Banks

Alexi Giannoulias - Banks - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Alexi Tells Voters He Was No Banker, But Claims to IRS He Was

September 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s almost like a bad Riddler quip from TVs Adam West Batman show: When is a banker not a banker? Well, apparently the Illinois Democrat candidate for Senate, Alexi “the Mob Banker” Giannoulias, is trying his hand at the riddle. He’s constantly told the voters that he was not employed by his family bank during the year that it met so much trouble, yet on his tax returns Alexi took deductions for his bank work during that same year.

So when IS a banker not a banker? Apparently when he’s trying to run for Senate and get out from under the mess his bank ended up in.

Giannoulias has claimed that he had left his family bank in 2005. But as the Chicago Tribune reports, “Giannoulias was able to take a $2.7 million tax deduction last year because he reported working hundreds of hours at Broadway Bank in 2006.”
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Alexi Tells Voters He Was No Banker, But Claims to IRS He Was”

Banks - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - DuPage County - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Kane County - Liberals - Randy Hultgren - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

On Those Bill Foster Ads Slamming Hultgren? Hultgren Says ‘Not True’

September 25, 2010 by

From the Hultgren for Congress campaign (14th District)…

St. Charles – State Senator Randy Hultgren, candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives IL-14, today responded to deceptive ads paid for by Congressman Bill Foster, D-Batavia.

“Bill Foster’s allegations against me are not true,” said Hultgren. “Bill Foster hopes with his millions of campaign dollars, that he can fool you into believing his lies.”

“Democrat Bill Foster is lying in a calculated gamble to hide his atrocious record of support of Nancy Pelosi 92.6% of the time including government bailouts, higher taxes, massive spending increases and a health care overhaul,” said Hultgren.[1] “If Foster can stay off the issues through lying about my employment, he is able to avoid his miserable record as a Congressman.”

http://hultgrenforcongress.com/

Alan Caruba - Banks - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - History - Jobs - Taxes - The Great Depression - Unemployment

Feels Like a Depression to Me

September 13, 2010 by

-By Alan Caruba

Between the time that George Washington took the first oath of office as president and when Barack Obama did—1789 to 2009, the United States had borrowed nine trillion dollars. Since Obama took office, it has borrowed or imposed nearly three trillion more debt. Tell me he is not deliberately seeking to bankrupt the nation.

In an August 28 Wall Street Journal editorial it noted that “To no one’s surprise except Vice President Joe Biden’s, second quarter economic growth was revised down yesterday to 1.6% from the prior estimate of growth of 2.4% which was down from first quarter growth of 3.7%, which was down from the 2009 fourth quarter’s 5%. Economic recoveries are supposed to go in the other direction.”

I was born during the Great Depression of the 1930s and have lived long enough now to find myself in a new one. There are similarities between the two, but the first one led to the creation of a variety of government regulatory entities and programs that should have avoided or at least were expected put the brakes on the current one.
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Feels Like a Depression to Me”

Banks - Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Congress - Credit Cards - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Financial Reform - Government - Liberals - Money - Politicians - Senate - Warner Todd Huston

Credit Card ‘Reform’ Will Force All Credit Purchases to Exceed $10

September 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Previous to the current meddling by Congress, stores were technically not allowed to require a minimum purchase for credit cards. If you wanted to charge ten cents or ten dollars merchants were supposed to accept the charge. But the Durbin Amendment (Sen. Dick Durbin, D of Ill.) to the credit card “reform” bill passed by Congress will change all that by allowing stores to set a minimum charge amount of $10 before you are allowed to use your credit card to purchase something.

