Are you thinking wait a second, weren't those banks given billions and billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars? Aren't they supposed to first consider U.S. workers for jobs in the United States? Weren't Bank of America and Wells Fargo made H-1B and L-1 guest worker dependent employers by legislation recently passed by Congress?
This is one hell of a story. The New York Post is reporting:
As Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner orchestrated a plan to help the nation's largest banks purge themselves of toxic mortgage assets, Citigroup and Bank of America have been aggressively scooping up those same securities in the secondary market, sources told The Post.
Both Citi and BofA each have received $45 billion in federal rescue cash meant to help prop up the economy and jumpstart the housing market.
But the banks' purchase of so-called AAA-rated mortgage-backed securities, including some that use alt-A and option ARM as collateral, is raising eyebrows among even the most seasoned traders. Alt-A and option ARM loans have widely been seen as the next mortgage type to see increases in defaults.
We're not called The Economic Populist for nothing. This story is going to outrage you. Institutions receiving your tax money are making campaign contributions to the very Congressional representatives who are supposed to oversee your money.
American International Group is giving its executives tens of millions of dollars in new bonuses even though it received a taxpayer bailout of more than $170 billion dollars.
AIG is paying out the executive bonuses to meet a Sunday deadline, but the troubled insurance giant has agreed to administration requests to restrain future payments.
The Treasury Department determined that the government did not have the legal authority to block the current payments by the company. AIG declared earlier this month that it had suffered a loss of $61.7 billion for the fourth quarter of last year, the largest corporate loss in history.
It seems our worker friendly clause which said TARP recipients first had to consider qualified U.S. workers before bringing in more foreign workers on H-1B guest worker Visas is working:
Bank of America has become the first US bank to withdraw job offers made to MBA students graduating from US business schools this summer, citing conditions laid out in its bail-out deal as the reason.
The recently passed $787bn stimulus bill in effect prevents financial institutions that have received money from the government’s troubled asset relief programme from applying for H1-B visas for highly skilled immigrants if they have recently made US workers redundant.
BofA, which has received a total of $45bn in Tarp funds, is in the process of digesting two large acquisitions – Countrywide, the mortgage broker, and Merrill Lynch – which will see thousands of jobs lost.
Another voice confirming what we already know. Wall Street, financial institutions lobbied for our and their demise. Two watch dog groups, have released a report (large pdf) on precisely how Wall Street, the financial sector, hedge funds bought off our government.
The new funding is intended to support AIG as it absorbs $60 billion in quarterly losses and operational and competitive upheaval. Under the plan, the insurer will repay much of the $40 billion it owes the Federal Reserve loan with equity stakes in two AIG units overseas -- Asia-based American International Assurance Co. and American Life Insurance Co, which operates in 50 countries.
Repayment was originally supposed to be in cash with interest. In addition, AIG will securitize $5-$10 billion in debt, backed with life insurance assets, to further reduce its debt burden.
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