Filed under: Bank Bailouts, Goldman Sachs — admin @ 1:29 pm
Ruth Lee
When I heard this last nite, I almost choked on the modest yet well-rounded chicken dinner I made for my family. How is this possible? We give Goldman Sachs $10 BILLION in October… they make $2.3 BILLION in profit for the year… yet they only pay a TOTAL of $14 MILLION in taxes – or 1% tax rate. Does anyone else feel like a big sucker?
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Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which got $10 billion and debt guarantees from the U.S. government in October, expects to pay $14 million in taxes worldwide for 2008 compared with $6 billion in 2007.
“The company’s effective income tax rate dropped to 1 percent from 34.1 percent, New York-based Goldman Sachs said today in a statement. The firm reported a $2.3 billion profit for the year after paying $10.9 billion in employee compensation and benefits.
“Goldman Sachs, which today reported its first quarterly loss since going public in 1999, lowered its rate with more tax credits as a percentage of earnings and because of “changes in geographic earnings mix,” the company said.
“The rate decline looks “a little extreme,” said Robert Willens, president and chief executive officer of tax and accounting advisory firm Robert Willens LLC.”
Read the full story: “Goldman Sachs’s Tax Rate Drops to 1%, or $14 Million”
Crooks and their crooked grins:
Stumble it!
Filed under: Bank Bailouts, Foreclosure — admin @ 10:37 am
Ruth Lee
Today leading Congressional Dems join with a growing Rep consensus in questioning the authorization of the second half of the $700b to Paulsen without conditions that he use some or part of the money to shore up against foreclosures. So far the bailout has been a lot of money (with only $20b of the initial $350b uncommitted) with little results. I don’t think anyone was really thinking it would be a magic wand that would ratchet the economy out of a recession – but something – some result would have been dandy. As of today, there has been no relief in credit markets… which are virtually frozen. There has also been no relief in foreclosures…which are at the heart of losses for banks, exacerbated by the effect on property values. It has been officially announced that the economy has been in recession since Dec 07 (quel surprise!). And today we learned that last month our economy shed over half a million jobs…the most in over 30 years.
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Stumble it!
Filed under: Bank Bailouts — admin @ 4:00 pm
LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR TREASURY AUTHORITY
TO PURCHASE MORTGAGE-RELATED ASSETS
Section 1. Short Title.
This Act may be cited as ____________________.
Sec. 2. Purchases of Mortgage-Related Assets.
(a) Authority to Purchase.–The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States.
(b) Necessary Actions.–The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation:
(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;
(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;
(3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;
(4) establishing vehicles that are authorized, subject to supervision by the Secretary, to purchase mortgage-related assets and issue obligations; and
(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities of this Act.
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Stumble it!
Filed under: Bank Bailouts — admin @ 3:58 pm
CNN Money ran an opinion piece this week called “Be ticked off - but get over it.” :
“Americans are very angry about the proposed bailout of the banking sector and Wall Street…and with good reason. There should be outrage. We should all be disgusted that the government was forced into this situation. I’m infuriated that it came to this.
Of course, we should cap executive pay, which was obscene at many financial firms, immediately. And we should make sure that the CEOs, CFOs and other big wigs that drove their companies into near ruin with overleveraged bets on risky mortgages should not get big severance packages.
But make no mistake. The alternative that many CNNMoney.com readers seem to be calling for - i.e. let all the banks and Wall Street crash and burn - is not viable. In fact, it’s incredibly short-sighted.
So once the blind rage subsides, people will hopefully take a long-hard look at what the government has proposed and come to the realization that doing nothing to rid the nation’s banks of all the poisonous mortgage assets on their balance sheets would be far far worse.”
Unfortunately, for the American taxpayer, getting mad is a realistic by-product Wall Street and banking firm’s of the excess and mismanagement of the mortgage market.
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Stumble it!