This is just one more way that Congress is reaching into your pocket and taking your money. It is easy to realize that millions of people, when told they have to spend $10 to use a credit card, will charge to the minimum despite what they really intended to buy. It’s an obvious and unseen tax, in essence. It will become a common sight at cash registers when someone gets a bill of $6 or $7 rung up, a credit card will be brought out, the cashier will tell them of the new minimum charge rule, and the consumer will grab a few candy bars or some other nearby item to push the charge over that $10 minimum. This will be money spent that wasn’t intended to be spent but it will happen a lot from here on out.
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Credit Card ‘Reform’ Will Force All Credit Purchases to Exceed $10″

Ann "Babe" Huggett - Banks - Budget - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Liberals - President - Taxes

Chicago’s ShoreBank morphs into Urban Partnership Bank to continue its progressive Green Agenda using FDIC funds

August 31, 2010 by

-By Ann “Babe” Huggett

Chicago’s ShoreBank, known as the “Clintons’ favorite bank” and with close ties to the Obama Administration, which allegedly pushed Goldman Sachs and Citibank to underwrite it using $135 million of their TARP funds even as it reported losses, failed on August 20th but immediately reorganized itself as Urban Partnership Bank. Upon the reorganization, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) quickly handed over $367.7 million to keep the newly renamed bank’s doors open.

Earlier in the year, the Illinois Financial Authority’s chairman, Bill Brandt, ignoring pressure from Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky to bail out ShoreBank and its toxic assets, literally passed the buck to the Feds when he hinted at potential political fallout and/or actual physical street violence if ShoreBank, whose executives were neighbors of the Obamas in Chicago, was not bailed out by the US Treasury.
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Chicago’s ShoreBank morphs into Urban Partnership Bank to continue its progressive Green Agenda using FDIC funds”

Banks - Budget - Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Upper Middle Class Now Seeing Higher Foreclosures in Cook County

August 15, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As the housing bubble began to burst the lower middle class and poor areas of Cook County were immediately hit with mounting foreclosures. But now the upper middle class is seeing a higher rate. This only stands to logic.

As the Obama depression widens, as home prices stay in a slump, and as more and more people lose their jobs it makes sense that the upper middle classes are beginning only now to lose their homes at a higher rate than before. After all, these people have been likely living off savings they had that the lower classes and poor didn’t have to tide them over. But now those savings are being depleted. That and the job losses are reaching up into their income brackets and status.

What all this shows is that the Obama economy is still in horrid shape and getting worse.

The Daily Herald has all the stats in its recent, disheartening article from August 15.

And if you are one of those home owners facing foreclosure or financial troubles, there is a Cook County program that might help.

The program, which got $3.5 million from the county board, is open to county residents who have received a foreclosure summons from the Cook County Court and live in a single-family home, single-family condo or apartment building with four or fewer units. There are no income restrictions.

Those who are eligible can call (877) 895-2444 or use the new web features on cookcountyforeclosurehelp.org to set up an appointment with a housing counselor.

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Upper Middle Class Now Seeing Higher Foreclosures in Cook County”

Banks - Budget - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Hilarious: Lefty Threatens to Sue Illinois Political Blog

August 13, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is pretty funny… well, not so funny if you are The Illinois Review, one of our fine political news blogs in Illinois. Apparently billionaire Nadhmi Auchi has sent a threatening letter to the blog demanding that they delete an August 9 post linking Auchi to Democrat Senate candidate Alexi “the Mob Banker” Giannoulias.

The letter issued by attorneys Carter-Ruck demands that the August 9 piece be removed due to “defamatory and untrue allegations.” The letter also says that Carter-Ruck thinks that the source for the blog post was the Observer (of London) and the New York Times.

Apparently the nitwits at Carter-Ruck didn’t actually READ the post in question, however. The actually source for the blog post is clearly featured at the top of the body copy. Any fool can see that the blog post came “from the IL GOP,” as is noted on the actual post itself. This is a press release from the Illinois Republican Party, not an Illinois Review authored piece.
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Hilarious: Lefty Threatens to Sue Illinois Political Blog”

Banks - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The Era of Obama: Clorox Co. Loses Net Income to Taxes?

August 4, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a harbinger of profit statements to come, Clorox Co. — maker of numerous household cleaning products — reports that it’s net income was nearly flat despite a one percent rise in revenue.

The reason? Taxes.

Clorox Co. says its fourth-quarter net income was nearly flat, even though its revenue rose one percent, because it paid higher taxes and had smaller margins.

The laundry giant said that it earned $171 million in the last three months and had revenue of $1.52 billion last quarter. Clorox also reports that it expects to earn enough to keep in line with estimates.

