a couple months ago there was CSPAN program looking at congressional financing that mentioned in the session that repealed Glass-Steagall, the financial industry made $250m in contributions and in the session that approved $800B TARP, there was $2B in contributions from financial industry. More recently there was report that there was a total of $5B in funds from the financial industry during the period (nearly evenly divided between the two parties).
Posted by Lynn Wheeler at April 3, 2009 09:56 AMadditional articles about the FASB rule change:
The FASB Rally: More Dishonest Breathing Room For Banks
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-ticker/2009/04/02/the-fasb-rally-more-dishonest-breathing-room-for-banks.html
Mark To Market Eased: Making A Silk Purse From A Sow's Ear? Example Included Below
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977645377&grpId=3659174697241980&nav=Groupspace
Why We Need to Keep Mark to Market
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/blog/2009/04/why-we-need-to-keep-mark-to-market.html
from above:
Investors once believed that U.S. markets were sufficiently protected from political pressure and manipulation by a system of interlocking independent agencies and rule-making bodies -- some government-run, some not. That system is being dismantled, piece by piece, by political jawboning and rushed rule rewrites. Now, investors find themselves with fewer protections and weakened protectors.
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and ...
FHLB, the ‘B’ stands for Bowsher
http://v2.ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/03/54461/fhlb-the-b-stands-for-bowsher/
Seattle FHLB Had ‘Material Weaknesses’ in Internal Controls
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aoY83b_uD0ek
older post mentioning magnitude of problem:
Bank's Hidden Junk Menaces $1 Trillion Purge
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=akv_p6LBNIdw&refer=home
from above:
So investors betting for quick solutions to the financial crisis could be disappointed. The tangled web that banks wove over the years will take a long time to undo.
At the end of 2008, for example, off-balance-sheet assets at just the four biggest U.S. banks -- Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. -- were about $5.2 trillion, according to their 2008 annual filings.
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Mayo Says Loan Losses Will Exceed Depression Levels
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a1yCkrhVtOks&refer=home
from above:
Banks committed the “seven deadly sins” of banking in trying to compensate for lower natural growth rates and will now feel the costs of those actions, Mayo wrote.
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