Tag: Secretary Paulson

News that couldn’t wait – Paulson considering bailout of insurance companies UPDATED Will US have a pot to pee in if Paulson keeps spending on his friends?

UPDATE: An afterthought of finding more versions of this story as I continued reading tonight is that a better title for this post might have been “Will the US have a pot to pee in if Paulson keeps spending on his friends?” (see the updated news below)

I picked the story up over at All finance and couldn’t wait wait to get it up – not to mention it makes me sick to think about Paulson using some of the taxpayers money to bailout the insurance industry’s bad investments.

The U.S. Treasury Department is studying how it could give relief to insurance companies under a $700 billion financial services rescue package, two sources familiar with the deliberations said on Friday.

Last week, the Treasury tried to squash rumors the government was preparing to give bond and mortgage insurance companies a capital injection. But senior officials are considering how the Treasury might be able to aid state-regulated insurance companies, the sources said.

The Treasury so far has used capital powers to aid only federally regulated institutions. But the program, known as TARP, could be used to buy sour assets from other financial companies and help them scrub their balance sheets.

It takes a sick mind to come up with TARP as the name of a program to bailout the insurance industry – CRAP would be my suggestion. Continue reading “News that couldn’t wait – Paulson considering bailout of insurance companies UPDATED Will US have a pot to pee in if Paulson keeps spending on his friends?”

News that couldn't wait – Paulson considering bailout of insurance companies UPDATED Will US have a pot to pee in if Paulson keeps spending on his friends?

UPDATE: An afterthought of finding more versions of this story as I continued reading tonight is that a better title for this post might have been “Will the US have a pot to pee in if Paulson keeps spending on his friends?” (see the updated news below)

I picked the story up over at All finance and couldn’t wait wait to get it up – not to mention it makes me sick to think about Paulson using some of the taxpayers money to bailout the insurance industry’s bad investments.

The U.S. Treasury Department is studying how it could give relief to insurance companies under a $700 billion financial services rescue package, two sources familiar with the deliberations said on Friday.

Last week, the Treasury tried to squash rumors the government was preparing to give bond and mortgage insurance companies a capital injection. But senior officials are considering how the Treasury might be able to aid state-regulated insurance companies, the sources said.

The Treasury so far has used capital powers to aid only federally regulated institutions. But the program, known as TARP, could be used to buy sour assets from other financial companies and help them scrub their balance sheets.

It takes a sick mind to come up with TARP as the name of a program to bailout the insurance industry – CRAP would be my suggestion. Continue reading “News that couldn't wait – Paulson considering bailout of insurance companies UPDATED Will US have a pot to pee in if Paulson keeps spending on his friends?”

Interactive graphic of Paulson’s Wall Street network

In following links on my late Friday afternoon read-around, I found this interactive graphic of Secretary Paulson’s finance network that I thought would be interesting to others.

If it sometimes seems that Wall Street is a small world, well, it is. For all its global reach, and for all the bitter conflict in recent months, where, for example, Lehman Brothers was left to tumble into bankruptcy while American International Group was bailed out, these are people who know each other, often well. Nowhere are the ties more evident than with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Many of the CEOs of companies touched by the financial crisis have links to him. Some, such as Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, have direct connections via that company, which Paulson used to head. Others connect through a network of fellow CEOs.

This graphic shows where those CEOs fit into Paulson’s network starting as recently as in 2003. Connections include employment at the same company or a position on the same board of directors, but not necessarily at the same time. We did not include every company at which these CEOs have worked – just those within this network. We also omitted ties to community and social organizations as well as instances in which CEOs simultaneously held other positions at a company such as board chairman.

Take a look and see what you think.

Interactive graphic of Paulson's Wall Street network

In following links on my late Friday afternoon read-around, I found this interactive graphic of Secretary Paulson’s finance network that I thought would be interesting to others.

If it sometimes seems that Wall Street is a small world, well, it is. For all its global reach, and for all the bitter conflict in recent months, where, for example, Lehman Brothers was left to tumble into bankruptcy while American International Group was bailed out, these are people who know each other, often well. Nowhere are the ties more evident than with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Many of the CEOs of companies touched by the financial crisis have links to him. Some, such as Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, have direct connections via that company, which Paulson used to head. Others connect through a network of fellow CEOs.

This graphic shows where those CEOs fit into Paulson’s network starting as recently as in 2003. Connections include employment at the same company or a position on the same board of directors, but not necessarily at the same time. We did not include every company at which these CEOs have worked – just those within this network. We also omitted ties to community and social organizations as well as instances in which CEOs simultaneously held other positions at a company such as board chairman.

Take a look and see what you think.