While the ruling is likely to be appealed, possibly all the way to the Supreme Court, the head-scratching decision will undoubtedly have an effect on future bailouts, intended or unintended.
![Popcorn :pop:](./images/smilies/popcorn.gif)
Moderators: LawBeefaroni, $iljanus
While the ruling is likely to be appealed, possibly all the way to the Supreme Court, the head-scratching decision will undoubtedly have an effect on future bailouts, intended or unintended.
Geezus.LordMortis wrote:AIG sues the Government for harsh treatment and wins... but gets nothing for its troubles.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/busin ... .html?_r=1
But then:Judge Wheeler determined that Mr. Greenberg and the other shareholders did not suffer any economic damage because “if the government had done nothing, the shareholders would have been left with 100 percent of nothing.” The judge cited John Studzinski, vice chairman of the Blackstone Group and an adviser to A.I.G., who had instructed the board to accept the government’s offer in 2008, telling the room of directors: “Twenty percent of something [is] better than 100 percent of nothing.”
WTF?Inexplicably, that line of logic did not extend to the judge’s ruling that the government had unfairly taken advantage of A.I.G. by requiring tough loan terms, including the equity stake and a 12 percent interest rate.
I had the same thought, Me From Last November.El Guapo wrote:...fear of this battle station.
[That's what I hear in my head whenever I see this thread title]
After the statute of limitations has run out, I believe.LordMortis wrote:http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/poli ... /72959402/
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/5e70358d ... ail-crisis
The bailout man himself, says send them to jail... Well, now he does...
The former chief executive of a major Irish bank that was at the center of a banking scandal has been arrested in Massachusetts.
The United States Marshals Service and the United States attorney’s office said federal agents arrested the former executive, David Drumm, who once headed Anglo Irish Bank, on Saturday on an extradition warrant. They did not specify where Mr. Drumm was arrested or what charges he faces.
He is scheduled to appear on Tuesday in federal court in Boston.
Mr. Drumm, 48, was once one of Ireland’s most powerful and wealthy bankers. He was chief executive of the Anglo Irish Bank from 2005 to 2008, when its finances disintegrated in the global financial collapse. He left his post that year after disclosures that the bank’s chairman, Sean FitzPatrick, had received about $120 million in undisclosed personal loans from the bank.
Mr. Drumm fled to the Boston area in 2009 in the face of inquiries from the Irish authorities. He later filed for bankruptcy protection.
....There has also been a rebranding effort: Most lenders prefer to call these products “nonqualified mortgages” due to the stigma attached to the Alt-A category. By backing these loans, money managers said they would reach an underserved corner of the housing market: Borrowers who have good credit but might be self-employed or report income sporadically.
Naturally, everything is different this time around. Everyone is being careful. It's just a small piece of the market. Borrowers have to produce some documentation. So don't worry: things are going to be fine. Wall Street knows what it's doing. No need to concern your pretty little heads about this.
Israel has introduced one of the world’s toughest curbs on bank executives’ salaries in an effort to narrow a big pay gap between bosses and workers.
The legislation was pushed through by the finance minister, Moshe Kahlon, who, before last year’s parliamentary elections, ran on a platform of lowering the cost of living and reforming Israel’s banks. It was approved in parliament overnight in a 56-0 vote and will take effect in six months.
Bankers’ pay is a sensitive issue in Israel, especially since banks make large profits partly from a wide variety of fees on such things as deposits and withdrawals.
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Under the new law, which also applies to insurance companies, total compensation will be capped at 2.5 million shekels (£460,000) a year, or no more than 44 times the salary of the lowest worker at the company. Anything above the ceiling will be subject to higher taxes.
Senior bankers’ compensation has risen to as much as 8 million shekels a year, a big multiple of Israel’s average wage of 115,000 shekels.
Around $2M and $30K in USD. A downright quaint gap.Isgrimnur wrote:Israel
Senior bankers’ compensation has risen to as much as 8 million shekels a year, a big multiple of Israel’s average wage of 115,000 shekels.
I don't know if I like the law but I like the thinking. Perhaps this is related to why I 'm not offended by the potential of nationalizing (or eminent domianing, really) banks that are tied closely to government. Then this could be dictated by law in a non offensive manner as well. *shrug*noxiousdog wrote:I like that law, though I would raise the minimum wage, and then set executive compensation at no more than 20 times median salary.
I'd be shocked if they didn't have one already.tjg_marantz wrote:I'd open a janitorial outsource company real quick and work my way up.
A massive leak of documents exposes the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders and reveals how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies.
The leak also provides details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 more politicians and public officials around the world.
The cache of 11.5 million records shows how a global industry of law firms and big banks sells financial secrecy to politicians, fraudsters and drug traffickers as well as billionaires, celebrities and sports stars.
These are among the findings of a yearlong investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other news organizations.
What makes you think that things would ever work that way.LawBeefaroni wrote:No one will go to jail over this either, except maybe a reporter or someone associated with the leak.
Someone fetch my fainting couch.
