July 2009

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke testified before the House Financial Services Committee today, delivering his semi-annual report on monetary policy. The most heated exchanges came over proposed government audits of the Fed's balance sheet, which has doubled in a year's time due to its bailout programs, and the White House's proposal to make the Federal Reserve the US capital market's ... read more

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke presents the Fed's semi-annual monetary-policy report on Capitol Hill today, the start of two-day hearings. On tap will be the Fed's massive quantitative easing programs and the exit strategy out of them, a dicey proposition that analysts say ranks right up with the US's exit strategy out of Iraq. But although Bernanke is winning kudos and praise for ... read more

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will come out swinging when he takes to Capitol Hill on Thursday to testify once again about whether he was the shotgun behind the wedding between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. Paulson plans to tell U.S. lawmakers he acted appropriately in warning Bank of America chief executive Ken Lewis that the firm's management could be ousted if it walked away ... read more

Goldman Sachs Group (GS) has just come out with a quarter that will please everyone. Unfortunately, this was telegraphed by recent analyst calls with above-estimate forecasts.  The investment banking giant -- a.k.a. “bankless” bank-holding company -- posted earnings at $4.93 a share versus $3.54-a-share estimates, on revenues of $13.76 billion versus estimates of $10.6 billion. The ... read more

Don't lose sight of the real scandal in the latest AIG bonus controversy--the fact that the US Treasury under former secretary Henry Paulson used your money to make whole Wall Street firms who had bet against AIG, 100% whole, 100 cents on the dollar. The news breaking now is that AIG is forking over another round of bonuses and that the administration's newly appointed pay czar can't do a thing ... read more