Obama Back - MoveOn.org

MoveOn members send a message to Obama: NO to Millionaire Bailouts. We miss you. Stand up and fight the millionaire bailout. We'll fight with you.

Move Your Money to Smaller, Community-Oriented Banks - moveyourmoney.info

Read original...

People all over the country are choosing to move their money out of bigger banks and into smaller, community-oriented financial institutions that generally avoided the reckless investments and schemes that helped cause the financial crisis.

Fueled by the personal initiatives of thousands, it’s a grassroots effort that has the potential to shift power in the financial system away from Wall Street and to Main Street.

Check out the video, read up on what inspired the idea, connect with others through Facebook and Twitter and then use the tools and links provided to find a community bank or credit union in your area.

Chairman Towns Probes AIG’s Use of Public Relations Firms...

Read original...

U.S. Representative Edolphus “Ed” Towns (D-NY), the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is demanding information from American International Group (AIG) about the company’s retention of outside public relations firms to help determine whether federal bailout dollars were used to pay public relations firms to attack critics of AIG and the Federal bailout.

Chairman Towns today wrote current AIG Chairman and CEO Edward M. Liddy about this issue after hearing allegations that AIG may have contacted the news media and others to attack the credibility of former AIG Chairman and CEO Maurice Greenberg on the eve of Mr. Greenberg testifying before the Committee during its April 2, 2009 hearing on the collapse and Federal rescue of AIG.

The letter states, “I would be extremely disappointed to learn that any of the billions of taxpayer dollars invested to support AIG may have been diverted to finance a public relations campaign against critics of the AIG bailout. In my view, these allegations warrant further inquiry to ensure that Federal funds are not being misused.”

Since September 16, 2008, the United States Government has provided AIG $182.5 billion in financial bailout funds and Chairman Towns, “is determined to ensure that the taxpayer’s investment in AIG is both protected and used as intended.” Chairman Towns is asking that the information and records requested in the letter, which will aid in the Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Federal bailout, be delivered no later than Tuesday, April 28, 2009.

Text of the letter:

April 14, 2009

Mr. Edward M. Liddy
Chairman and CEO
American International Group, Inc.
70 Pine Street
New York, NY 10270

Dear Mr. Liddy:

Since September 16, 2008, the United States government has provided $182.5 billion in financial assistance to American International Group (AIG). As Chairman of this committee, I am determined to ensure that the taxpayer’s investment in AIG is both protected and used as intended.

In that regard, on April 2, 2009, we held the first of a series of hearings on the collapse and Federal rescue of AIG. In testimony provided to the Committee at that hearing, former AIG Chairman and CEO Maurice Greenberg critiqued the AIG bailout and his successors’ management of the company.

On the eve of the hearing, the Committee was surprised to hear allegations that AIG was contacting the news media and others to attack Mr. Greenberg’s credibility, and circulating an anonymous paper entitled “The Greenberg Legacy”. I would be extremely disappointed to learn that any of the billions of taxpayer dollars invested to support AIG may have been diverted to finance a public relations campaign against critics of the AIG bailout. In my view, these allegations warrant further inquiry to ensure that federal funds are not being misused.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Under Rules X and XI of the House Rules, the Committee is investigating allegations that taxpayer funds invested by the federal government in AIG may have been used to pay public relations firms to attack critics of AIG and the federal bailout. To aid in this investigation, please provide the following information and records. For purposes of this request please exclude information pertaining to routine, product-related advertising and similar business-related promotional activities.

According to PR Week, AIG has retained Burson-Marsteller, a public relations firm, to represent it on federal bailout-related matters. If that is correct, please provide the following information for all periods on or after September 16, 2008:

• a. Dates of Burson-Marsteller engagement by AIG, beginning with September 16, 2008.
• b.Purpose of the engagement.
• c. A list of all Burson-Marsteller personnel who have performed work in connection with AIG’s engagement of Burson-Marsteller;
• d. A list of all Burson-Marsteller subcontractors, if any, that may have performed work in connection with AIG’s engagement of Burson-Marsteller, together with the purpose of each subcontractor’s work;
• e. Copies of all engagement letters, contracts, and other agreements between AIG and Burson-Marsteller, and all amendments, revisions, work orders, or other modifications thereto;
• f. Copies of all memoranda, white papers, or other materials provided to AIG by Burson-Marsteller;
• g. Copies of all bills AIG has received from Burson-Marsteller since September 16, 2008, including all narrative explanations of such bills; and
• h. All payments made by AIG to Burson-Marsteller since September 16, 2008, listed by date and amount paid.

2. We understand that AIG has also retained Hill & Knowlton, a public relations firm, to represent it. If that is correct, please provide the following information for all periods on or after September 16, 2008:

• a. Dates of Hill & Knowlton engagement by AIG, beginning with September 16, 2008.
• b. Purpose of the engagement.
• c. A list of all Hill & Knowlton personnel who have performed work in connection with AIG’s engagement of Hill & Knowlton;
• d. A list of all Hill & Knowlton subcontractors, if any, that may have performed work in connection with AIG’s engagement of Hill & Knowlton, together with the purpose of each subcontractor’s work;
• e. Copies of all engagement letters, contracts, and other agreements between AIG and Hill & Knowlton, and all amendments, revisions, work orders, or other modifications thereto;
• f. Copies of all memoranda, white papers, or other materials provided to AIG by Hill & Knowlton;
• g. Copies of all bills AIG has received from Hill & Knowlton since September 16, 2008, including all narrative explanations of such bills; and
• h. All payments made by AIG to Hill & Knowlton since September 16, 2008, listed by date and amount paid.

