The Hill reports that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are dissolving their formidable lobbying operations (when the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight was investigating their shady accounting practices, Fannie Mae was spending $8 million a year on lobbyists, some of whom were working with Congress to derail the investigation).
The Hill reports,
When the two companies were taken over by the government, they said they would end lobbying practices that had made them a powerful force in Washington.Still, the lost contracts could hit K Street hard.
Overall, 37 outside firms filed second-quarter reports for Fannie and Freddie, according ...
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Financial Bailout: Fannie Mae announces subpoena
Fannie Mae announced <a href="http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/310522/000129993308004533/0001299933-08-004533.txt">today</a> that it's gotten more subpoenas from the SEC and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York:
<blockquote>On September 26, 2008, Fannie Mae received notice of ongoing federal government investigations and inquiries into Fannie Mae by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") regarding certain accounting, disclosure and corporate governance matters. In connection with those investigations and inquiries, Fannie Mae received a Grand Jury subpoena ...
Continue readingFinancial Bailout: Lobbyists’ Donations to House Financial Services Committee
The chairs and ranking members of the House Financial Services Committee and its subcommittees have received less from lobbyists hired by financial and investment firms compared with members of the Senate Banking Committee from the eight firms we surveyed. Six of the 12 chairs and ranking members received more than $144,000 in the first six months of this year.
Committee chairman Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., received the most, totaling $63,500. Since Jan. 2008, Frank has received at least $55,000 from lobbyists working for influential Washington lobbying firm DLA Piper and their PAC. During that time DLA Piper ...
Continue readingFinancial Bailout: Lobbyists’ Donations to Senate Banking Members
In-house lobbyists and other major Washington lobbying firms hired by eight investment and securities companies have given Senate Banking Committee members more than $380,000 in campaign donations in the first six months of 2008, according to the LD-203 lobbying disclosures filed with the Senate Office of Public Records.
Lobbyists and company political action committees working on behalf of eight companies that have been involved in Wall Street's financial turmoil have made donations to 15 of the 20 Senators on the committee. (The eight investment companies included here are American International Group, Bears Stearns, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, J.P ...
Continue readingFinancial Bailout: Who’s minding the store?
As Congress begins wrestling with the Bush administration's financial industry bailout legislation (and Sen. Christopher Dodd's alternative), perhaps it's worth asking who are these folks who may well be deciding the economic fate of the nation? In this post (which took me about five hours longer to put together than I'd anticipated; hint to Labs: we need to design a tool to do this stuff faster), we take a look at the Senate Banking Committee and the House Finance Committee. Specifically, we look at how much of the campaign cash raised by members of those committees ...
Continue readingFinancial Bailout: Who does Frank see at his fundraisers?
Among Rep. Barney Frank's top career donors are employees, their family members and PACs of the following players in the nation's financial meltdown: American Bankers Association (wants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to continue paying dividends, despite going bust), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (which bought Bear Stearns), National Association of Realtors (working to "assure a robust secondary mortgage market"), UBS AG (which hopes the bailout will include foreign banks), Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (hopes Congress will "hastily approve" the administration's plan), Credit Union National Association (members are included in any bailout plan), Bank of America ...
Continue readingSee Who’s Wining and Dining the House Finance Committee
You already know that the very same lawmakers who are deciding the fate of the financial bailout receive campaign cash... View Article
Continue readingFinancial Bailout: Who does Dodd see at his fundraisers?
Among Sen. Christopher Dodd's top career donors are employees, their family members and PACs of the following players in the nation's financial meltdown: Citigroup ("written off and lost $53.6 billion through the credit crunch so far, which is more than any other bank or broker,") Bear Stearns ("Bear Stearns's mortgage business, a big driver of profits, has been eviscerated,"), SAC Capital Partners (vehemently denies charge that they helped bring down Bear Stearns), American International Group (saved by an emergency $85 billion rescue), Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (each of which are morphing into bank holding companies ...
Continue readingBailout Bill Lobbying Frenzy
The consideration of the $700 billion bailout bill — now lovingly known as the Authorization for Use of Financial Force... View Article
Continue readingIn Broad Daylight: Lobbyists, Financial Advisers
Two years ago, I was named Time’s person of the year and now I own an insurance company, two mortgage... View Article
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