So, sales have not been hurt by this recession for Clorox Co., at least. That is a good thing. But that its tax burden went up so much as to flatten its net income is unconscionable.

Businesses are in business to make money not forever break even. Breaking even is no incentive to push for higher achievement and invites sloth and eventual disinterest.

Without innovation and a return on the effort our economy will stagnate even further. As that happens tax receipts fall.

Obama is playing a dangerous game with our economy, folks. It’s one we are all bound to lose.
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The Era of Obama: Clorox Co. Loses Net Income to Taxes?”

Anti-Americanism - Banks - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Government - John Armor - Liberals - President - Taxes

Corruption Is Good, In the Right Hands

August 3, 2010 by

-By John Armor

I listened to every word of President Obama’s statement on signing the financial institutions’ “reform” law, Wednesday morning. This was a filthy job, but somebody had to do it. The longest applause during the entire charade was when Obama thanked Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Christopher Dodd for their “tireless work” in getting this bill passed.

Now, class, let’s conduct a brief review. First, not every Act that contains the word “reform” actually reforms or improves anything. As your grandma used to say, “Just because the cat has kittens in the oven, doesn’t make them biscuits.”

Second, this “reform” law doesn’t lay a finger on the two federal lending corporations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were at the heart of the phony financial instruments which nearly crippled the national economy. Why would they, of all institutions, be left out?
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Corruption Is Good, In the Right Hands”

Alexi Giannoulias - Banks - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Senate - Warner Todd Huston

Democrat ‘Mob Banker’s’ Bank Loaned $23 Mil to Tony Rezko

August 2, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Tony Rezko has been at the root of many of Illinois’ worst cases of government corruption and influence peddling with ties that go back decades. He’s been tied to President Obama, indicted Governor Rod Blagojevich, and now Senate Democrat candidate Alexi Giannoulias whose family bank loaned the crook almost $23 million.

Worse, the Giannoulias family bank made the loan to Tony Rezko’s development group long after he’d become “politically radioactive,” as the Chicago Sun-Times puts it.
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Democrat ‘Mob Banker’s’ Bank Loaned $23 Mil to Tony Rezko”

Banks - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Conservatives - Economy/Finances - Franklin Deleno Roosevelt - Free Trade - Government - History - Liberals - President - Regulation - Taxes - The Heartland Institute - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston - WWI - WWII

Heartland Institute Luncheon: This Recession Caused By Over-Regulation Not Market Failure

July 30, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

I just returned from a nice little luncheon given by the Heartland Institute (www.heartland.org) in beautiful downtown Chicago, Illinois. The purpose of the gathering of free-market supporters and like-minded individuals was to celebrate the life’s work of famed economist and Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman.

The principal speaker was Richard H. Timberlake*, student and friend of the celebrated economist and an accomplished free-market economist in his own right.

I’ve done several such events for some of the conservative think tanks and state policy groups in the Windy City and I enjoy these events in Chicago because I always get the uneasy feeling that our little conclave of right-thinking fellows well met is the last vestige of civilization and that we are putting on the timbers to secure the gates as the barbarians mount their attack. The barbarians of which I speak are, of course, the city full of Democrats and socialists that looms on all sides surrounding our little events.
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Heartland Institute Luncheon: This Recession Caused By Over-Regulation Not Market Failure”

Banks - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Liberals - President - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Financial Reform? More Like Union Giveaways!

July 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Thursday the Senate passed the Democrat’s financial reform bill. But even as Obama claims that this bill will “solve” the financial crisis, a look at the thing seems to prove that things financial took a back seat to giveaways to Obama’s union pals and sops to many of the Democrat’s other special interest friends.

The main union payback is the provision to allow unions and environut groups the ability to take control of the boardrooms of corporations in which they own stock through the so-called “proxy access” provision. This provision has been widely panned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.

The Washington Times reports that there are other sops to Democrat special interests in this “financial reform” bill, too.
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Financial Reform? More Like Union Giveaways!”

Banks - Barney Frank - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Peter Roskam - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Why Do Fannie And Freddie Execs Make More Than our Generals?

