Why did AIG take the fall for the 2008 financial crisis while other big banks survived just fine?
Continue readingFixed Fortunes: Why Washington likes big banks
Since the 1990s, Washington’s unspoken preference has been for banks and other financial institutions to get ever bigger, and it’s acted accordingly, making life easier for giants while hobbling the little guy.
Continue readingFixed Fortunes: Biggest corporate political interests spend billions, get trillions
Between 2007-2012, America’s most politically active corporations spent $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. A Sunlight Foundation analysis suggests, however, that what they gave pales compared to what they got: $4.4 trillion in federal benefits.
Continue readingDon’t mean…
to keep picking on Dodd, but he does seem to be in the center of quite a lot of things lately:
While the Senate was constructing the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009 -- which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are now seeking to tax.The amendment made it into the final version of the bill, and is law.
Separately, Sen. Dodd was AIG's largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle ...
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