mail message to members on Sunday. The group said a wide variety of institutions as varied as mortgage lenders and insurance companies should be able to take advantage of the bailout, and that these companies should be able to sell off any investments linked to mortgages.

The scope of the bailout grew over the weekend. As recently as Saturday morning, the Bush administration’s proposal called for Treasury to buy residential or commercial mortgages and related securities. By that evening, the proposal was broadened to give Treasury discretion to buy “any other financial instrument.”

The lobbying became particularly intense because Congress plans to approve a package within just two weeks, without the traditional hearings and committee process....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/business/22lobby.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Unbelievable.

Welcome to Chimp's America.

[Solly Mack]

2. snort

Money grab! Get your hand out! Get it while it's hot! We get to milk tax payers - don't let this offer pass you by!!!

If anyone is surprised by this then I don't know what to say

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. "I will only get half of my $50 million golden parachute when I'm fired for mismanagement."

:cry: We need a bigger bailout so I can get ALL of the money I've earned! :cry:


:eyes:

[central scrutinizer]

4. Sooooiiieee! Belly up to the trough,piggies!

We're going to open the mother of all spigots. Get your buckets ready!

[BaracudaCrusher]

5. Saw this heading and had a visual of celebrities singing for aid

like they do for AIDS or hunger, only this time it's for save the Wall Street boys 'cause they can't deal with losing their 2nd yacht.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Hi, Baracuda -- welcome to DU!

[Buns_of_Fire]

10. Wall Aid? Or maybe they could hold a telethon?

(BTW, welcome!:hi:)

[L0oniX]

7. The thieves rush in.

[boomerbust]

8. Thats great

But where the fuck is my shit. Im bankrupt too, so when is some of this shit going to come my way.

[Waiting For Everyman]

9. No fees. Put it on government payroll.

Kick the pigs out of the trough.

I've been emailing a long list in Congress including exactly that point. This should create some jobs, not fatten the guilty.

I'm also stressing that we should take over an entity entirely instead of just taking certain "assets". If it's that bad, RTC it and let it get sorted out the right way. It would be cheaper and better to put all the banks into that, than to just give away money.