Tag Archives: Treasury Department

A new report from the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) suggests the Treasury Department has failed once again to curb what SIGTARP calls "excessive" executive pay at AIG, General Motors, and Ally Financial--three companies bailed out with taxpayer funds. After investigating pay in 2012, SIGTARP reported Treasury approved pay packages worth $5 million or more for 23 percent of the top employees at AIG, GM, and Ally.

The debt ceiling controversy and its impact on the nation's financial credibility demands a solution that will last for more than just a few months.

The Federal Reserve announced it paid a record $88.9 billion to Treasury in 2012. The earnings are from Fed programs that were introduced to stimulate the economy and involve the purchase of billions in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) each month to keep interest rates down.

Four years after inheriting an economy on the brink, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner is stepping down. The nominee to replace him: Jack Lew, former director of the Office of Management and Budget during both the Clinton and Obama administrations and current White House Chief of Staff.

After some consideration, the board of American International Group (AIG) announced Wednesday the company will not be joining in a lawsuit brought by one of its former executives against the U.S. government. The New York Times first reported Monday that AIG's board was mulling over its options regarding a $25 billion lawsuit filed by Starr International Company on behalf of AIG shareholders and spearheaded by former AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg (now the CEO of Starr).

From 2008 through 2011, 414 banks failed across the nation, resulting in estimated costs to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) of about $42.8 billion, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GOA). When examining the cause of bank failures from 2008 through 2011, GOA found banks with less than $1 billion in assets were especially vulnerable to commercial real estate losses. GOA also found instances of "nontraditional, riskier funding sources" in many failed banks.

Negotiators in Washington face a dismal weekend leading up to -- and perhaps including -- New Year's Eve, made worse because they're trying to solve the wrong problem. They're wrangling over how to avoid the fiscal cliff when a series of laws aimed at or contributing to the nation's deficit are set to expire, complicated by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's pronouncement the nation is approaching its debt ceiling.

How much have housing sales recovered compared to 2008's levels? According to the most recent measures released by the "U.S. Treasury, 2012's sales fall somewhere in the middle between 2008's highs and 2011's lows. The latest monthly data on U.S. economic statistics shows new home sales reached an annualized average of 368,000 in October. While that statistic comes in above 2010's annualized monthly average of 321,000--and well above 2011's average of 307,000--it still falls short of previous years.

The Treasury announced Tuesday it will sell the remainder of its shares of American International Group, Inc. common stock. The move brings Treasury's stake in the company to an end. Together, Treasury and the Federal Reserve invested $182.3 billion to stabilize the failing insurance behemoth in September 2008 at the start of the financial crisis. In addition to recouping the total $182.3 billion, the Treasury incurred a positive return of $5 billion, while the Federal Reserve received a positive return of $17.7 billion.

Fannie Mae reported a $1.8 billion net income for Q3 this year, an improvement over the $5.1 billion loss last year.