Insurance Bailout: Firms Approved For TARP Money

Washington Post:

The Treasury today granted preliminary approval for some of the nation's largest insurance companies to receive capital infusions under the government's Troubled Assets Relief Program, Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[Lemeritus]

11:00 PM on 05/15/2009

And didn't the stock options on these corporate pick-pockets just FLY in the 24 hours before the announcement was made! Interesting, that.

[msjimmied]

10:14 AM on 05/17/2009

Yes it did, and was that ever suspect. From us to the Insurance companies and then on to Wall Street.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1125260535&play=1

The masters of the universe always get their cut.

[grumbles]

07:23 PM on 05/15/2009

We would all be better of without them. They are responsible for what is wrong now with the healthcare. They all made a ton of money on the backs of sick frightened people who believed that insurers cared about their well being. HOGWASH! Let them all go bellyup!

[claudiam]

06:48 PM on 05/15/2009

WTF????? I am having a really bad day with all this bad news. Insurance companies, give me a break! claudiatucsonaz

[KCFreedom]

05:16 PM on 05/15/2009

Another bailout for an industry that adds no value to society.

This is the result of that ridiculous Glass-Stegal Act repeal in 1999.

I don't know anyone that wanted insurance companies to get into banking. That was all a big hoax. I remember the propaganda from Phil Gramm and the gang about all that. About how the American public was asking for it when they were pushing for it.

I think the porn industry deserves a bailout next.

[davidwayneosedach]

04:50 PM on 05/15/2009

How about retail after that?

[issabel]

03:39 PM on 05/15/2009

it may sound simple, but my insuranse went up from 3000 to 4000 dollars in one year, no regulation, and no warning of how much they go up every year, you pay it, or get out.
instead of bailing them out, they need to give back the money they stole from us, can't do it?? let the government completely take over, this is rediculous, we can never win with the administrators making the kind of money they are making, while the whole country is trying to stay afloat. and the rich who can afford and are happy with their companoes? they can afford to pay their hospitals and doctors directly, they don't like socialized medicine, they no where to go, and can

[NedFlanders19]

12:55 PM on 05/15/2009

Ahhh yes, the USA - of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations.

Too big to fail means the country as a whole fails.

RIP USA
1776-2009
A great idea from the start
Greed is what tore her apart
Profits before people
Be good sheep and pray in your steeples
Give up your cash for bailouts
Now get the hell out - suckers

It's all there except for having to call them master. From the way things are going, this won't be far behind. If my memory serves correct, a few hundred years ago some great people stood up to taxation without representation. We have the illusion of our votes counting and making a difference. The only difference is whether they screw us over in a more secretive way or just come right out and do it in our faces like right now. Our "leaders" only serve themselves and their masters - we the commoners are shut out and left with the scraps. Now they're telling us we don't even deserve the scraps. Jefferson warned us of this very thing and left instructions, yet we've become too meek to stand up for ourselves.

[Ben6768]

02:47 PM on 05/17/2009

RIP USA
1776-2009

From now on, we want the Second Republic with new political parties !!!

[Mintcondition]

12:10 PM on 05/15/2009

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[lightningbolt]

11:36 AM on 05/15/2009

NO MORE BAILOUTS!!! THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!! THESE COMPANIES MUST GO BANKRUPT AND LET THEIR COMPETITORS TAKE OVER!!! I AM SICK OF PAYING THE SALARIES OF CEOS AND THE DIVIDENDS OF STOCKHOLDERS WITH MY HARD EARNED MONEY!!! ENOUGH!!!

[Lemeritus]

11:08 PM on 05/15/2009

Bankrupt? Not hardly. These insurance companies twisted themselves up as "holding companies" so that they could belly up to the TARP trough. Not need; greed.

[beaupritchard]

11:34 AM on 05/15/2009

sure ... why not ... how about including every loan shark and leg breaker in new york city too.

[Bernique]

10:54 AM on 05/15/2009

Why don't we just hand the keys to the Treasury to the "too big to fail" corporations?
We the "little" people only count at election time. I am disgusted.

[dandypuddin]

10:48 AM on 05/15/2009

Next on the list? Big Pharma because we all lost our health care when we were laid off and can't afford their drugs.

Then Big Oil because we can't afford to drive on vacations this year.

Give me a break.

[Belisarius]

10:35 AM on 05/15/2009

Well this is a kind of change. I just don't want to believe it.

We have sacrificed the fiscal integrity of social security and medicare so that we can provide a nice safety net for the banks and the insurance companies. The banks and insurance companies then pay congress to tamp down credit card reform and national health care.

Thank you congress and thank you mr. president.

Remember in 2010.

[vagabondvet]

11:03 AM on 05/15/2009

There has never been fiscal integrity of social security and medicare. They've always been Ponzi schemes. It's just that all recent Presidents have used receipts from Social Security to make budget deficits not look so bad.

[DeadPhish]

11:15 AM on 05/15/2009

Wrong.

[AmandaRuth]

10:20 AM on 05/15/2009

having worked for Insurance companies (both agents and companies) for the better part of my adult working life, I can tell you insurance executives are some of the laziest overpaid workers around. Talk about slinking in the office at 9 and scooting out at 4... A usual working days consists of sitting at a desk with your feet on the table, while looking out the window and talking on the phone. Any actual work gets passed on to an underwriter and/or an assistant. All calls are screened, and the executive wouldn't know what to do if two calls came in on two lines, being much much too important to actually answer the phone.

So do we have another situation here where white collar workers will not be asked to face the consequences of their bad decisions (unlike a blue collar, who with this bad performance, is on the unemployment line) or will the southern senators go on live tv and ask for wage concessions?

[NevaforLeadership]

10:37 AM on 05/15/2009

Let's admit, then, that both white and blue collor workers had a hand in over and unsustainable compensation.

I know what you mean, though. I walked away from a job, because the guy for whom I worked spent 75% of his day chatting to friends on the phone, e-mailing friends, gossiping, making daily office rounds chatting, shopping for this or that over-the-counter or prescription drug, going to doctors' appointments, working for an outside individual during officer hours, decorating his office, etc. I set up all his systems, constantly saved him from IT disasters, organized his office, reminded him about closings, organized the closings and kept everything on track. He gave me a less-than-satisfactory review. I walked out.

That's what is wrong in the workplace today; not this or that political party.

He's still there, and I am struggling to survive; but I have been true to my core values and will prevail in the end.

[CurtTX53]

11:34 AM on 05/15/2009

NevaforLeadership, it is a shame there are people like the one you describe above. They really don't think twice about using others. I have no doubt this person is again doing the same thing to another, using them as he did you. This person represents one of the many reasons this Country finds itself in the position it is in.

I salute you for being able to maintain your core values. I do wonder just how far "our" core values will serve us in the times to come? Could it be "our" core values in a time when values have little to no meaning lead to our................

I really dislike having such a negative outlook, but having been around for awhile and seeing all I have seen I find it more and more difficult to really believe in "change" for the better.....

Take care, Curt

[CurtTX53]

10:01 AM on 05/15/2009

I really am tired of hearing blame placed on a political party.

Greed is just that. Greedy people do not care about a political position, they are only concerned about money. Those of you who are determined to assign blame to one party or another will never be able to see the truth, you are blinded by your rage.

Maybe that is what those in charge hope for. Divided we stand, United we fall? huh?

T/C Curt

[NevaforLeadership]

10:13 AM on 05/15/2009

Thanks Curt,

Finally some common sense!

The first step to change is admitting and taking complete responsibility for the current situation. As long as people continue to blame political parties, there will be no change. We have to own up to the real reasons to change them.