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Source: Pelosi Focusing Bailout Plan on Exec. Pay, Bankruptcy
According to a senior House staffer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is likely to insist that any Wall Street bailout bill contain two specific items from the Democrats' wish-list: limits on executive compensation, and a measure to protect homeowners by allowing mortgages to be renegotiated in bankruptcy proceedings.
Things may not go smoothly on those fronts, however. House Republicans have signaled their firm opposition to executive pay limits. And the Blue Dogs, a faction of fiscally conservative Democrats, may be "uncomfortable" with changing bankruptcy laws, said the staffer.
There are a number of Democratic proposals circulating right now aiming to attach strings to the Treasury Department's $700 billion Wall Street package.
In the Senate, the draft legislation being offered by Banking Committee chair Chris Dodd appears, which would give the federal government an equity stake when it helps banks with debt, (and which Paul Krugman describes as "a big step in the right direction) appears to be the most prominent.
But in the House, things are a bit more chaotic. Rep. Barney Frank, who chairs the Financial Services committee, has circulated his own proposal, which is slightly closer to the Treasury Department's own, though, like Dodd's, it aims to limit executive pay.
Rep. Brad Sherman this afternoon released to TPMmuckraker an outline of his own plan, which goes further than either Dodd's or Frank's.
And an unlikely coalition of conservative deficit hawks and liberal populists may be taking shape to oppose any bailout at all.
Pelosi's office did not immediately respond to a request for further information.
Josh
Zachary
Equity should be the price of admission for any bailout. If you need government funds to cover your losses, then you must share your future profits with the government. It's a quid pro quo. Remember that it's financial firms in distress that are looking for help, so the government can, and should, set the terms of the deal.
September 22, 2008 6:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I really wish equity were the Democratic sticking point and not the executive pay thing. I'm all for embarrassing CEOs, but the fact is, even if we don't give them their $15 million golden parachutes they'll still all be millionaries, just slightly-fewer-millions-aires, and the amount the CEOs will be stealing for those golden parachutes is sure to be a really small fraction of the amount the companies themselves will be stealing...
I'm afraid we're going to whitewash a massive government giveaway with "but we were real mean to some of the executives! It was on the television!"
September 23, 2008 12:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
How can you possibly oppose equity? Republican are set to lose 20 - 30 seats in November. Are they really trying to go for 40 or 50?
September 22, 2008 7:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
A quote from Senator Lamar Alexander, made in reference to climate legislation, may be relevant here: it says something like Congress can't do big legislation any more. Giving away tons of money may be conceptually easy, but the more they try to make it balanced, the more trouble -- and they have very little time. Better to do a stop gap and do the big deal when we have a President.
September 22, 2008 7:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you have any questions regarding the large exit funds...
check this one out
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/fury-at-25bn-bonus-for-lehmans-new-york-staff-937560.html
Get mad, really mad! Who's your daddy....
September 22, 2008 7:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
this is nothing... tag it with national health care.
September 22, 2008 9:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah Pelosi, my favorite double agent, She has tested the wind of the average citizen and decided it is just CEO`s golden parachutes that have to be curtailed before she will OK the big 700 + billion bail out. Americans are royally fucked if she thinks that is all to be truly concerned about. What a douche.
September 22, 2008 9:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
One good thing that may come out of this is people will turn their disgust towards Pelosi.
I know the republicans are trying to destroy the Dems indiscriminately- and the truth is, the Spineless Ones deserve the nation's wrath- but she is one person I will enjoy seeing fall into the trap.
Of course, that is the only bright spot in an impending return to Hobbes' "state of nature."
September 22, 2008 9:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
THIS is a great TPM post that echo's (and expands) on what Pelosi is riffing about. READ IT!
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/09/fair-market-solution-retroacti.php
September 22, 2008 10:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Real numbers:
A million seconds is 12 days.
A billion seconds is 31 years.
A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.
A million minutes ago was – 1 year, 329 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes ago.
A billion minutes ago was just after the time of Christ.
A million hours ago was in 1885.
A billion hours ago man had not yet walked on earth.
A million dollars ago was five (5) seconds ago at the U.S. Treasury.
A billion dollars ago was late yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Treasury.
A trillion dollars is so large a number that only politicians
can use the term in conversation... probably because they
seldom think about what they are really saying. I've read that
mathematicians do not even use the term trillion!
Here is some perspective on TRILLION:
Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000.
The country has not existed for a trillion seconds.
Western civilization has not been around a trillion seconds.
One trillion seconds ago – 31,688 years – Neanderthals stalked the plains of Europe.
September 22, 2008 10:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't let the big numbers get you down; they are relative to what happens in this global situation. Personally I see that in a stagnant economy nothing is going to happen and we will suffer; in vibrant economy, with controls, we will continue to trade and have growth.
September 23, 2008 5:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Let's see just how our new congress is doing...
No impeachment or punishment for unjust war, lying to congress, destruction of public records...
No penalties for refusing subpoenas from congress...
No withholding funds for illegal war...
Absolutely no penalties for members of one's own party...
Lobbying regulations as lax as the one's replaced...
And now... the largest redistribution of funds the planet has ever known...
Anyone out there still believe the Reps and Dems in Washington are not totally devoid of any character and morality?
Remember folks... BOTH parties got us into this mess, not just one...
September 23, 2008 12:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's the chock doctrine. Once again, conservatives are using a crisis to do what no rational person would agree to without a crisis to either scare them into cooperating or distract them from what's being done. I think we can turn this one around though. Conservatives want this much more than liberals do. I'd rather risk the banking system collapse than do this bailout with no oversight. I say we go beyond equity, controls on executive pay, and allowing bankruptcy judges to change mortgages. Let's reinstate Glass-Steagal. Repeal the 2005 bankruptcy bill. Repeal Bush's upper class tax cuts immediately. Insist on paying pennies on the dollar for this worthless debt. Reinstate usury laws. Maybe let's really think big, and if big business really wants this, then the price is they let the Employee Free Choice Act pass.
And maybe it should become policy that businesses that get too big to fail get broken up before they need to get bailed out.
September 23, 2008 1:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great post. Take it and blog it!
September 23, 2008 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hope Congress doesn't get caught up with the politics and remembers that we aren't on individual rowboats but are on one giant sinkable ship.
September 23, 2008 5:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'll be perfectly happy if nothing passes - I'm screwed anyway it turns out, so why save the rich, who are so tight fisted, nothing ever trickles down - let the pain trickle up.
September 23, 2008 6:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
If Congress really wanted to fix the financial system/economics of our nation . . . AND were still committed to spend $700 billion, they would give every U.S. Citizen one million dollars AND SPEND THE OTHER $360 rebuilding the country's crumbling infastructure.
September 23, 2008 9:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
If Congress really wanted to fix the financial system/economics of our nation . . . AND were still committed to spend $700 billion, they would give every U.S. Citizen one million dollars AND SPEND THE OTHER $360 rebuilding the country's crumbling infastructure.
September 23, 2008 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
OR
Congress could spend two ($2) million on each and every Citizen and have $40 BILLION leftover to incarcerate Paulsen, Greenspan and the entire Bush Administration for the rest of their unnatural lives.
September 23, 2008 11:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
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September 23, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink