Steve Liesman reports that AIG has offered Attorney General Andrew Cuomo the names of its employees receiving bonuses, which have been requested by both Cuomo and Congress, in exchange for confidentiality, since many death threats have been sent to the company, including one by decapitation. But the AG is refusing to take the names. Why? Because he’s an asshole man-child. (Andy-boy says that he deals with threats like this all the time, which we certainly buy, and they’re not a problem.)
Archive for March 2009
Cuomo Will Only Take Names From AIG If He Can Leak Them To The Press For Tarring And Feathering
By Bess Levin
It is no secret that GE Capital has been the lodestone for GE. What looked like a bit of genius, the vertical integration of finance for the customers of GE’s manufacturing and power interests, quickly ran wild in consumer finance and developed a highly opaque balance sheet that has left investors jumpy and hinted at large, unknowable liabilities. Well, GE wants you to just settle the hell down now.
Speaking at an investor conference, Chief Financial Officer Mike Sherin said that 93% of the diversified conglomerate’s long-term debt funding — between $42 billion to $45 billion — is complete for this year and that there is no need for having to tap any external capital. Further, he said the Fairfield, Conn.-based company is “committed” to GE Capital, its troubled financial arm, and hinted a spin-off was unlikely.
Michael Neal, the chief executive of GE Capital, said that in a worst-case scenario, his business unit could face credit losses of up to $13.7 billion this year. However, the unit is predicting 2009 losses of $9.7 billion.
It says something that losses of only $9.7 billion are good news, but almost any number, if it was believed, would do something to avoid the cosmic censorship beyond the event horizon of GE Capital’s balance sheet.
General Electric execs seek to strike optimistic tone [Marketwatch]
The Daily News reports that Hank Morris, a political consultant to former Comptroller Alan Hevesi, and David Loglisci, a former deputy controller for Pension Investment and Cash Management under Hevesi, pictured here looking happy as a clam, have been charged with 123 counts of “enterprise corruption and other felonies, for steering pensions funds to certain advisers who were offering them some sweet kickbacks. For their parts in the li’l three-year pension scam, the dynamic duo pocketed $35 million.
The United States openly violated the NAFTA treaty last week. True, there’s a mess of a gang war along Mexico’s border with the United States, but closing the southern border to truck traffic (long a goal of unions in the United States) is a no-no under the terms of the treaty and Mexico has fired a return volley, smacking a number of U.S. exports with tariffs up to 45%. Ouch.
You’d think these people never heard of the Great Depression. Smoot-Hawley here we come!
Mexico Puts Tariffs on U.S. Goods in Truck Dispute [Bloomberg]
The tariff list (in the original Spanish)
Well, you bitches missed your chance. You had the opportunity to sleep where Dan Loeb hath slept and you blew it. The Jewish Rambo‘s townhouse at 7 MacDougal Alley has been sold, to an unknown buyer (Griffin?) for $5 million, down from the original $7.85 million asking price. (Loeb and his family remain safely ensconced in their $45 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West.) And that’s all I have to say about that.
Earlier: Dan Loeb Will DJ Way Through ’09
Passing by almost unnoticed today is the news that the Greenbrier, the famous White Sulphur Springs resort retreat for Congress and whose Presidential Suite has been the host of every President since Dwight Eisenhower, has slipped quietly under the dark waves of insolvency.
The Greenbrier Hotel Corporation (GHC), owner of The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, announced today that it has sought Chapter 11 protection to help ensure the viability of the resort.
The ordinary is made interesting when one realizes that the Greenbrier was for years the location of the secret Congressional emergency relocation facility. Complete with medical facility, meeting rooms, generators, cafeteria, long-term living quarters and the like, the underground bunker was designed to keep Congress alive and able to continue running the country into the ground long after a devastating nuclear attack (the ultimate sign of a failure in leadership).
No word on whether the bunker will now accept Marriott Rewards points.
The Greenbrier Files Chapter 11, Signs Agreement With Marriott Hotel Services, Inc. [PRNewswire] via Alea
Here it is. Starts getting good at 5:10.
Now that Big Auto looks poised to do its run down the double black diamond run “Bankruptcy,” seems like a great time for some free lift passes to Big Auto Supply, right? After all, where is the money going to come from to keep all those plants full of employees when Big Auto stops buying parts in mass quantities to fill up lots with unused inventories of new cars no one wants?
The Obama administration plans to announce a financing facility that would provide up to $5 billion in assistance to the country’s beleaguered auto-parts suppliers, many of which are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
The assistance would pump money into dozens of the country’s biggest suppliers to help pay for seats, axles and other components shipped to the Big Three auto makers, but not paid for, people familiar with the announcement said.
The administration plans to announce the details of the plan this morning.
Always later with the details. Sheesh.
Lenders have already gotten wise and have closed lines of credit to firms that rely on Ford, GM and Chrysler for major fractions of their revenue. It isn’t surprising that the suppliers would turn to the government, the “lender of last resort” as it were, since this is their last resort. This begs the question: Will this administration ever let a dying firm just die?
U.S. to Provide $5 Billion in Aid to Auto-Parts Suppliers [The Wall Street Journal]
10-k Queen Michelle Leder notes today that Charles K. Gifford, the former Fleet chief who retired from Bank of America a few months after the merger was completed, is still enjoying a bunch o’ perks, including use of the corporate aircraft (which cost BAC $947,682 last year, and an additional $281,307 in taxes), office space and (multiple?) secretaries (which cost BAC $225,031), and fees associated with “consulting” for the firm (“I think Bank of Angelo Mozilo sounds best but you do what you want”). We sort of don’t give a rat’s ass about this, but we are looking forward to hearing the shit-fit raised by fellow retired CEO Sandy Weill, who made the gargantuan effort to curb his jet and administrative assistant usage in the name of the company he loves, a few months back. This isn’t fair, and he wants his free office back NOW!
Rangel: I’m Not Going To Stop Taxing Your Asses Just Because Of Erroneous Reports About My Own Tax Issues
By Bess LevinSo just shut it, meddling, bastardsome press.
It is becoming a common refrain, this idea that any plan with Geithner’s name on it anywhere lacks detail. The IMF is only the latest critic to level this accusation.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s plan to fix the financial system lacks “essential details,” the International Monetary Fund said in criticism of its largest shareholder.
The IMF, in a report released today, said “more specifics will be needed to calm frayed market sentiment.” The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, which has gained in six of the past seven days, is still down 8.7 percent since Geithner outlined his financial stabilization effort on Feb. 10.
In the same way the market senses weakness and is attracted to blood in the water, Geithner seems to be attracting any number of predators ready to clamp their teeth into the guy. The latest AIG mess, which has Geithner’s fingerprints all over it, has added to the impression that The Safecracker isn’t long for his position. At least one Congresscritter has called publicly for his ouster, and that’s not all: When Code Pink has got your name in the cross hairs, look out, baby.
Tim, take it from us, your next plan better be 650 pages and have 50+ exhibits attached in front of 900 footnotes.
IMF Criticizes Geithner’s Bank Rescue Plan as ‘Lacking Details’ [Bloomberg]
AIG Firestorm Has Democrats Edgy About Geithner, Team [Bloomberg]
