Taxpayers May Get 40% Stake in New Citi Deal

Banking chair weighs short-term moves

(NEWSER) - Chris Dodd says the US may have to nationalize the most troubled banks for “a short time” to save the financial system, Bloomberg reports. The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee joined Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan in calling for serious consideration of nationalizing flailing institutions such as Bank of America and Citigroup. Within hours, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs countered, "This administration continues to strongly believe that a privately held banking system is the correct way to go." More»

New book says Obama's team routinely undermined him

(NEWSER) - In March 2009, in the throes of the financial crisis, Barack Obama told Tim Geithner to focus on a proposal to dissolve Citigroup—but the Treasury Secretary ignored him and never developed a plan, according to former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind’s new book Confidence Men. In the book, which was obtained early by the AP and the New York Times , Suskind writes that Obama’s “authority was being systematically undermined or hedged by his seasoned advisers.” More»

Part of Obama's proposed regulations are aimed at Goldman and its CEO

(NEWSER) - One part of the new financial regulations proposed by President Obama today could be called the "Lloyd Blankfein Act" because it's aimed squarely at Goldman Sachs and its "unrepentant CEO," writes Daniel Gross. The proposal would prevent banks from taking FDIC-insured deposits and then doing "funky algorithmic trading." As one administration official puts it, "You can choose to engage in proprietary trading, or you can choose to own a bank. You have to make the basic choice." More»

He pulled a bait-and-switch on America

(NEWSER) - President Obama's change from man of the people to friend of Wall Street is one of the biggest political turnarounds in history, writes Matt Taibbi. As soon as he was elected, Obama ditched his moderate economic advisers and built an economic team of Wall Street insiders with ties to "arch-capitalist" Citigroup honcho Bob Rubin, Taibbi writes in Rolling Stone . More»

(NEWSER) - American banks will pull in $38.5 billion in overdraft fees this year, a record sum that's largely coming from pockets of the poorest and most indebted consumers. According to the Financial Times, banks hiked fees on overdrafts and credit cards as the financial crisis took hold; this year's take will be double that reported in 2000. Some 90% of overdraft revenues come from just 10% of checking account holders, many of whom have low credit scores. More»