big banks

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FDIC Launches 50 Criminal Inquiries of Failed Banks

But it won't name names yet

(Newser) - The FDIC has launched criminal investigations targeting around 50 executives, directors, and employees from banks that failed during the financial crisis. Regulators won’t say which banks or executives are under investigation yet, but did tell the Wall Street Journal that banks of all sizes from across the country are...

States Asked for Foreclosure Probe—3 Years Ago

Federal regulators turned down request, put off matter

(Newser) - State regulators suspected that there was something fishy about banks' foreclosure procedures as far back as three years ago, but federal regulators forbid them to take action, the Washington Post reports. The federal comptroller told the states his office was already planning an investigation, and that banks should only respond...

Wall Street Pay to Break Records (Again)

Pay up 4% from previous record, set last year

(Newser) - Wall Street is set to break the compensation records it set just last year, the Wall Street Journal reports. In a survey of 35 publicly traded securities and investment-services firms, 26 were expected to boost compensation, bringing total pay up to $144 billion—up 4% from last year’s $139...

Goldman Sachs Boosts Lobbying Costs 40%

Banks want to shape finance reform

(Newser) - Goldman Sachs is spending more and more in Washington—The bank upped its lobbying spending by nearly 40% in the second quarter and has already spent almost as much in the first half of this year as it did in all of 2009, notes the Huffington Post . The company...

Big Banks Laundered Money for Mexican Drug Gangs

Wachovia handled $378.4 billion in drug money

(Newser) - Some of the biggest banks in the US have been helping to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to Mexican drug gangs, Bloomberg reports. Wachovia, for example, has admitted in court that it didn’t do enough to spot the $378.4 billion in drug money the cartels handed off...

How Bankers Are Gaming the US to Get Richer Than God
How Bankers Are Gaming the US to Get Richer Than God
Henry Blodget

How Bankers Are Gaming the US to Get Richer Than God

They're getting taxpayer money on the cheap and loaning it back to us

(Newser) - There wasn't a single day last quarter in which Wall Street's big banks—Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bank of America and Citigroup—lost money trading. How is that possible? Isn't trading supposed to be risky? Not when Uncle Sam is guaranteeing it isn't, explains a steamed Henry Blodget of Business...

New Probe: Did Banks Dupe Credit Raters?

New York AG Andrew Cuomo investigates 8 big banks

(Newser) - More bad news for bankers: New York's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, is investigating whether banks deliberately misled rating agencies ahead of the housing market collapse. So far, authorities have focused on dealings between banks and clients who purchased mortgage-backed securities, notes the New York Times . Cuomo's crusade broadens the scope...

Krugman: Don’t Cry for Wall Street - NYTimes.com
 Obama, Please Screw the Banks 
Paul Krugman

Obama, Please Screw the Banks

President doesn't have to play nice with these guys

(Newser) - Barack Obama went to New York yesterday to beg Wall Street to play nice on financial reform, and Paul Krugman really wishes he hadn't. Obama said reform would ultimately help the financial industry, but Krugman doesn't see the need to play nice with the big banks. “Reform actually should...

Forget About 'Too Big to Fail'
Forget About  'Too Big to Fail'
Paul Krugman

Forget About 'Too Big to Fail'

Size doesn't matter; the real problem is unregulated 'shadow banking'

(Newser) - Paul Krugman doesn't buy the "too big to fail" argument for a simple reason: "It’s perfectly possible to have a financial crisis that mainly takes the form of a run on smaller institutions." Big banks aren't the problem, he writes in the New York Times . We...

Obama Signs Health Reform Law (Yes, Again)

Final version of legislation enacted along with student loan overhaul

(Newser) - Finalizing two major pieces of his agenda, a beaming President Obama today signed legislation sealing his health care overhaul and making the government the primary lender to students by cutting banks out of the process. Both domestic priorities came in one bill, pushed through by Democrats in the House and...

Goldman's Lloyd Blankfein Swimming in Hate Mail

Goldman Sachs CEO gets up to 100 letters a day

(Newser) - He and his firm might be doing "God's work," but Lloyd Blankfein and Goldman Sachs still somehow get a lot of hate mail. The CEO has told people that up to 100 such letters come in every day. As a result, insiders tell Fox Business that senior executives...