June 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Representative Peter Roskam tries to offer an amendment that makes sure that the executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don’t make more money than the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Naturally the Democrats would rather pay millions to the executives that are still running Freddie and Fannie into the ground than accept even this small measure of agreement between parties. The leftists keep bawling for bi-partisanship, yet won’t even agree with the smallest of bi-partisan measures.

Democrats don’t want “bi-partisanship.” They want total control and their voters are fools to imagine anything else.
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Why Do Fannie And Freddie Execs Make More Than our Generals?”

Banks - Budget - Capitalism - Chuck Schumer - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Senate - Stimulus - Taxes - Thomas Brewton

Wrong Again

June 8, 2010 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Senator Charles Schumer is either an economic ignoramus, or he is just performing the usual Democrat/Socialist Party obeisance to the welfare state and labor union extortion.

New York’s Senator Charles Schumer wants to impose a punitive tax on all American companies that employ overseas call centers for customer support.

“English speaking workers, whether they are in Indonesia, Canada, the Philippines, South Africa, are willing to work longer hours for lower wages and as a result Americans lose their jobs,” Schumer said.

How will job creation be improved in the United States by raising businesses’ costs? Will businesses be more able to compete in global markets and protect jobs in the United States? How will consumers be helped when businesses have to raise their prices to cover the new taxes and related costs?
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Wrong Again”

Banks - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Stimulus - Warner Todd Huston

ShoreBank Rally on Wednesday at Noon‏

June 7, 2010 by

From Tea Party Patriots Chicago…

We’re holding a rally against the ShoreBank bailout on Wednesday, June 9 at noon outside the downtown location of ShoreBank at 134 N. LaSalle Street, across the street from City Hall. Joel Pollak, candidate for U.S. Congress (IL-9), and Isaac Hayes, candidate for U.S. Congress (IL-2), are scheduled to speak at the rally. We will be handing out fliers to educate the public on the corrupt, politically connected bailout of ShoreBank.

ShoreBank has received $35 million in stimulus funds, $75 million from companies that have received bailout money (Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, GE), and now they’re hoping to receive another $75 million in taxpayer money. ShoreBank provided Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Trinity United Church with a $10 million line of credit – now they need a bailout. We hope this rally can bring attention to this issue and help prevent this looting of our treasury. ShoreBank is attempting to cash-in on their connections with Barack Obama, Jan Schakowsky, Robert Creamer, Dick Durbin, Van Jones and more. At the very least, no taxpayer money should go to ShoreBank until there is a forensic audit of their finances.
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ShoreBank Rally on Wednesday at Noon‏”

Alan Caruba - Anti-Americanism - Banks - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Senate - Socialism - Stimulus - Taxes

Obama’s House of Cards

June 4, 2010 by

-By Alan Caruba

Ever since polls have been taken there have been presidents who encountered disapproval during their terms in office. Usually history exonerates them to some degree. This is not likely to happen with Barack Obama.

As this is written, a Politico.com polls puts Obama’s job disapproval rating at 46.4% and Congress has a disapproval rate of 72%, a figure matched by Rasmussen Reports. Obama’s disapproval rate according to Rasmussen was 44%.

Polls, we are always told, are “snapshots” of public opinion at a given time, but the polls consistently tell us that the vast majority of Americans disapprove of the President and Congress, and believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction.

In a recent Wall Street Journal column, Peggy Noonan, wrote “I don’t see how the president’s position and popularity can survive the oil spill. This is his third political disaster in his first 18 months in office. And they were all, as they say, unforced errors, meaning they were shaped by the president’s judgment and instincts.”

Suffice it to say that, if elections were being held next Tuesday, voters would replace most of those in Congress and, if Obama’s ratings continue to fall—-and I think they will—-there would be an angry mob surrounding the White House carrying torches and pitchforks demanding his resignation.
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Obama’s House of Cards”

Banks - Business - Crime - Vince Johnson

It’s time to ask some “Hardball Questions!”

May 23, 2010 by

(Ed, a quick note from Mr. Johnson…)
-By Vince Johnson

There must be some reason why Obama and Congress are badmouthing Arizona’s call for help in enforcing immigration laws on the books for over fifty years.

