wall street bailout

Remember how we the taxpayers became the primary shareholders of  AIG, the world's largest insurance firm?

Within days we might also own the largest bank in the United States.

Citigroup is taking on water fast. The stock has lost half its value in recent days and efforts to find a new investor are underway http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1861332,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

One expert, Brad DeLong, is openly suggesting Citigroup be de facto nationalized http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2008/11/time-for-the-go.html Given that the present market cap for a $2 Trillion institution is down to $20B,  http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=C the out-of-pocket Treasury cost to assume full control here is a mere smidgen of Paulson's $700B slush fund.  

Now, how did Citigroup get in such parlous shape, especially when compared with the NYC rival, JPMorgan Chase?  Well, the Citi was asleep to the level of risk it had in mortgage securities. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/business/23citi.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&em

And guess what? The prime architect of Citi's disasterous strategy was the once renowned Clintonista hard money advocate, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin

Citigroup insiders and analysts say that Mr. Prince and Mr. Rubin played pivotal roles in the bankʼs current woes, by drafting and blessing a strategy that involved taking greater trading risks to expand its business and reap higher profits. Mr. Prince and Mr. Rubin both declined to comment for this article.

Now where has Rubin been seen lately?...hmmm..advising Barack Obama 

http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/07/news/easton_obama.fortune/index2.htm

How does Senator Dodd. Chairman of the Banking Committee figure in all this?

a) Citigroup is the #1 contributor to Chris Dodd's political campaigns http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=Career&cid=N00000581

$425,000 in lifetime contributions to Dodd.

b) Dodd said in the summer he did "not expect many more banks to fail"

 http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dodd-does-not-expect-many-more-banks-to-fail-2008-07-14.html

Naw, just the biggest one

A few days ago , I pointed out how Democrat Chris Murphy, who received $500,000 in campaign funds from financial firms as a member of the Financial Services Committee, and then rewarded his donors by supporting the $700 Billion Wall Street Bailout, was responding to the charge with a cloying saccharin laden ad  

http://www.thenextright.com/ironman/ct-democrat-uses-saccharin-overdose-to-counter-gop-charges

Well, although I am not privy to Murphy's polls, the saccharin failed. Tonight he is up with a new attack ad trying to link his opponent to President Bush.

http://www.murphyforcongress.org/christv/help

I suppose there must be some form of moral equivalence here for Murphy.  What's wrong in his mind is a Republican president raising money for a Republican candidate. What's not wrong is a member of the Financial Services Committee following in Chris Dodd's footsteps by shaking down the firms he regulates.

I note that Murphy makes no link to Obama in his ad, just the usual MSM liberal incumbent endorsements. And that as an incumbent with a 2/1 funding advantage in a Blue State he needs to attack his opponent. To quote L.P. Berra, "sometimes you learn a lot just watching"

I did a drive to the other end of CT 5 this afternoon and there is a lot of Cappiello visibility in the Danbury area. This race may be headed back to the radar screen. 

Like the day you vote to give the tycoons on Wall Street  $700 Billion

It just might be the wrong day to put the hit on the American Bankers Association for three large. Especially when you lambasted your predecessor for soliciting cash from folks who worked with her committee, and now you sit on the Financial Services Committee. 

http://davidcappiello.com/dc/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

The bailout is NOT going to go away as an issue for awhile, I suspect.

Ads on the politics of bailing out Wall Street are starting to hit airwaves across America. This ad just went up today in CT criticising Financial Services Committee member Chris Murphy (D- CT)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZHfuQU6bZc

This may draw blood for a variety of local reasons. First, Murphy's 2006 campaign to unseat 24-year Republican Nancy Johnson was relentless in attacking Johnson for allegedly raising too much money from special interests. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LBV1UTPQgg

Of course, as soon as Murphy got in office he went to work shaking down the exact same people to build his own multimillion dollar warchest. http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00027566

He actually winks at the hypocrisy---he told radio hosts Chaz & AJ on 99.1 WPLR that the would "pander to any special interest groups besides Yankee fans"

This maniacal money chase reached the absurd this week as Murphy decided to make common cause with former Republican Governor John Rowland to host a local fundraising event. This would have been a masterstroke for Murphy but for the small problem Rowland resigned his office over a corruption investigation.   http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-webgovwatch0928.artsep28,0,7408215.story   Evidently, Murphy's alleged 2006 ethical purity did not survive contact with Congress.

The Cappiello ad also subtly points out that  Murphy has been financed by many of the same firms who have had his political mentor, Senator Chris Dodd, on retainer all these many years. Readers of this blog know what a train wreck this is going to be for Dodd. This week, the Hartford Courant started reporting how the wheels left the track    http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-dodd0929.artsep29,0,1341992.story

This Courant cartoon states the obvious. The financial meltdown is now the only issue in CT and here at least, some Dems have had to buy into it, big time.

Now Chris Murphy is neck deep in all this. I sure hope Nancy Johnson right about now has a nice glass of wine in her hand and a smirk on her face.