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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (1055)	11/12/2008 6:35:45 PM
From: ManyMoose	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

I bookmarked that . Thanks.

To: Neeka who wrote (1055)	11/13/2008 9:27:11 AM
From: GROUND ZERO™	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

Thank you for finding and sharing that list of promises. I included your link into the thread header. I hope this is okay with you. GZ

To: Neeka who wrote (1055)	11/13/2008 9:47:50 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 103300

Citizens should ALWAYS watch their government like a hawk! (Nothing new about that need, LOL!) ================================================= Financial Crisis: Washington's $5 Trillion Tab Elizabeth Moyer, 11.12.08, 5:15 PM ET forbes.com For all the fury over Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion emergency economic relief fund, it seems downright puny when compared to the running total of the government's response to the credit crisis. According to CreditSights, a research firm in New York and London, the U.S. government has put itself on the hook for some $5 trillion, so far, in an attempt to arrest a collapse of the financial system. The estimate includes many of the various solutions cooked up by Paulson and his counterparts Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve and Sheila Bair at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as the credit crisis continues to plague banks and the broader markets. The Fed has taken on much of that total, including lending a cumulative $1 trillion in overnight or short-term loans since March to primary dealers through its emergency discount window and making a cumulative $1.8 trillion available through its term auction facility, a series of short-term transactions it began making available twice a month in January. It should be noted that a portion of the funds lent in these programs has been repaid and that the totals represent what has been made available. The Fed also took on tens of billions in debt, including $29 billion in debt of Bear Stearns, and made $60 billion of credit available to American International Group. It is committing $22.5 billion to set up a special purpose vehicle to manage some of AIG's residential mortgage-backed securities, and it is financing $30 billion of a second fund to hold $70 billion of multi-sector collaterized debt obligations on which AIG wrote credit default swaps. The Treasury, in addition to the $700 billion raised in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, agreed to guarantee money market funds against losses up to $50 billion, will inject $40 billion of capital into AIG and is backing the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to the tune of $200 billion. The FDIC, meanwhile, is guaranteeing $1.5 trillion of senior unsecured bank debt. Not included in the total are the Fed's long-existing discount window lending to commercial banks, the mortgage modification plan announced by regulators on Tuesday, support for the Federal Home Loan Banks and a myriad of other programs. Paulson and Bernanke have tried any number of ways to stop the free fall in housing prices and unfreeze the credit markets, with limited success. Rates that banks charge each other for three-month loans have dropped to 2.1% over the corresponding Treasury security, from their high of 4.8% in October. But lending is contracting as banks brace for rising credit costs and corporate borrowers hunker down. The Treasury has turned its focus from attempting to buy troubled assets from banks, which was the original intent of the October Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, to injecting capital in the form of preferred equity stakes. It started out with $125 billion worth of investments in eight major U.S. banks and has since expanded the program to an increasingly broad range of financial and nonfinancial companies. And with just $60 billion left of its initial $350 billion authorization under the emergency act, the Treasury faces a growing number of companies--including Detroit's automakers--begging for assistance. David Hendler, an analyst at CreditSights, says it looks as if government is left holding the bag, and of course that translates into everyone. "The losses have to be taken, but no one wants to take them," Hendler said at a conference Wednesday, speaking about the banks and their handling of troubled assets. "It seems like the taxpayers are going to be taking a good portion of that."

To: Neeka who wrote (1055)	11/13/2008 9:53:31 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

Obama vows far-reaching review of US govt 1 hour ago afp.google.com WASHINGTON (AFP) — Senior politicians, former ambassadors, top business leaders and lawyers will lead special teams into US government agencies to prepare the ground for Barack Obama's presidency, his office said. An army of specialists -- including senior members of former president Bill Clinton's administration -- is set to fan out across in the Treasury, State Department and Pentagon. Even the White House will be scrutinized as the 450-strong transition team goes through more than 100 departments and agencies. "The Agency Review teams will complete a thorough review of key departments, agencies and commissions of the United States government as well as the White House," the Obama team said in a statement. The aim is to provide Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, "with information needed to make strategic policy, budgetary and personnel decisions prior to the inauguration." Facing two wars and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, Obama wants to be able to implement policy changes as soon as he becomes president on January 20. Obama has made it clear that the faltering economy will be his top priority. So far Obama has only named his White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, but there has been fierce speculation as to who might occupy key posts in Treasury, State and the Pentagon. Heading up the Treasury agency review will be former Treasury staffer Josh Gotbaum, who now serves as an advisor to investment funds focusing on restructuring. World leaders are preparing to descend on Washington starting Friday for a summit of the Group of 20 rich countries and major developing economies, called by Bush and dedicated to finding ways to reform the global finance system. But those eager to meet the president-elect will be disappointed: Obama will not be attending the talks, respecting a long-standing convention that there can only be one president at a time. Instead, former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and former Republican congressman Jim Leach will stand in for Obama and meet foreign delegations on the sidelines of the talks. "This weekend's summit is an important opportunity to hear from the leaders of many of the world's largest economies," said senior Obama foreign policy advisor Denis McDonough in a statement. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also high on the agenda, Obama named former assistant secretary of state for public affairs under Clinton, Tom Donilon, to head up the State Department review team. At the Pentagon, John White, former deputy secretary of defense from 1995 to 1997, will be in charge of the transition probe. The Pentagon's missile defense chief Trey Obering said Wednesday he was looking forward to reporting to Obama that the US anti-missile system was "workable," and to setting the president-elect's mind at ease. "Our testing has shown not only can we hit a bullet with a bullet, we can hit a spot on a bullet with a bullet," the lieutenant general told reporters by teleconference. Obering is set to step down at the end of November, but his boss Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been silent on rumors that Obama may be thinking about asking him to stay on. Some changes in a new Obama administration are already taking shape. When he takes office, Obama will lift a freeze on funding for global family planning programs imposed by the outgoing Bush administration, Democratic lawmaker Carolyn Maloney told reporters. "We are about to see major cultural change in Washington," Maloney said. Obama won backing from an unexpected quarter on Wednesday, when defeated Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told CNN she would be honored to help Obama in any way, if called upon. "It would be my honor to assist and support our new president and the new administration, yes," she said. US Vice President Dick Cheney will meanwhile welcome vice-president elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, for a private meeting at his official Naval Observatory residence on Thursday, Cheney's spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said.