Could it be that the Drug Lords have hired some “backdoor” lobbyists? If there were some other reason, you’d think the wealthy incumbents would have made it public years ago.

Why don’t the Drug Lords put their money in the bank? Is it because investing in political influence provides a far greater return on investment?
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It’s time to ask some “Hardball Questions!””

Banks - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Huffington Post - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Thugs Terrorize Teenage Boy

May 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Nice work, SEIU. Service Employee International Union members descended upon the home of a banker to protest the banker’s work. The banker wasn’t home but his teenage son was and he was home alone and the 14 bus loads of union thugs scared the heck out of the poor kid.

This was no political protest, it was an inciting, angry mob of union thugs. The Fortune Magazine piece that reported the incident made a salient point about the whole thing.

Targeting homes and families seems to put SEIU in the ranks of (now jailed) radical animal-rights activists and the Kansas anti-gay fundamentalists harassing the grieving parents of a dead 20-year-old soldier at his funeral (the Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on the latter). But that’s not a conversation that SEIU officials want to have.

Amusingly, Nina Easton makes another great point in the friendly coverage of this outrageous union thuggery. The Old Media didn’t even attend and the whole thing was covered by an activist Huffington Post blogger.
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SEIU Thugs Terrorize Teenage Boy”

Banks - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Greece - Liberals - Paul A. Ibbetson - Taxes

America and Greece: Beware the Path of the Black Cat

May 19, 2010 by

Paul A. Ibbetson

In you live in America, Europe, or many other places on the planet, then you probably have heard the tales of bad fortune that befalls unprepared souls who allow a black cat to cross their paths. In this realm of superstition the most capable and blessed black cat path-crossers find themselves with bad fortune, and heaps of it. In an ironic twist of fate, it is said that even the unluckiest people who test this taboo find out that their low lot in life can and will get lower. That’s sad.

Some would question the strolling power of the black cat even in the face of undoubtedly real catastrophes that take place among people who believe they have triggered this unstoppable bad luck. Could it be that when Mr. Whiskers crosses a person’s path people act in ways that increase their risk of misfortune? Possibly they may believe, at least subconsciously, that with bad fortune on the horizon, who needs to worry about well-thought out decisions? The skeptic in me sees the black cat as the perfect scapegoat. A matter of fact a person doesn’t have to face the real cause of their misfortune when it can be laid at the furry dark paws of the bad luck giver.
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America and Greece: Beware the Path of the Black Cat”

Banks - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - House of Representatives - Peter Roskam - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

May 15, 2010 by

-By Representative Peter Roskam

In the last week, the government-backed mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac asked the taxpayer for $19 billion to stay afloat. Add that to the $127 billion in bailouts they have already received since September 2008, and we are now talking about a whopping $146 billion of your hard-earned tax dollars being used to prop up these failed entities. In more than a year and a half we have heard nothing from the Administration about a plan to implement real reforms to stop the bleeding. This Democratic Congress, in the midst of a debate on financial regulatory reform, is completely silent on the issue.

Instead of showing leadership on this issue, the Democrat Majority in Congress has chosen to duck Fannie and Freddie reform, putting off hard decisions for later. According to Senator Christopher Dodd, reform will have to wait until the “next wave” of legislation.
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Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac”

Alexi Giannoulias - Anti-Americanism - Banks - Chicago - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Illinois - Liberals - Mark Kirk - Regulation - Republicans - Senate - State Government - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

CBS News (Chicago): The ‘We Won’t Report The News if it Hurts Democrats,’ News

May 7, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

CBS News decided that if certain aspects of the race for Illinois Senate between Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Alexi “The Mob Banker” Giannoulias threaten to make news, why the good folks at CBS Channel 2 News will just refuse to cover it.

I have to say, I find it interesting that CBS News has decided what it will deign to cover and what it won’t. I am wondering if the rest of us hoi polloi were to chose that track at our places of employment. Don’t like mowing a lawn, cleaning a toilet, doing that boring expense report, talking to the boss… well, follow the Channel 2 method and just refuse to do that part of your job!

