Dow Creeps Up 64

Yes, there will be pain, but saving irresponsible companies bad for US future

(NEWSER) - Given the failure of the Wall Street bailout, to think doing the same for Detroit would help the auto industry and America in the long run is fantasy, Kevin O’Brien writes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The only thing that will help is to feel the pain. “No more bailouts,” O’Brien writes. “Not for private industries. Not for states. Not for cities. Not for school districts.” More»

Legislators strong-arm automaker to keep dealerships, factories open

(NEWSER) - GM might not have realized when it took $58 billion in bailout money that it would now be beholden to members of Congress, who have been acting like 535 new board members as they angle for their constituents' (and their own) interests. Dems and Republicans alike have pressured companies to keep unprofitable factories open, and several have persuaded GM to reverse closure orders on dealerships in their districts. "When GM took federal dollars, they lost some of their autonomy," one GOP congressman tells the Wall Street Journal . More»

(AP) - Bowing to populist anger, the House voted today to prohibit pay and bonus packages that encourage bankers and traders to take risks so big they could bring down the entire US economy. Passage of the bill on a 237-185 vote followed the disclosure a day earlier that nine of the biggest US banks, which are receiving billions of dollars in federal bailout aid, paid individual bonuses of $1 million or more to nearly 5,000 employees. More»

Congress questions watchdog's ability to keep up with fraud

(NEWSER) - Congress begins a probe today into why federal regulators who examined Bernie Madoff's investments eight times in 16 years failed to sniff out his decades-long $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Among those in the hot seat is Barack Obama's appointee for SEC chair. Mary Schapiro was involved in several of the fruitless investigations, reports the Wall Street Journal. More»

Madoff doesn't help either

(NEWSER) - Stocks went sky-diving this morning in the wake of the Senate’s scuttling of the auto bailout and the massive fraud case against a former NASDAQ chairman. The Dow dropped 200 points, accompanied by 2.5% and 1.8% drops in the S&P and Nasdaq, respectively. The auto news rippled through the market, sending US Steel down 4% and parts maker Lear more than 27%, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»