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Four years after Lehman Brothers collapse, financial industry still works its political will
By Bill Allison Sep 14, 2012 12:55 p.m.Like the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that touched off World War I, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the largest underwriter of bonds backed by subprime loans when it declared bankruptcy on Sept. 15, 2008, was an event whose repercussions extended far beyond its executives, investors and creditors. It touched off a financial crisis that's affected employment and earnings of the middle class.
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The bailout makes a move towards transparency
By Ryan Sibley Mar 19, 2010 9:29 p.m.Today, in a huge win for transparency, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled that the Federal Reserve Board must disclose records containing information about how it intervened to bail out banks during the financial crisis.
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Follow the (Airport) Money
By Bill Allison Oct 7, 2009 6:30 p.m.Over the past five years, the Federal Aviation Administration has handed out nearly $18 billion in grants for almost 19,000 airport projects. In theory, these projects -- funded through the FAA's Airport Improvement Program -- are supposed to enhance safety or protect the environment. In fact, according to a Subsidyscope analysis of FAA data (neatly assembled into a searchable database by Sunlight's Kaitlin Lee), a fair amount of money has gone toward the building of parking lots and other questionable things.
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GM, Chrysler to cut 3,000 campaign contributors
By Bill Allison May 13, 2009 10:47 p.m....er...dealers:
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The unbearable opacity of TARP: Government agencies can't tell us who's in charge
By Anupama Narayanswamy Apr 28, 2009 4:32 p.m.The new report to Congress from SIGTARP -- the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program -- begins by noting that TARP has evolved into "12 separate, but often interrelated, programs involving government and private funds of up to almost $3 trillion" of an "unprecedented scope, scale, and complexity." The report highlighted the possibilities of fraud and conflicts on interest in the bailout process and calls for better disclosure. We continue to find that even some of the most elementary details about the program -- like who is actually managing distribution of the bailout money to financial institutions -- is still shrouded in secrecy.
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Bailout Watch debuts from Open the Government
By Bill Allison Apr 22, 2009 10:52 p.m.File this one under useful tools -- our friends at Open the Government have launched Bailout Watch, a compendium of resources on TARP, Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and other places. I like the Expert Exchange page.
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Who's manning the TARP desk?
By Anupama Narayanswamy Apr 10, 2009 5:54 p.m.Less than half a dozen people are responsible for making the final decisions about which banks get part of the $700 billion in bailout money available through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to Department of Treasury officials. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request made by the Sunlight Foundation in January for the members of the TARP Investment Committee, a FOIA officer recently responded with just four names, including Assistant Secretary, Neel Kashkari; Chief Investment Officer, James Lambright; Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets, Karthik Ramanathan and Acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy, Ralph Monaco, all holdovers from the Bush administration.
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K Street Boom: At least 1,699 new clients in 2009
By Bill Allison Apr 1, 2009 6:21 p.m.Lobbying firms and special interests have filed nearly 1,700 new registration forms so far in the first quarter of 2009, according to a review of lobbying disclosure forms available online at the Senate Office of Public Records. As the federal government pumps up spending and intervenes in the troubled financial markets, K Street firms appear to have had no shortage of new business.
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Bloomberg: Dodd faces campaign cash shortage
By Bill Allison Apr 1, 2009 6:20 p.m.Kristin Jensen and Jonathan D. Salant report that Sen. Christopher Dodd is facing a cash crunch as he gears up for his reelection bid:
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A trillion here, a trillion there...
By Bill Allison Mar 31, 2009 9:33 p.m."History teaches us that an outlay of so much money in such a short period of time will inevitably attract those seeking to profit criminally," the Hill quotes Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, saying.
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AIG bundled for Dodd
By Bill Allison Mar 30, 2009 3:13 p.m.Jennifer Haberkorn reports in the Washington Times:
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Must everything be earmarked?
By Bill Allison Mar 29, 2009 1:45 p.m.Columnist George Will argues that the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 -- the bailout bill that set up TARP, is unconstitutional because it delegates legislative power to the executive branch:
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Freddie Mac records exempt from FOIA
By Bill Allison Mar 26, 2009 2:24 p.m.Bob Secter and Andrew Zajac of the Chicago Tribune report that, while researching what went at Freddie Mac during the period White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel served on the board of directors of Freddie Mac, they were unable to get minutes of board meetings and other information:
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Give a dollar to a pol, get $18,195 back
By Bill Allison Mar 25, 2009 3:13 a.m.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,
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