3. Please provide a list of all other firms or individuals AIG has engaged to address criticism of the AIG bailout and/or the performance of AIG management since September 16, 2008. For each such firm, please provide the following information:

• a. Dates of engagement;
• b. Purpose of engagement;
• c. A list of all subcontractors, if any, that may have performed work in connection with AIG’s engagement since September 16, 2008, together with the purpose of each subcontractor’s work;
• d. Copies of all engagement letters, contracts, and other agreements between AIG and such firms or individuals entered into on or after September 16, 2008, and all amendments, revisions, work orders, or other modifications thereto;
• e. Copies of all memoranda, white papers, or other materials provided to AIG by such firms or individuals;
• f. Copies of all bills AIG has received from such firms or individuals since September 16, 2008, including all narrative explanations of such bills
• g. All payments made by AIG to such firms or individuals since September 16, 2008, listed by date and amount paid.

4. Was the paper, “The Greenberg Legacy”, authored and circulated by, or at the behest of, AIG? If so, please identify all outside contractors who had a role in the creation, review, or distribution of that paper.

Please deliver the requested information and records to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, room 2157 Rayburn House Office Building, no later than 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28, 2009. To facilitate delivery and review, we prefer that the records be delivered in electronic format, if possible. In responding to this request, please be advised that the terms “records” and “relating to” are defined in the attachment to this letter.

Should you have any questions regarding this request, please contact me or John Arlington of the Committee staff at 202-225-5051.

Sincerely,

Edolphus Towns
Chairman

Popular Anger Puts Fat Cat CEOs on the Run by Agence France Presse Posted on CommonDreams.org

Read original...

NEW YORK — An angry US public and Congress are pushing to snip the rip cord on golden parachutes used by fat cat CEOs to escape Wall Street's mayhem.

Start of the Rally at Bowling Green Park

Democrats in Congress -- set to resume emergency talks Friday with their Republican counterparts on a 700-billion-dollar (478-billion-euro) bailout for the financial industry -- insisted that any agreed package include restrictions on executive pay.


They caught the mood of a nation sickened at watching the titans of finance walk away from Wall Street disasters not only unscathed, but enriched. "The wealthiest people, those... in the best position to pay, are being asked for no sacrifice at all," read a petition to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, which by Thursday, after three days, had 32,600 signatures.

Press Conference at Bowling Green

The petition, organized by independent Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, attacked what it described as the Treasury's attempt to let bungling executives "continue to make exorbitant salaries and bonuses."


Those gigantic pay checks, bonuses, and Midas-like farewells encapsulate what the public sees as Wall Street's greed-is-good philosophy.


For example, the CEO of bankrupt Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld, received total compensation of 71.9 million dollars in 2007, including stock, bonuses and other pay, according to a survey published by Forbes magazine.

Code Pink Co-Founders Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin

That's me behind the mask as a Wall Street CEO

Martin Sullivan, the chief executive of AIG, who left the insurance giant before it was rescued this month by the federal government, received 14 million dollars, a survey in USA Today said. He also quit with a severance package worth 47 million dollars.

Me again...

Even punishment for those at the center of the chaos comes with a gold lining.

Code Pink on Wall Street

When the government took over collapsed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ousted bosses Daniel Mudd and Richard Syron were not allowed 12.59 million dollars worth in severance payments.

Federal Hall, New York City

Queens Activist Sol McCants

Yet they still got out the door with 9.43 million dollars in retirement benefits.


Public anger at such figures underlies skepticism about the entire government rescue.

Demonstrators in front of the NY Stock Exchange at Wall and Broad Streets

"We'll never see that money again," said Mathew May, a 24-year-old economics student attending a small demonstration near the New York Stock Exchange. "They deregulated the markets and ran wild. Now we're bailing them out."Arun Gupta, an editor of alternative New York newspaper The Indypendent, said there was "socialism for the rich and dog-eat-dog capitalism for the rest of us."


"Think about it," Gupta wrote in an email that quickly circulated to thousands of activists and inspired the New York street protest. "They said providing healthcare for nine million children, perhaps costing six billion dollars a year, was too expensive, but there's evidently no sum of money large enough that will sate the Wall Street pigs."


And left-wingers are not the only ones speaking out.


Newt Gingrich, the fiercely conservative former speaker in the House of Representatives, wrote in the National Review that the bailouts, likely to top a trillion dollars, smack of "crony capitalism."


"Doesn't that mean that we're using the taxpayers' money to hire people to save their friends with even more taxpayer money?" he asked.


Forbes, the magazine for and about the rich, also said enough was enough.


"The compensation schemes for Wall Street CEOs should be capped to a small fixed amount," wrote national editor Robert Lenzner.


"The rest should be dependent on performance in a way that does not reward taking greater risk than is prudent. If CEOs don't perform, they should get nothing."



One worker in the New York finance sector, who asked not to be named, said his colleagues were as angry as the general public.

Mike

"A lot of people are very upset that managers in their own companies and captains of industry in other areas made some really, really bad decisions," he said.



"The most insulting thing is the golden parachutes where these jackals from Fannie and Freddie, having destroyed the company, walked away with millions.... It all comes down to greed."

The crowd dispersing down Broad Street