http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...out-funds.html
Banks Boosts CEO Pay by 34% as Bailout Loans Go Unpaid
Published on 02-24-2011
Source: Bloomberg
SunTrust Banks Inc., the Georgia lender that has yet to repay $4.85 billion in taxpayer bailout funds, reported a 34 percent increase in Chief Executive Officer James Wells’s 2010 compensation.
Wells’s total $10.3 million included $4.5 million in pay to be collected later, primarily boosted by the changing value of his pension benefits, the bank said today in a regulatory filing. He received $4.6 million in stock, more than three times as much as the previous year, it said. His salary was unchanged at $1.1 million, and he didn’t get a cash bonus or stock options. The bank reported a $3.3 million option award for 2009.
SunTrust, led by Wells since January of 2007, returned to quarterly profits last year for the first time since 2008 as it set aside less money to cover bad loans. The company may sell stock to repay funds received under the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, Wells, 64, told analysts last month.
He declined more than 552,900 stock options that were awarded for 2009, according to the filing. Had he accepted the grant, his total compensation for 2010 would have fallen 37 percent from the year earlier, the Atlanta-based company said.
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http://dailybail.com/home/bombshell-...xpayers-t.html
...Goldman Sachs Got Billions From Taxpayers Thru AIG For Its OWN Account, Crisis Panel Finds; Contradicting SWORN Testimony From Execs
Published on 02-24-2011 Email To Friend Print Version
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Source: Huffington Post
Goldman Sachs collected $2.9 billion from the American International Group as payout on a speculative trade it placed for the benefit of its own account, receiving the bulk of those funds after AIG received an enormous taxpayer rescue, according to the final report of an investigative panel appointed by Congress.
The fact that a significant slice of the proceeds secured by Goldman through the AIG bailout landed in its own account--as opposed to those of its clients or business partners-- has not been previously disclosed. These details about the workings of the controversial AIG bailout, which eventually swelled to $182 billion, are among the more eye-catching revelations in the report to be released Thursday by the bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
The details underscore the degree to which Goldman--the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history--benefited directly from the massive emergency bailout of the nation's financial system, a deal crafted on the watch of then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who had previously headed the bank.
"If these allegations are correct, it appears to have been a direct transfer of wealth from the Treasury to Goldman's shareholders," said Joshua Rosner, a bond analyst and managing director at independent research consultancy Graham Fisher & Co., after he was read the relevant section of the report. "The AIG counterparty bailout, which was spun as necessary to protect the public, seems to have protected the institution at the expense of the public."
Goldman and AIG both declined to comment.
When news first broke in 2009 that Goldman had been an indirect beneficiary of the AIG bailout, collecting the full value of some $14 billion in outstanding insurance polices it held with the firm, the officials who brokered the deal justified these terms as a necessary stabilizer for the broader financial system. As the world's largest insurance company, AIG's inability to cover its outstanding obligations could have threatened the solvency of the institutions holding its policies, asserted the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which oversaw the deal.
Goldman fended off claims that the arrangement amounted to a backdoor bailout by asserting that none of the money from the AIG rescue landed in its own coffers. Rather, those funds went to compensate clients or institutions on the other side of its trades, Goldman said....
IMF =Bank
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/2...global-growth/
IMF says weaker dollar would help global growth
Source: AFP
The International Monetary Fund called for a weaker dollar to help the United States reduce its deficits with the rest of the world and rebalance the global economy, in a report released Wednesday.
In the report prepared for a Group of 20 finance chiefs meeting last week, the IMF said that its calculations showed the dollar remains "on the strong side" of medium-term fundamentals, while the euro and the Japanese yen were "broadly in line" and several Asian currencies, including China, were undervalued.
To address global imbalances, the G20 should allow the dollar to fall, the Washington-based institution said.
"Some further real effective depreciation of the US dollar would help ensure a sustained decline of the US current account deficit towards a level more consistent with medium-term fundamentals, helping to support more balanced growth," the IMF said.
The widening US current account deficit -- a broad measure of trade in goods, services, income and payment -- rose a fifth straight quarter in the third quarter last year, to $127.2 billion, according to the latest US official data.
The issue of a weak dollar is particularly sensitive in Brazil, where the government has said an international "currency war" is under way with the United States pumping cheap dollars into its post-crisis economy, while China's yuan sinks in tandem.