A new bank is born: US Fed gives American Express full bank status

News is coming across the wire right now per the WSJ that AMEX has requested a $3.5B capital injection from TARP.

Since they're now officially a "bank," they will almost certainly get it.

All that bad credit card debt...it's ours to eat now, my fellow Americans.

WSJ

American Express Co. which is being hit by slowing consumer spending and rising defaults, is seeking roughly $3.5 billion in taxpayer-funded capital from the federal government, according to people familiar with the situation.

The card issuer is the latest company not directly hit by the housing crisis to request cash from the federal government. While retailers, car companies and others hit by the slowdown in consumer spending haven't gotten the government money, financial firms of all kinds are getting federal bailouts.

I'm forming the Bank of ATS (BoATS). I don't think I'll have the paperwork done in time to make the 11/14 deadline for this round of capital injections but there'll be more in the very near future so we're good. I'll need to get the staffing situation sorted, so I'm now taking applications for:
VP of Executive Spa Retreats
Chief Spending Officer
DJ for the Lobby Dance Floor (I'm installing a dance floor, making BoATS the rockinest bank EVAR)
Cage Fight Referee
as well as many Bank Tellers (strict dress code: Halloween costumes, no exceptions)

Any takers?

They pumped so much money into the banking system to ease the "credit crunch," but the money didn't hit the street the way it was imagined. That's why Bernanke was talking another economic stimulus bailout. I mean a stimulus package like that one that Generous George signed and send in the spring of this year which was designed to bail out the consumers.

Maybe it would be better to turn all the credit card companies into the banks, give them the bailout money and the rest is a fairy tail. "Super-super-platinum edition" with $100,000 line of credit would make Lexus dealers jump for joy and it could possibly keep GM afloat -- the old-fashioned way.

I think that Bernanke knows by now that he took the wrong way turn.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, in a time not so long ago . . .

February 25, 2008 - 9:14 p.m.
NEW YORK - The chairman and chief executive of American Express Co. received compensation valued at US$53.2 million in 2007, nearly double his pay in the previous year, according to a regulatory filing Monday.

The main driver behind Kenneth I. Chenault's surge in pay was a hefty increase in the stock and options awards American Express gave him.

Chenault, 56, received $42.8 million in stock awards for performance in 2007 and a special incentive stock option grant. For performance in 2006, Chenault receive stock awards valued at $16.9 million.

Good to see them being rewarded for doing such a splendid, bang up job.

Rest of the story . . .



[edit on 12-11-2008 by GoalPoster]

Our f@C#I&G government is so corrupt! Of course everyone will go whining to the government for help and a bailout!! What is going to happen when the American people get together and all approach the White House for their "bailout". If the corporations can get bailed out... so can the little guy.

Fight for Justice!

Originally posted by wintermarches

Originally posted by anachryon
AMEX is it for me. This entire debacle has gotten so absolutely, astoundingly ridiculous that I'm now having a hard time taking any of it seriously.

Let 'em collapse. Let 'em all collapse. Let the currency collapse. How the hell can we ever pay back all the money being hemorrhaged into various lending institutions?? How is it possible the US will ever get out from under this crushing debt we've bailed ourselves into??

That's the point. I don't think we're supposed to get out from the debt. This is how they will usher in the North American Union, and then the NWO. None of it surprises me - it's all going the way they want it, seems to me and plenty others.

Yup, i watch the news everyday, i read the papers, same over here in britian its going just the way i think it is, its only got this bad because it was designed to, all money is debt

Originally posted by anachryon
WSJ

I'm forming the Bank of ATS (BoATS). I don't think I'll have the paperwork done in time to make the 11/14 deadline for this round of capital injections but there'll be more in the very near future so we're good. I'll need to get the staffing situation sorted, so I'm now taking applications for:
VP of Executive Spa Retreats
Chief Spending Officer
DJ for the Lobby Dance Floor (I'm installing a dance floor, making BoATS the rockinest bank EVAR)
Cage Fight Referee
as well as many Bank Tellers (strict dress code: Halloween costumes, no exceptions)

Any takers?

