Senators held stock in bailed-out banks

[seafan]

Source: The Hill

Senators who oversee the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package held stocks in many of the banks bailed out towards the end of last year, according to financial disclosure reports released Friday.
According to the reports detailing senators’ finances in 2008, nearly half of the members of the Senate Banking Committee had holdings in financial institutions that have taken funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The panel has jurisdiction over the bailout fund and other relief efforts directed by federal regulators to save the nation’s financial system.

For example, Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), a Banking panel member, has assets in several banks that have taken bailout funds. Along with Goldman Sachs, the senator has several assets in Bank of America funds, worth at least $115,00. Bank of America has received $45 billion in government funds.

Another Democrat invested in bailed-out institutions is Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.). Schumer has assets valued between $15,001 and $50,000 in Morgan Stanley and $1,001 to $15,000 in Citibank, according to his financial disclosure report. Morgan Stanley received $10 billion in TARP money while Citigroup was given $25 billion from the program.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), another Banking Committee member, also invested in some of the banks that received federal money. In a separate trust that the senator does not oversee, Kohl had assets valued between $15,001 and $50,000 and another valued from $1,001 to $15,001 in JP MorganChase funds, which received $25 billion in bailout money.

Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/senators-held-stock-in-bailed-out-banks-2009-06-12.html

---

Welcome, sunshine.

[checks-n-balances]

1. K & R - although it really makes me sick.

Why am I not surprised?

[indimuse]

2. no repigz??

right. :eyes:

[zbdent]

7. isn't "The Hill" a repig lovefest?

That would explain why there's no "Repugniconvicts" on the list or spotlighted ...

[progressoid]

17. From the article...

Few Republicans on the committee have significant holdings in companies that have received federal bailout money.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) holds stock valued at between $1,001 and $15,000 in Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and JP MorganChase. He sold stock in Citigroup in March, after the stock had experienced significant losses from highs a year before, and in Wells Fargo in April, when it was below, but near, recent highs.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) still owns small amounts of stock in Regions Bank, based in Alabama, and Zions Bancorporation, a Salt Lake City company. Both have received TARP money, according to a Treasury Department report.

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) sold three-dozen investments he had in various mutual funds and individual retirement accounts run by Morgan Stanley, though he does not have money invested directly in firms that were bailed out.

etc....

[MasonJar]

3. generally those amounts are fairly insignificant. What we need to know

is how much they each received in campaign donations.

[bertman]

14. I agree totally, MasonJar. Part of the problem is that many of us on DU, and indeed, many

of us American citizens, don't feel that having a $1,500, $15,000, or $30,000 investment in ANY bank, investment corp, etc. is insignificant.

Most of our Senators are well-off, if not downright wealthy, so it's a bit disengenuous to expect them to have no investments in groups they might regulate. The problem is that we cannot expect many of them to separate their campaign benefactors' interests from the interests of the citizens of our nation.

[seafan]

4. The ugly truth about who profits at the people's expense

Behold, our leaders.

.....

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) holds stock valued at between $1,001 and $15,000 in Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and JP MorganChase. He sold stock in Citigroup in March, after the stock had experienced significant losses from highs a year before, and in Wells Fargo in April, when it was below, but near, recent highs.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) still owns small amounts of stock in Regions Bank, based in Alabama, and Zions Bancorporation, a Salt Lake City company. Both have received TARP money, according to a Treasury Department report.

And Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) owns shares of Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase, though they are tiny parts of his larger fortune. However Johanns was not yet a member of Congress when the TARP vote occurred.
Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) sold three-dozen investments he had in various mutual funds and individual retirement accounts run by Morgan Stanley, though he does not have money invested directly in firms that were bailed out.

.....

It is likely that Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) has significant holdings in many companies that have received government aid. According to his 2008 personal financial disclosure, Corker, a wealthy businessman with a wide-ranging portfolio, had interests in more than a dozen bailed-out companies.
Corker filed for an extension, as he did in 2008, and does not have to turn in his report until August 13. Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) also filed for an extension until August.

Like Corker and Bennett, three Democrats sitting on the panel asked for extensions in filing their financial disclosure reports. Freshmen Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) along with the committee’s chairman, Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), are expected to file their reports in August.

