With the passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy, the gavel he wielded as chair of the Senate Health, Labor, Education &... View Article
Continue readingAIG bundled for Dodd
Jennifer Haberkorn reports in the Washington Times:
The message in the Nov. 17, 2006, e-mail from Joseph Cassano, AIG Financial Products chief executive, was unmistakable: Mr. Dodd was "next in line" to be chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which oversees the insurance industry, and he would "have the opportunity to set the committee's agenda on issues critical to the financial services industry."Given his seniority in the Senate, he will also play a key role in the Democratic Majority's leadership," Mr. Cassano wrote in the message, obtained by The Washington Times.
Mr. Dodd ...
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AIG subsidiary sues Countrywide Financial
How did I miss this?
Discovery should be pretty interesting.
I don't seem to be able to post the document, but this quote is interesting:
Since the 1980s, United Guaranty has used a delegated model for underwriting. Underwriting is the process whereby an insurer determines the risk associated with a loan and decides whether to offer insurance. Under the delegated model, United Guaranty does not underwrite each loan itself. Instead, it relies on the lender to accurately represent information on the loans to be insured. For example, the lender may represent that the loans satisfy certain underwriting guidelines such ...Continue reading
Give a dollar to a pol, get $18,195 back
Glenn Reynolds asks whether employees in the financial industry, always a big donor to political campaigns, will contribute to other candidates or curtail their giving. He cites the AIG bonus flap, and Congress' reaction to it (including the outrage of members and the House passing a bill that would tax 90 percent of those bonuses away) as evidence of the fickleness of Congressional favor. Reynolds writes,
In light of this behavior, Wall Street--if it survives long enough--will likely conclude that subsidizing these pols was a bad idea.If so, maybe it's time to shut off the funding. Politicians are ...
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Rangel: No accusations coming from Congress
Roll Call's Lauren W. Whittington reports that Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., once again, is saying that the ethics committee has nothing on him:
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Rangel said that the charge against him has no merit and has no facts, and he repeatedly asserted that no one outside of the press " he specifically called out a New York Times reporter " has made allegations and that there has been no accusations coming from the Congress.Continue readingRangel said several times that no one other than a reporter has accused me. When pressed on why the Committee on Standards ...
Dodd’s family business?
Kevin Rennie notes another connection of Sen. Christopher Dodd to the financial industry, at one remove from AIG:
it turns out that Senator Dodd's wife has also benefited from past connections to AIG as well.From 2001-2004, Jackie Clegg Dodd served as an "outside" director of IPC Holdings, Ltd., a Bermuda-based company controlled by AIG.
There are many other connections, obviously.
Continue readingDodd controversies continue to swirl
Sen. Christopher Dodd is getting criticism from out-of-state ">papers (but note the all the Connecticut residents quoted) over the AIG bonus bungle, but the Hartford Courant ran what might be the most significant story (hat tip: Instapundit, who has a lot more on Dodd):
An executive at mortgage giant Countrywide Financial overrode the company's loan-writing policies to give a discount to Sen. Christopher Dodd, the powerful chairman of the Senate banking committee, according to an internal Countrywide document turned over to congressional investigators and obtained by The Courant.
The Courant notes that the report, some 63 pages long, is ...
Continue readingDodd did it update
Apparently, Geithner did it too. (Previous Dodd did it post here.) As this episode illustrates, there ought to be a better way of tracking whose fingerprints--those of members of Congress, administration officials, lobbyists--are on which parts of what bills.
Continue readingFinancial crisis doesn’t disrupt financial fundraisers
"As the public boils with anger over millions of dollars in retention bonuses for American Insurance Group employees, financial interests quietly continue to woo lawmakers with fundraising parties this month.
Actually, I think that members are still wooing the financial industry by offering dinners, breakfasts and events geared to their industry. While members may be publicly throwing AIG under the bus, in private they're only too happy to cozy up with contributors, offering preferred access and insights in exchange for campaign cash.
One of the first rules of following Washington: Watch what they do, not what they say.
National ...
Continue readingThe Revolving Door Spins in CEO Pay Protector
In the back-and-forth regarding who inserted the retroactive bonus immunity provision into the stimulus bill, we were repeatedly treated to... View Article
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