Will you allow smoking on the premises, including while working? If so,
I would like to be the cage fight referee...my qualifications are shady and I'm pretty sure that I'd let every fight degenerate into a total bloodbath, but I would keep the seats filled, I promise.

Originally posted by gypsy1035
Our f@C#I&G government is so corrupt! Of course everyone will go whining to the government for help and a bailout!! What is going to happen when the American people get together and all approach the White House for their "bailout". If the corporations can get bailed out... so can the little guy.

Fight for Justice!

You apparently haven't recieved yet the economic stimulus check that your *&%^ government sent you in the summer, otherwise you wouldn't be bitching so much about "the little guy."

you mean those crumbs they tossed our way


that was nice of them, perhaps next time they vote for a bailout. they will vote to bailout the mainstreet economy, not some trickle down L I E!

use some taxpayer funds for investment in something that will create J O B S. actually that would make less sense to them, since they wouldn't be able to give as much away in insider bonuses. When you think like a criminal the actions of paulson and the lies of bernanke make alot more sense.

People lets understand what is going on.

Paulson the Golden boy and the fed Aka the global banks are consolidating all the major financial institutions and making them a big monopoly as they used tax payer money to buy out small banks, or bankrupt them to buy them for pennies on the dollar.

The only reason they are doing this is because when they become in charge of the banking system as just a few they will be able to screw us the consumer a lot better.

Watch out for the unregulated practices and new laws to protect this maga trillion dollar empires so the consumer will be nothing that a feeding slave to the interest rates cow that will be heading our way when the credit freeze is melted.

Trust me the freeze is until this consolidation and take over is finished.

We will become powerless without a fight against this new power taking over the nation.

reply to post by stander


I only got $337 dollars...

Which I thought to be an odd amount seriously.. I think it had something to do with me adding deductions for everything from me car to my toothbrush.

Stingy bastards.

I think my next check from the gov should be a BMW, maybe a yacht, and a vacation home.. you know .. since that's what these executive folk are gettin..

Or rather, maybe all the stock options the Gov is getting, instead of being owned by the treasury they should issue out the shares per person to anyone 18 and older.

Then I wouldn't complain.

reply to post by marg6043


OK .. I am on my 3rd glasss of whiskey for the night so I might say this not how I think I am:::

If the companies we are investing in actually become solvent and turn a profit and the economy goes back to the way it was, and the US GOV owns prefered shares..

$700 billion in assets will generate 10% income fixed rate which could pay for .. I don't know ... another war or two? Small ones. Like. Incursions. Or it could go towards mr. Bamamama's new socialist goals..

Of course, that's assuming what the Gov did fixed a problem.

I challenge ANYONE to tell me the last time the Gov fixed a problem without creating a bigger one in it's wake.


PS what I describe is a fundamental necessity to Corporate Fascism. Have a good night!

[edit on 11/12/2008 by Rockpuck]

Originally posted by cpdaman
you mean those crumbs they tossed our way

Those "crumbs" represent 25% or one quarter of the original bail out figure. When AMEX gets 0.005% of that, "the little guy" starts screaming. On top of that, the collection of those $700 bilion is nowhere to be seen -- not a trace of a taxman pulling over your house.

reply to post by Rockpuck

Rockpuck, Rockpuck! How was your day?

Hey, can you write down the scenario the way you see it unrolled where Bernanke and Paulson would show the finger to anyone begging for help from the start (the Lehman option) and would let things to sort themselves the natural way? I just went by a small discount store that went out of business for some reason (new lease, I guess.) This way to deal with a financial problem is still alive and well, so it could be easily applied elsewhere.

Wonder why this happened. Some of the American Express cards have RFID tags in them. The Feds made them a bank now? How ODD...