Must be nice to pick and choose the parts of your job that you will deign to do, eh?
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CBS News (Chicago): The ‘We Won’t Report The News if it Hurts Democrats,’ News”

Banks - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Liberals - Thomas Brewton

Fiduciary Responsibility and Judgment vs. Caveat Emptor

May 3, 2010 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Right or wrong, the charges against Goldman Sachs highlight divergent standards of banking.

There is every reason to suspect that the charges against Goldman Sachs are little more than a political ploy by the administration to shift attention away from its own financial improvidence and to add impetus to its proposed regulatory strangulation of the banking business.. Right or wrong, however, the SEC’s action questions Goldman Sachs’s reputation for probity.

In many respects the frothy nature of Wall Street securities dealings leading to the current crisis are reminiscent of the mid-19th century marketing of canal-building and railroad-building securities that financed the nation’s rapid industrial and agricultural growth from the 1820s until the 1880s.

During that period, far too many speculative financial deals were marketed by Wall Street banks, deals in which securities buyers often lost their money. It was a time when bank notes issued as currency by banks all over the nation were equally varying in soundness.
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Fiduciary Responsibility and Judgment vs. Caveat Emptor”

Alexi Giannoulias - Banks - Business - Chicago - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Mark Kirk - Senate - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Feds Shut Down Dem. Sen. Candidate Giannoulias’ Family Owned Bank

April 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Democrat’s Illinois Senate candidate, Alexi Giannoulias, has seen his family business stripped away from them and placed in the hands of a new owner (MB Financial) because he and his family could not come up with the $85 million needed to shore up falling liquidity.

Banking regulators seized the Giannoulias’ Broadway Bank this evening and placed it in the hands of MB Bank, a bank with branches throughout the Chicagoland area.

Alexi Giannoulias was the bank’s chief lender and vice-president from 2002 to 2006. He has been criticized for working for the bank when it loaned $20 million to Michael “Jaws” Giorongo and reputed mobster Boris Stratievsky. Giannoulias’ family has also been attacked for taking $70 million in dividends in both 2007 and 2008 as the bank’s loans were going bad.
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Feds Shut Down Dem. Sen. Candidate Giannoulias’ Family Owned Bank”

Banks - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Jeff Lukens

2008 Market Crash Should be Investigated

April 12, 2010 by

– By Jeff Lukens

Almost two years after the mortgage crisis and stock market crash, no one seems to wonder about the “September surprise” that shifted the 2008 presidential election to an unknown leftist politician who had been elected to the Senate only two years before. A pulp-fiction writer could hardly have created a more contrived and bizarre story. But this was not make-believe. No, it is now our own gritty reality show that we only wish we could turn off.

The week of Sept. 15, 2008, was a debacle of huge proportions. On Monday, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy while other lending institutions lined up like dominoes teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. But the week was hardly over. On Thursday, an electronic run on the banks occurred. In an unprecedented move, the Treasury and the Federal Reserve had to act together to stop what had become a full-fledged panic. On Saturday, Sept. 20, The Wall Street Journal recounted events of that previous Thursday:

“Instead of lining up at bank windows, investors were unloading financial assets on their PCs. Credit markets had seized up, to the point that even routine daily settlements had stopped until banks had the actual securities or cash in hand.”
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2008 Market Crash Should be Investigated”

Banks - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Pot Calling the Kettle… Unions Say Banks are Corrupt

April 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Hill Newspaper is reporting that unions are “amping up” for a battle against America’s big banks when Congress is next in session. Uniopns want Congress to institute financial regulatory reform because they feel that banks need to be “held accountable.”

The first thought that comes to mind is to wonder when Congress will ever hold unions accountable for anything! Perhaps unions should avoid throwing stones in that glass house of theirs!

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) head Anna Burger railed against the “greedy actions of the financial industry” and announced that the SEIU was scheduling protests against banks in San Francisco, Kansas City, Charlotte and on Wall Street.

It is a hoot to see the SEIU saying that other people are “greedy.” Seriously. A union thug railing against other’s greed! It’s just a hypocrisy beyond belief.