The Panama Papers are an unprecedented leak of 11.5m files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The records were obtained from an anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ then shared them with a large network of international partners, including the Guardian and the BBC.
Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson has resigned, the deputy chair of Iceland's Progressive Party said Tuesday.
Gunnlaugsson had been under intense pressure to step down since leaked documents hacked from a Panamanian law firm revealed his links to an offshore company, triggering mass protests in the capital.
...
On Tuesday, Gunnlaugsson said he planned to dissolve parliament and call for fresh elections as soon as possible if lawmakers from his party's coalition partner -- the Independence Party -- did not support his government.
But after meeting with Gunnlaugsson, Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson said he would not consider the request to dissolve parliament before he had spoken with both parties in the coalition, according to Iceland's national public service broadcaster RUV.
Gunnlaugsson has led the island nation of 330,000 people since 2013, his Progressive Party governing in a center-right coalition government with the Independence Party.
An estimated 10,000 demonstrators -- a huge number considering the population -- packed the streets Monday evening outside parliament in Reykjavik as opposition lawmakers called for a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister.
At least eight top Chinese officials have been linked to offshore deals through their family members. So far the leak has revealed four names including president Xi Jinping and former premier Li Peng.
Beijing has been censoring online discussion of the massive leak since Monday (Apr. 4) morning. Posts about the news on Sina Weibo and WeChat have been deleted. Search results for “Panama” or “巴拿马” are entirely blocked on Weibo “in accordance with relevant laws, regulations and policies.” Before drawing censors, the discussion topic “Panama Papers” on Weibo had already garnered more than 2 million views.
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As public awareness of the leaks grew, the Russian government has called the media’s reaction to it “Putinophobia.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has stressed that the papers make no mention of Putin directly, and has questioned the report’s veracity:
Russian media has in turn highlighted David Cameron’s appearance in the papers, and argued that under-reporting his involvement shows inherent anti-Putin bias.We know this so-called journalistic community perfectly well, it is clear to us that a number of journalists who are part of it have hardly majored in journalism; there are many former representatives of the [US] State Department and the CIA, along with other intelligence agencies.
...
British prime minister David Cameron’s father Ian helped run “Blairmore Holdings,” a Bahamas investment fund named after the family’s Aberdeenshire family estate, for thirty years. It managed millions of dollars of money for wealthy Brits—and never paid any British income tax, the Guardian reported.
The situation is awkward, to say the least, for the current prime minister, who has been agitating for more transparency and an international crackdown on tax avoidance. When asked whether Cameron family money was invested in the fund, the prime minister’s spokesman called the situation a “private matter.”
The Pirate party is ahead in all the polls though, should be interesting if they get elected since there's one in Canada and the US as well.tjg_marantz wrote:The PM has resigned but still remains an MP. One of his cronies is now PM and they haven't dissolved anything. It's not over in Iceland. The rules are still trying to fuck everyone over.
linkDavid Cameron’s experience with the Panama Papers shows quite how little tax dodging is actually going on out there in the offshore world. The correct estimates of revenue loss are going to be much lower than the ones traditionally used. Whether we think of the Tax Justice Network’s $20 trillion of offshore assets or Gabriel Zucman’s $8.7 trillion, the losses from tax dodging are turning out to be very much lower than what they postulate. The reason for this is that as we can see, the income from David Cameron’s offshore foray was in fact all declared and tax paid on it, justly and righteously. And we haven’t got any evidence at all from the Panama Papers that that hasn’t been happening all over. We’ve got evidence of offshore structures, most assuredly we have. But not only haven’t we got any evidence of tax dodging all the evidence we do have points to less tax dodging than many think.
Without boosting enforcement, this bill is worse than useless...The Volcker Rule ban of certain investments by banks: gone. The power of regulators to take apart failing financial firms: gone. The Financial Stability Oversight Council’s ability to label firms that might endanger the wider financial system: gone. And among the most hotly contested provisions is a repeal of a provision that limited debit-card swipe fees.
Jammed with ideas familiar to those who have followed Hensarling’s campaign against the landmark legislation, the bill would also weaken the reach of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and replace its lone director with a commission. It would give Congress much more authority over the financial regulators’ budgets, and the agencies would have more hoops to jump through to justify their rules. Democrats have vocally defended the CFPB in recent days after it led regulators fining Wells Fargo.
Hensarling’s bill calls for allowing the Securities and Exchange Commission to triple monetary fines in cases where the penalties are tied to illegal profits and gives the agency authority to impose sanctions equal to investor losses in cases of fraud. It would also increase fines for individuals that engage in insider trading.
No, no democrat could go along with this bill. Some democrats could be persuaded to trim Dodd-Frank and other financial regulations around the edges, but no wholescale assault on Dodd-Frank would pick up more than one or two democratic votes.malchior wrote:This isnt only a GOP issue but they are certainly more in lockstep - several moderate Dems in both chambers will go along with this as long as it isnt an election year. The spice (Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street money in particular) must flow.