Wall Street Engaged in 'Elegant Form of Theft'

'Liar's Poker' author sees more sleight-of-hand going on

(Newser) - Wall Street trader-turned-critic Michael Lewis says the big banks are using an "elegant form of theft" to rip off taxpayers. How else to explain the notion of getting a government bailout and then handing out huge bonuses, he tells 60 Minutes in an interview airing tomorrow. Lewis, author of...

The 10 Best Wall Street Blogs
 The 10 Best Wall Street Blogs 

The 10 Best Wall Street Blogs

More than ever, experienced insiders are scooping news organizations

(Newser) - Many high finance blogs just “stink,” David Weidner writes, but discerning “Wall Street junkies” can depend on a few that engage top talent and often scoop major news organizations. He runs down 10 of the best news and analysis sites in the Wall Street Journal , “skipping...

Maybe Dodd's Angling for 'Cushy Bank Job'

Senator's threats on Volcker rule insane, and bad politics

(Newser) - That Sen. Chris Dodd would sacrifice tighter regulations on big banks in the name of bipartisanship is so insane—and bad politics, to boot—that his threats on the so-called Volcker rule have Joe Klein wondering if the Connecticut Democrat “just wants a nice, cushy bank job after he...

Tobacco, Oil, Bank Lobbyists Crowd Dem Senators' Retreat

Miami guest list doesn't quite jibe with anti-'fat cat' rhetoric

(Newser) - Lobbyists for some of the industries most often blasted by Democrats—oil, big tobacco, banks—made up a good chunk of the guest list at a Miami retreat featuring a dozen Senate Democrats. A $30,000 contribution to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is typical, reports Politico , which scored a...

Bank Risk Rules Could Die in Senate
 Bank Risk Rules 
 Could Die in Senate 
DODD: BIPARTISAN OR BUST

Bank Risk Rules Could Die in Senate

Retiring Dodd wants GOP support, Obama be damned

(Newser) - President Obama’s plan to limit the amount of risk big US banks can take could well die in the Senate if the measure isn’t seen as bipartisan enough by Chris Dodd, the retiring Banking Committee chair, and Senate Republicans. “He wants to end his career with an...

Time to Pull Plug on 'Too Big to Fail'

 Time to Pull Plug 
 on 'Too Big to Fail' 

PAUL VOLCKER

Time to Pull Plug on 'Too Big to Fail'

Former Fed chair wants mechanisms to let 'em fail

(Newser) - It's more than a year after Americans learned the definition of "too big to fail," and it's time to push through the reform that will save having to re-learn that painful lesson, writes Paul Volcker in the New York Times . "As things stand," writes the chair...

Support Wanes for New Term for Ben Bernanke

Populist anger is getting to Senate Democrats

(Newser) - Ben Bernanke's confirmation for another term as chair of the Federal Reserve is looking shaky, Jake Tapper reports, as Senate Dems, responding to populist rage against Wall Street, weaken in their support. With a hold on the nomination from three senators, 60 votes will be required to bring it to...

'Anarchic' Conan Perfect for Treasury Secretary

Obama could use O'Brien-like bile to hammer big banks

(Newser) - The idiot circus that is NBC’s late-night merry-go-round resembles nothing so much as the US financial crisis, so what better next stop for Conan O’Brien than the Treasury? That’s what Leslie Savan would like to see, given that Secretary Tim Geithner completely lacks the O’Brien-like “...

US Banks Paid Employees Record $145B in 2009
US Banks Paid Employees Record $145B in 2009
ANALYSIS

US Banks Paid Employees Record $145B in 2009

Haul breaks mark set in pre-bust 2007

(Newser) - Employees at the major US banks were paid about $145 billion in 2009—a total that, despite the financial crisis and public outcry over compensation in the industry—breaks a record set in pre-bust 2007. A Wall Street Journal analysis finds that 2009 revenue will be $450 billion, up 25%...

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