Real Housewives of Wall Street (Fed gives $220m in non-recourse loans to wives of big wigs) - Politics and Economics

Two Plus Two Forums Other Topics Politics

Real Housewives of Wall Street (Fed gives $220m in non-recourse loans to wives of big wigs)

...

04-15-2011 , 10:16 PM

STA654

Here's some straight talk

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 21,072

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...0110411?page=2

Quote:

The Macks make for an interesting couple. John, a Lebanese-American nicknamed "Mack the Knife" for his legendary passion for firing people, has one of the most recognizable faces on Wall Street, physically resembling a crumpled, half-burned baked potato with a pair of overturned furry horseshoes for eyebrows. Christy is thin, blond and rich — a sort of still-awake Sunny von Bulow with hobbies. Her major philanthropic passion is endowments for alternative medicine, and she has attained the level of master at Reiki, the Japanese practice of "palm healing." The only other notable fact on her public résumé is that her sister was married to Charlie Rose.

It's hard to imagine a pair of people you would less want to hand a giant welfare check to — yet that's exactly what the Fed did. Just two months before the Macks bought their fancy carriage house in Manhattan, Christy and her pal Susan launched their investment initiative called Waterfall TALF. Neither seems to have any experience whatsoever in finance, beyond Susan's penchant for dabbling in thoroughbred racehorses. But with an upfront investment of $15 million, they quickly received $220 million in cash from the Fed, most of which they used to purchase student loans and commercial mortgages. The loans were set up so that Christy and Susan would keep 100 percent of any gains on the deals, while the Fed and the Treasury (read: the taxpayer) would eat 90 percent of the losses. Given out as part of a bailout program ostensibly designed to help ordinary people by kick-starting consumer lending, the deals were a classic heads-I-win, tails-you-lose investment.

Cliffs: The Fed gives a group called 'Waterfall TALF a $220m loan (with ultra low interest rate) to invest. This group was formed by two women who have no other qualification other than being the wives of powerful figures in the banking industry. Important caveat: the fed + treasury dept would absorb 90% of any losses, and the wives would take home 100% of profits.

Even without that caveat it would still be essentially giving these wives money, but with it this becomes simply disgustingly selfish activity.

Pretty ****ing outrageous if you ask me.

Last edited by STA654; 04-15-2011 at 10:23 PM.

04-15-2011 , 10:35 PM

snagglepuss

banned

Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 7,269

disgusting business as usual

04-15-2011 , 10:48 PM

JayTeeMe

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 29,409

wtf?

04-15-2011 , 11:42 PM

Riverman

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 73,135

Wait, really? Like, Im pretty used to this stuff but this seems especially outrageous.

04-15-2011 , 11:49 PM

STA654

Here's some straight talk

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 21,072

especially considering that we are posting on a poker forum on a day when the FBI seized millions of dollars from accounts of online poker players.

Time for self-immolation imo.

04-16-2011 , 12:18 AM

suzzer99

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 99,984

This makes me nauseous.

04-16-2011 , 01:51 AM

loK2thabrain

Tiger > Jack

Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 23,203

LOUD NOISES

04-16-2011 , 02:22 AM

STA654

Here's some straight talk

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 21,072

WSJ article critical of this story. http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/04/1...-fact-souffle/

Quote:

By Ari I. Weinberg
...
After reading the story a few times, I’m just not sure about Taibbi’s point.

Is he insinuating that this investment was improper? He doesn’t say so. Does he begrudge the money of people with money? Clearly. Has he chosen the right targets in lifting the veil on opaque federal bailouts? Probably not. If only he had trained his sights more on how foreign banks soaked up so much cash from the Fed.
...

STFU Ari, just be outraged like everyone else is and should be.

04-16-2011 , 09:59 AM

FlyWf

It's the other way

Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 58,097

Quote:

Is he insinuating that this investment was improper? He doesn’t say so.

This is an amazingly oblivious statement, but good old Ari manages to top it in the space of the next sentence:

Quote:

Does he begrudge the money of people with money? Clearly.

Seriously, that's how these people think. They're so down the rabbit hole on believing their own masters of the Universe bull**** that they assume "haters" are just "jealous" of the taxpayer money we are giving away to rich people. Christ.

04-16-2011 , 10:46 AM

#10

BadBoyBenny

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 7,799

I thought the whole TALF thing was old news.

04-16-2011 , 11:35 AM

#11

General Tsao

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 30,586

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riverman

Wait, really? Like, Im pretty used to this stuff but this seems especially outrageous.

So frequently do I find myself going "Look, I know government is hilariously stupid, but this just can't be true, must be a fabrication of some libertarian writer." Somehow, I always give the government the benefit of the doubt, and I'm always wrong.

...