The SEIU is also upset at the executive pay of several bankers. One wonders that if the SEIU is so against high salaries, when they will cut the salaries of their own chiefs that make hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars a year?
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Pot Calling the Kettle… Unions Say Banks are Corrupt”

Banks - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Matthew J. O'Connor - President - Socialism - Taxes - Western Civilization

Professor Paul Krugman: Team Obama’s Prof. K-9

April 8, 2010 by

-By Matthew J. O’Connor

One of the left wing’s most vocal and pernicious purveyors of liberal rhetoric is the Nobel prize winning, new age globalist professor of macroeconomics, Paul Krugman. Professor Krugman is one of the left’s most respected economic advisers and has gained much notoriety over the past decade as a constancy providing economic theory and political punditry [centered left of left ] – communicated through a certain arrogance and hubris on a level somewhere between the stratosphere and Valhalla.

One only has to periodically read and watch Mr. Krugman to detect the vanity and self-righteous indignation he holds for those who challenge his findings or opinions; it is quite fascinating and at the same time quite instructive into the politically liberal mindset. A mindset which the ubiquitous Professor Krugman staunchly guards and promotes throughout the media as the liberals’ economic attack dog; code name, Professor K-9.
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Professor Paul Krugman: Team Obama’s Prof. K-9″

Alexi Giannoulias - Banks - Chicago - Cook County - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Illinois - Senate - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

The Democrats ‘Mob Banker’ With $20 Million in Loans to Criminals

April 2, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is bad enough that current State Treasurer and Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias is now well-known as the mob’s favorite banker with revelations of his $20 million in bad loans to various mobsters and convicted felons — so much money that his family bank is now about to go belly up over it all. But what is worse is that the Illinois Democrat Party purposefully backed this shady operator as its 2010 candidate for Senate!

Illinois Democrats are so arrogant that they imagined that they could pick the dirtiest candidate they could find, one with a possible criminal history worse than that of their recently resigned knife wielding Lt. Gov. candidate Steve Cohen, and the voters would just mindlessly go to the polls and vote the party line. And perhaps they are right. We’ll see.

The Chicago Tribune recently reported that Giannoulias’ failing bank loaned the $20 million to Michael Giorango and Demitri Stavropoulos even as they were about to be trundled off to serve federal prison sentences.
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The Democrats ‘Mob Banker’ With $20 Million in Loans to Criminals”

Banks - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - Health - House of Representatives - Illinois - Joe Walsh - Liberals - Socialism - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

Walsh Will Put District’s Interests Ahead of Party Interests to ‘Repeal, Reform and Replace’

April 2, 2010 by

From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…

This week, Investor’s Business Daily asked, “Are Republican leaders getting rubbery-legged about repealing the massive new multitrillion-dollar entitlement program the president and Congress just passed into law?”

Certainly, many are not including Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) who has already introduced legislation to repeal Obamacare.
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Walsh Will Put District’s Interests Ahead of Party Interests to ‘Repeal, Reform and Replace’”

Anti-Americanism - Banks - Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Energy - Entertainment - Government - Health - Hollywood - Liberals - Lobbyists - Media - Military - Movies - Oil - President - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Biggest Lobbyist Winners from Left-Wing Advocacy Organizations

April 1, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston


On the campaign trail, now President Obama regularly excoriated lobbyists. He said he’d make the government “open and transparent” and said he’d make it hard for lobbyists to “curry favor” with his administration “based on how much they can spend on a fancy dinner.” Once elected, John Podesta, a member of his transition team, said that Obama would be implementing the “strictest ethics rules ever applied” to those scoundrel lobbyists. In his 2009 State of the Union address Obama puffed up his chest, proud of himself that he “excluded lobbyists” from important jobs in his administration.

With all that bombast and populist wind from Obama and his cohorts, then, one would expect to see a dearth of lobbyists in important positions in Obama’s Washington. One’s expectation, however, would easily be dashed by the truth.

Remember the rarefied air of Obama’s campaign for president? Wanna see some, shall we say, “broken promises”?
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Obama’s Biggest Lobbyist Winners from Left-Wing Advocacy Organizations”