With so much confusion in the financial marketplace one thing is apparent: the American people deserve to know what government-supported banks are doing and how our tax dollars are being used. The uncertainty families are feeling in this economy is only magnified by the lack of clarity in the programs our government created to jump-start frozen credit markets. In order to rebuild our economy we must rebuild lost confidence in the financial system. The government can and should continue to stabilize troubled financial institutions -- but getting an honest reading of how these institutions are aided by the government is the only way to gain the trust of the American people. This is why I proposed H.R. 1242, The TARP Accountability and Disclosure Act, to provide for additional monitoring and accountability of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).
H.R. 1242 tasks the government with collecting existing data that is reported and make it available in real time, in a standardized format, so it can create a 360 degree picture of the recipient's activities and use of TARP funds.
The Congressional oversight hearings I've participated in, both as Chair of the Joint Economic Committee and as a senior member of the Financial Services Committee, have made it clear -- we lack even a basic understanding of where the first tranche of the TARP money went. This is inexcusable. There are many proposals for more transparency and better reporting, but my bill provides one simple and necessary step. It would create a central government database that collects all the financial information about entities that receive TARP funds. This information is presently scattered through multiple government agencies and the private sector and is not reported in a form that enables compilation or comparison.
Because of the ad hoc nature of financial disclosures, when accurate information does become public it is often very slow to arrive. On Sunday, we finally learned the names of the counterparties AIG paid through credit default swaps while the US government was bailing them out. I originally asked for this information at a hearing in November, and then in February, and again two weeks ago. This disclosure a good first step, but I'm concerned by how long it took. Not having an honest accounting of these funds was not acceptable. Transparency about the counterparties is essential to having an informed debate and developing solutions to our current economic crisis, as well as to Congress ability to oversee the use of taxpayers' money.
This demonstrates the necessity of the TARP Accountability and Disclosure Act. The speed with which the economic crisis is unfolding requires that future disclosures be made in a much more timely fashion and be widely accessible.
Government money alone will not repair the lost trust in our financial markets. Transparency and accountability for the banks, combined with targeted programs that bolster weakened areas of our economy, will go a long way to restoring the confidence our economy really needs.
I see a very simple solution to this mess.
(1) Nationalize any company "too big to fail"
(2) Fire all top executives of this company
Nationalization is a dirty word in the USA but being from Europe it is not as bad as most Americans think. Clearly this would only be temporary until conditions are right for a private spin off again. Right now none of the bailed out corporations are accountable to anybody; they are not accountable to the market as any losses will be bailed out and they are not accountable to the tax payers. At least nationalization brings them fully under control of the people who are now funding them.
In a functioning free market economy the executives would have been fired for failure a long time ago. Why should we the tax payer act any different?
REAL TIME DATA OF MARK TO MARKET ACCOUTING ITEMS ?????
THATS IS LIKE MEASURING THE STINK OFF A PILE OF CRAP !!!!!!
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I urge you to go one step further and consider auditing the Federal Reserve.
Please support H.R. 1207 The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009
Bullshit!
If you had voted on Larouche's Homeowners and Bank Protection Act in 2007, you could have avoided all this, and put these financial institutions into receivership, similar the FDR's RFC, and not given all that money away, which then AIG gave to foreign banks for gambling debts no different from Las VEgas crap tables.
Reset.
I distinctly recall hearing that the reason that the ultimate destination of these funds would not be disclosed was because it might "cause further disruption and possible panic". This is the very reason why the federal reserve will only officially state the number of "troubled" banks, not their actual names. While certainly not open government, I can understand why.
A mystic was not required to assume that Goldman-Sachs would be the prime recepient of AIGs payouts nor should it surprise anyone that some big name foreign banks would be high on the list as well.
You can call for all the accountability you want, but it won't change anything and will only add to costs.
I prefer to think of finance as an institution, not an industry. Until we realize that the current financial industry has collapsed due to bloat of both size and compensation hundreds upon hundreds of billions will be thrown into a pit filled with the rich and wannabe rich who will claw at each other to recoup their losses. We cannot fill that pit with money--instead we have to cover it over accepting the fact that another one will eventually form.
It is time to fill in the pit.
Obama needs to flush out the Wall Street insiders from his administration. If Obama chooses to keep them on and they continue to pump unbridled greed money into the worst of Wall Street, then it is because Obama wants it that way.
Obama: You promised change I can believe in
I voted for change I can believe in
Time to deliver CHANGE I CAN BELIEVE IN
Time to dismember the bad companies on Wall Street and pass the pieces to the "not to large to fail" banks hat never entered into criminal negligence and fraud schemes.
AIG owes you and the rest of the public absolutely nothing. It is responsible only to it's shareholders.
It is YOU- not AIG- that has a public responsibility.
But I fully understand that Congress lacks the framework to act prospectively to prevent problems. It can only act retrospectively to clean up what has already happened. Most of us understand that.
Congress is not even aware of where the corrective arc is moving now. We have already been through the Treasury take-down. That is over. The big holding companies have that money. It's gone.
Just so you know, what's happening now is that a floor has formed for asset values that will carry financials above the waterline . Market cap is just becoming capable of floating the bad paper on the books.
So don't mess with an upswing with continuing attempts to get last quarter's policies right.
Sincerely,
Wayoutleft
Now they allow "Off-the-Books" accounting by these WS Banks! And other violations of accounting practices!
He did not risk people's money on stupid Bets or Over Leveraging and he worked until he was 75 and was never called Corrupt and was respected by everyone he knew.
Where is that kind of Banker?
Who the HECK are these people on Wall Street that feel America OWES them $TRILLIONS to repair their TOXIC WASTE and pay their $Multi-Million incomes?