Not a good day for Senator Dodd, who is one of the major players in our health care "reform"..


Dodd's wife serves on health care company boards



The leeches are killing the patients.

[Golden Raisin]

5. It's the "Captain Renault" Syndrome (CASABLANCA)

Rick: "How can you close me up? On what grounds?"

Captain Renault: "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"



Croupier: "Your winnings, sir."

Captain Renault: "Oh, thank you very much."



Captain Renault: "Everybody out at once!"

[bvar22]

6. Conflict of Interest?

LOL

That is as "quaint" as the Geneva Conventions.

[earcandle]

8. You know how they go back years for some crimes, lets go back years for all of the reps and senators

Lets go back to Ronald Reagan and audit all years of all
current players in our government system and look at the
money.
Most of the people mentioned seemed to be within a reasonable
amount to me but that amount could have been manipulated
and moved. 

new news:  Discover card said they are now either turning
defaulted credit card debt over to a collector for money, or
they will 1099 the parties who default and expense the loan. 
It will become income to me.  Bring it on, I said.  I would
love to pay the taxes and not have a bad record, which isn't
my fault.  I am not responsible for the corruption that has
shrunk my little accounting and communications firm.  I get no
regular unemployment.  I get nada, unless I get business.  I
am not giving what little I get to the banks and they
completely understand.  Most of them want to get off of the
phone when they talk to me.  Most hang in for the ride, and
are interested in what is going on. I refer them to this site.
 

Anyway.... we are on our way.   It could take minutes, to days
to years, but the pendulum has begun to swing to the other
side.  Thing is we have to find balance and stop cutting our
throats off with this ax, like come kind of ritual that cannot
be stopped.

Come on, folks.  Put down the weapons.  Shake hands.  Go with
the Obama movement and then things will break up in more
manageable bits as long as we have some programs to
rehabilitate the people. places and things we damaged. 

Yes, clean up the damage.  Do your job. 

or Get Out.

I liked it so much better when I could turn "Get
Out" into a link. now you have to deal with this ugly
http://www.earcandleproductions.com/Get_Out.mp3

its got a nice line about "do your job" 

don't you just hate it when people whine and cover up in the
workplace? 
and admire those who live outside of the inside and are free? 
Obama is more the later... but he is smoker!  How do we get
him off cigs? 
What are Michelle and the kids doing to help him quit? 

[seafan]

9. On today's breaking news page--- evidence for voters' unadulterated disgust with Congress.

Senators who opposed tobacco bill received top dollar from industry, June 11, 2009

Key health care senators have industry ties, June 12, 2009

Senators held stock in bailed-out banks, June 12, 2009

[high density]

10. These amounts seem like pocket change given the likely net worth of these guys

Though it would be wise for them to only hold broad based index mutual funds to avoid shit like this.

[merwin]

19. I would be willing to bet most of them hire other people to take care of their

investments.

Mutual funds would be one way to avoid it... blind trusts are another way.

[pjt7]

11. It's a shocker that Wall Street

owns DC.

SHOCKER

[sarcasmo]

12. Kick and Nom, no surprise most politicians are Corporate WHORES.

Before anyone says I am generalizing I said Most.

[NorthCarolina]

13. Phew...that makes sense then. I thought they were just giving the money away

willy-nilly

:sarcasm:

[rpannier]

15. Bet if they had invested in your house they'd have found the money for it

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. Kinda makes you want to take your money out of those banks, does it?

[merwin]

18. I'd like to see the percentage of non-congressional investors who also hold

stock in those bailed out banks.

I'm guessing it's more to do with the portfolio than anything else. Do you really think that these people manage their own investments? They had investments in banks because banks were making money. That is not evidence enough to say that the bailout was an attempt to hold on to their own investments.

However, campaign donations by the listed banks are a whole different story...

[xchrom]

20. recommend. nt

[sojourner]

21. omigosh! what a surprise!!

NOT!! But, sickening just the same.

[earth mom]

22. NO surprise. Just utter disgust and loathing.

:puke: :puke: :puke:

Where are those bailout cheerleaders now?

Told you so.

[Wednesdays]

23. K&R

:kick:

[Joanne98]

24. NATCH