Bear Stearns Sale to JPMorgan to Be Probed by Senate

Bear Stearns Sale to JPMorgan to Be Probed by Senate

www.bloomberg.com

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- The top lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee said they are reviewing the terms of the taxpayer-backed sale of Bear Stearns Cos. to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, and Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, the panel's top Republican, sent a letter to Bear Stearns Chief Executive Alan Schwartz, JP Morgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, and New York Fed President Timothy Geithner seeking details on how the buyout was negotiated.

``Americans are being asked to back a brand-new kind of transaction, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars,'' Baucus said in a statement. ``With jurisdiction over federal debt, it's the Finance Committee's responsibility to pin down just how the government decided to front $30 billion in taxpayer dollars'' for the deal, Baucus wrote.

The committee's inquiry may herald a broader congressional backlash to the agreement, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has described as a ``bailout.''

(visit the link for the full news article)

This has got to be the most blatant misuse of taxpayers funds I have ever seen! Let Bear Stearns fall, this is the free market.

Eveidently Wall street wants to capitalize on gains but socialize the losses. So what will the taxpayer get in return for the 29 Billion we gave JP Morgan?

This sickens me to no end

www.bloomberg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This will be very revealing. Not because the media will tell us anything we can't figure out for ourselves, but because there won't be a way to whitewash this without us seeing who is behind the whitewash.

Look for those who commend the actions of the Fed as heroic, as well as those who will 'determine' that the Fed should have more policy control. Also make sure and pay attention to see who dissuades the 'inquiry' from examining past practices and what the h#ll happened to our gold.

We allowed our representatives to sell us out to the private bankers, but they never imagined having to answer for it! Let's throw 'em down the well and watch them fizz!

Originally posted by Maxmars
This will be very revealing. Not because the media will tell us anything we
We allowed our representatives to sell us out to the private bankers, but they never imagined having to answer for it! Let's throw 'em down the well and watch them fizz!

Here Here!

I almost forgot this part until you reminded me of it. I wonder if this will be brought up at all... perhaps by someone like Stephen Colbert.

All this in addition to the likely class-action lawsuits against Bear Stearns' leaders by their shareholders for fraudulently promoting their financial health (I'm not an investment expert but even I can figure out, when you say you've got billions in ready cash to back up shareholders' investments at $30+/share and then a couple days later sell out everything to your competitors at a fraction of that share value, someone somewhere is lying through their effin' teeth)... Looks like we may see some executive frog-marches in the future.

You must have forgot, or never heard of the Savings and Loan scandal.

I believe it cost to the tune of 4 trillion dollars once all the faulty/shody investments/loans fell through.


Make no mistake, nothing will come of this investigation. Any charges laid will be on the lesser players, while the super rich will remain unseen and untouched.

The corporate state, after all, must protect the corporate class.

Call me cynical, but I didn't think these senators were looking out for the taxpayer. I figured they wanted to make sure they don't lose any of their money or commissions on the deal.

Great that the senate is going to look into this fiasco.

The latest word is that they are giving Bear Stearns Brokers a bonus to stay on the job. So
I guess it was not enough that they ripped off homeowners and taxpayers, but now they are getting a bonus for doing it!

Top Bear Stearns brokers to get bonuses to stay:
www.msnbc.msn.com...

Originally posted by roadgravel
Call me cynical

Ok, You are cynical.


I agree though. Until Bankowners are tarred and feathered (much like in the John Adams show on HBO) the gov will not be pressed to really do much other than staged hearings.

However, methinks if we were to bring back the mob mentality which made this country great enough to throw off the chains of Great Britain and their Bankers, then we could really get some stuff accomplished.

reply to post by Quazga


My experience with people has been to let everything ride, with some hope (blindly believe) that it is all going to be OK. I wonder what exactly it will take for the majority that say 'enough is enough'. I don't think we can even whip up a good mob any more.

I believe it was Greg Palast that was asserting on the radio yesterday that Spitzer was about to go after Wall Street when he got taken down. Hopefully he was not a one man army. I have lost all of my IRA trying to recover from the bubble crash. Wall Street crooks got it all. Granted many of the stocks we're pink sheets but Ameritrade and Washington mutual were more than happy for the business. Flat out lies are used to manipulate stock prices and unless you are in the know or can watch every minute for signs of dumping the small investor is the loser everytime.

SEC does nothing.

Hence, if they don't want me to have money I say *&%$ the system. I will be happy and satisfied with life regardless.

[edit on 26-3-2008 by stikkinikki]

so there may be a few decent senators left

america now runs on the fascist business model dont forget that

we should all write demanding letters to our senators, remember in life

you have to take what you want, not wait around for someone else to do

the right thing for you. Take charge and demand something be done, the

federal reserve was created by Jp morgan in 1913 , it pays "lip service to

main street and joe blow but they act in the interest of WALL STREET, and

the financial sector nearly owns the media, so you will not get a straight

answer from them just more banking propoganda.

The truth is if Thomas Jefferson was running today for president he would

likely have only a few percentage points more than Ron Paul does cause

the financial led media would identify him as a huge threat to their profits

and destroy his character and ideas, and naive and trusting americans

would buy it.

The good thing about a recession is that it gives the average american enough pain to anger them into opening their eyes to discover the banking system we have right now has already been abolished twice in american history and needs to go for the "hat trick". The dollar as world reserve currency is the only thing that kept our standard of living up as long as we enjoyed (thanks to all the times we attacked others and claimed more resources) but now we citizens can no longer take on any more debt and the bankers bailout their own and the rest will be left to fend for themselves.

reply to post by cpdaman


I only hope the few senators that are still trustworthy aren't going to fall under the corporate regimes 'smear campaigns'.

I hate to think that former Gov. Spitzer was slam dunked because he was a moth that got to close to the flame. But then, with the way information is massaged, spindled, and otherwise mutilated before we get it, who knows?

If we could just get enough publicly fueled momentum on this we might actually see the fiscal truth leak out. Too bad these Jekyll Island types are so dangerous, I think most 'in the know' would be too fearful to take them on. Rumor has it they've killed (metaphorically and literally) much of their opposition.

reply to post by Maxmars


Figured I'd throw this link up as the issue has been brought up by two posters so far

www.abovetopsecret.com...

It has a link to the original article, and tons of other interesting tidbits of information. Worth a look.