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The Real Economy Project Portal

Toxic Assets Getting You Down?

This article is part of the Real Economy Project. Take action at BanksterUSA.org.

The big banks on Wall Street have blown a hole in the economy that will take many years to repair. Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed Americans has risen to 16 million, Americans are losing health care and foreclosures are still rising. We are in a big hole and it is going to take big ideas to climb out of it.

As policymakers tackle financial-sector reforms and job creation programs, your voice is essential if the needs of Main Street America are to be prioritized over the narrow interests of Wall Street. The goal of our www.BanksterUSA.org website and our larger “Real Economy Project” is to give you a voice in these debates.

This is the portal page to a collection of editable wiki profiles of the bankers, financial companies, lobbyists, reformers, front groups, issues and legislation related to the financial crisis and the bank bailout. You can help us build this library and document the people and policies behind the financial crisis by visiting the "Help Out" section below. Don't let the Banskters write the history of this tumultuous time in America!(About/contact)

Take action to reform the financial industry at CMD's BanksterUSA site!

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News

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: Luntz Backs the Big Lie
February 3, 2010

Republicans are on the defensive. As we enter the 2010 election cycle, Republicans are a bit worried that Americans might remember how their maniacal push to deregulate Wall Street resulted in the collapse of the global economy on their watch. They need a new message to appeal to hard-hit voters. To the rescue comes renowned Republican strategist and spinmeister Frank Luntz. Luntz, who has been reprimanded by American Association for Public Opinion Research for his misleading polling work, advises Republicans to keep it simple: 1) Never minimize the pain of those suffering from the crisis; 2) Acknowledge the need for reform that ensures it never happens again; 3) Then lie, lie, lie. The killer lie? Characterize any meaningful Wall Street reform legislation as “the big bank bailout bill.” In reality, the financial reform package passed by the Democratic House of Representatives would create a mechanism for the resolution of failing financial institutions that would shift responsibility for any future bailout from the taxpayers to the largest financial institutions themselves. These institutions would prepay into a crisis fund, much like the FDIC’s long-standing fund for failing banks. Various Republican proposals to unwind these institutions are far more likely to leave taxpayers holding the bag.

SPECIAL RECOGNITION FOR SIFMA'S TURN PITCHFORKS INTO PLOUGHSHARES CAMPAIGN

The Center for Media and Democracy and BanksterUSA are pleased to present our Golden Throne Award to T. Timothy Ryan Jr., President and CEO of the Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA). SIFMA is the leading behind-the-scenes lobby group representing big banks and investment firms, as well as broker-dealers and other peddlers of financial instruments, which Warren Buffett labeled "weapons of mass destruction." SIFMA lobbies Congress and financial regulators, and handles securities-related press for some of the biggest players in the financial crisis--Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Fidelity Investments.

The Yes Men Punk Davos Man
February 1, 2010

Davos is a small resort town in Switzerland best known for hosting the World Economic Forum (WEF), an annual meeting of global political and business elites. Every year the biggest boosters of the "neoliberal" economic policy agenda of deregulation, unfettered global trade and strict IMF rules for poor countries, convene at Davos to pat each other on the back.

Now that these policies have almost brought the world to ruin, one would expect these global titans to be self-reflective and perhaps even apologetic? Mostly they were absent.

According to Slate: "JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who was slated to headline a panel about restoring corporate trust, didn't make it. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein stayed away. A few years ago, Citigroup owned Davos. Now its presence is spectral. Lehman Bros. and Merrill Lynch, former mainstays of the gathering, are bad memories."

Wall Street Fights Back
January 31, 2010

A group of pinstriped traders, upset with the bank-bashing rhetoric emanating from Washington, launched a Wall Street defense campaign the same morning that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was being grilled by Congress. According to Crain's business magazine the traders vowed to fight against further bank regulation and defend their right to "create wealth for the people." The group rallied about 150 folks across from the New York Stock Exchange. According to the New York Times: "The fact that virtually all of the virtually all-male attendees wore suits and ties did make the gathering perhaps the best-dressed rally in history." The feisty defenders of the Wall Street status quo kicked off their protest not on the street, but in the comfortable offices of John Thomas Financial, a three-year-old investment house. As CEO Thomas Belesis explained: "It's cold out." The event appeared to be a thinly veiled campaign rally for Bruce A. Blakeman, a Long Island Republican lawyer running for the United States Senate who contributed: "My friends, we can't kill the goose that laid the golden egg." To follow the antics of these reverse Robin Hoods visit Restore Wall Street.

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Help out!

The Real Economy Project needs volunteers to help document the people and policies behind the financial crisis and bank bailout. Help can be found at "welcome, newcomers!"; the main help page; and the FAQ.

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Featured wiki articles

New to wikis? Here's a video introduction.

Featured individual profile: Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren is chairperson of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which was created by Congress to "review the current state of financial markets and the regulatory system." She is also the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, which Ms. Warren chairs, was created to oversee the expenditure of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds authorized by Congress in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) and to provide recommendations on regulatory reform.

The idea for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency originated with Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel overseeing the U.S. banking bailout.

Quotes - On the middle class
"This is America's middle class. We've hacked at it and chipped at it and pulled on it for 30 years now. And now there's no more to do. Either we fix this problem going forward or the game really is over."

Full article

Bank profile: Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs, founded in 1869, describes itself as a "leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of services worldwide to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high net-worth individuals."

Goldman Sachs gave $478,250 to federal candidates in the 05/06 election period through its political action committee - 35% to Democrats and 65% to Republicans. The company spent $2,380,000 for lobbying in 2006. $1,031,250 went to nine outside lobbying firms with the remainder being spent using in-house lobbyists. The lobbying firms included DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, The Duberstein Group, and Vinson & Elkins.

Full article

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More resources

More help on uncovering the real economy:

Congressional Oversight Panel Takes Stock of the Financial Rescue: While TARP Helped Stop Economic Panic, Underlying Weaknesses in U.S. Financial System Remain
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Congressional Oversight Panel today released its December oversight report, "Taking Stock: What Has the Troubled Asset Relief Program Achieved?" The Panel concluded that TARP was an important part of a broader government strategy that stabilized the U.S. financial system. It is apparent after 14 months, however, that significant underlying weaknesses in the financial system remain.

Full story.

SubsidyScope, a project of the PEW Charitable Trusts, has a wealth of information, charts, graphs and datasets on the bank bailout, as well as a map of recipients of TARP bailout funds, by county. The map is here and their general financial bailout project page is here.

ProPublica's "Eye on the Bailout"
Tracking the bailout funds: "Our lists of recipients and programs deal only with expenditures by the Treasury Department – in other words, taxpayer money. We've included all such money allocated by Congress, both the broader $700 billion TARP bill and the separate $400 billion bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: a total of $1.1 trillion. But the Treasury hasn't been working alone – it's been putting up big money alongside the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Our entries for individual financial institutions and programs indicate when the Treasury has committed funds in conjunction with the Fed and/or FDIC, but for a complete accounting of the Fed's and FDIC's spending so far, see Subsidyscope. Most of the data shown in our project comes from the Treasury Department. But in a few cases, we've gathered information from other government agencies or press releases and regulatory filings from bailout recipients."

ProPublica also has a graphical "History of U.S. Government Bailouts" here and a useful "Bailout Timeline."