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Even when their profits dried up and they turned to taxpayers to stay afloat, the nation's biggest banks kept paying huge bonuses. But much of the money went not to top executives, but to star traders and salesmen, even as the economy battled through the worst recession in a generation.
The dozens of insurance companies that make up the American International Group show signs of considerable weakness even after their corporate parent got the biggest bailout in history, a review of state regulatory filings shows. Over time, the weaknesses could mean trouble for AIG’s [AIG 13.0198 -0.1102 (-0.84%) ] policyholders, and they raise difficult questions for regulators, who normally step in when an insurer gets into trouble. State commissioners are supposed to keep insurers from writing new policies if there is any doubt that they can cover their claims. But in AIG’s case, regulators are eager for the insurers to keep writing new business, because they see it as the best hope of paying back taxpayers.
One of the many mysteries swirling around high-frequency trading is just how profitable the lightning-fast buying and selling of stocks, options and commodities really is. Most prefer to say simply nothing on the subject, leaving us in a very dark pool on the issue of high-frequency profits. To be fair, Goldman Sachs (GS.N) recently came out and said "even using the broadest definition, high-frequency shares trading accounted for less than one percent of Goldman Sachs' total revenue in the first half of 2009." But Goldman is talking only about high-frequency trading of stocks, not options and commodities. In options trading alone, Goldman's algorithmic-driven platform is estimated by a market source to account for 15 percent of the daily trading volume.
Andrew Cuomo has once again turned the bright glare on Wall Street bonuses, giving everyone a fresh chance to jeer and offer their ideas about how compensation will be reformed. But the obsession with bonuses is a big distraction whichever side you're on. If there's something to be enraged about, it's not the bonuses, it's the profits in the banking sector. Because shareholders of companies like JPMorgan (JPM) and Goldman Sachs (GS) are perfectly happy fattening up their big earners.
Arizona told by Federal Government: Shut Kyl up, or face being ostracized and ridiculed...
The man in charge of administering the bailouts is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who served as a staff member of the New York City-based Council on Foreign Relations
Like a financial tornado sucking money into it, but never throwing any out, it lays waste to the true productive economy. Thus is the disaster that is the current United States Financial crisis.
