- Senate Passes Legislation to Overhaul U.S. Health-Care System
- Master of risk who did God’s work for Goldman Sachs but won it little love
- Dimon, Blankfein, Mack Among First to Testify at Crisis Panel
- Senate Votes to Increase U.S. Debt Ceiling by $290 Billion
- Barclays’ Bob Diamond reveals £5m share disposal
- Morgan Stanley Appoints 212 New Managing Directors
- Grassley puts pressure on Treasury in tax dispute
- Buffett’s back, Billionaire looks to lock up GMAC’s ResCap
- Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won
- ‘Squawk Box’ Broker Mahaffy Says U.S. Hid Evidence of Innocence
- Auto headlines: Millions OK’d for GMAC CEO
- Judge denies Stanford’s plea for pretrial release
- Anchor Alexis Glick leaving Fox Business Network
Senate Passes Legislation to Overhaul U.S. Health-Care System – Bloomberg
The Senate approved legislation that would make the broadest changes to the U.S. health-care system in decades, advancing President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority after months of partisan wrangling.
The Senate voted 60-39, with all Democrats and two independents backing an $871 billion measure that would extend coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans. Republicans opposed the legislation, saying it would raise taxes, widen the federal deficit and hurt private companies such as Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna Inc…..
Master of risk who did God’s work for Goldman Sachs but won it little love – Financial Times
Under other circumstances, this would have been a year to savour in the long, rapid ascent of Lloyd Blankfein. Goldman Sachs, the investment bank he has led for three years, not only navigated the 2008 global financial crisis better than others on Wall Street but is set to make record profits, and pay up to $23bn (€16bn, £14bn) in bonuses to its 31,700 staff……
For all of these reasons, both positive and negative, the Financial Times has chosen Lloyd Blankfein as its Person of the Year. His job and his personality have made him the public face of Wall Street during its most testing period since the 1930s….
Dimon, Blankfein, Mack Among First to Testify at Crisis Panel – Bloomberg
The chief executive officers of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Morgan Stanley will headline the inaugural hearing of a congressional panel investigating Wall Street’s financial crisis.
JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, Goldman’s Lloyd Blankfein, and Morgan Stanley’s John Mack will testify next month in Washington, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Chairman Phil Angelides said in a telephone interview yesterday. Bank of America Corp.’s incoming CEO, Brian Moynihan, has been invited and is expected to appear as well, Angelides said…..
Senate Votes to Increase U.S. Debt Ceiling by $290 Billion – Bloomberg
The U.S. Senate cleared legislation increasing the U.S. debt limit by $290 billion before recessing for the year.
The vote today was 60-39 to raise the limit on federal borrowing to $12.39 trillion, enough to tide the government over for about two months. The House approved the legislation Dec. 16. The measure, which would be the fourth debt-limit increase in 18 months, now heads to President Barack Obama for his signature.
The Senate’s Democratic leaders had to settle for the short-term increase following conflicting demands among their rank-and-file over proposals to reduce the government’s budget deficit. Some lawmakers threatened to withhold their votes for a bigger increase in the debt ceiling unless Congress created a commission to cut government spending……
Barclays’ Bob Diamond reveals £5m share disposal – The Guardian
Bob Diamond, president of Barclays, has sold £5m of shares in the high-street bank in recent days in what is his first disposal of shares since joining the board of the bank four years ago.
His decision comes just days after the 23,000 investment bankers at Barclays Capital – which is overseen by Diamond – were awarded hefty pay rises. It comes amid what is expected to be one of the most fraught bonus seasons in memory following the introduction of the tax on bankers’ bonuses by the chancellor in this month’s pre-budget report. The bank is understood to have written to all staff on Tuesday detailing pay rises individually in a move which is certain to increase tensions with lower paid staff in Barclays’ high street operations……
Morgan Stanley Appoints 212 New Managing Directors – BusinessWire
Grassley puts pressure on Treasury in tax dispute – Washington Post
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) on Wednesday criticized a Treasury Department ruling that let Citigroup keep billions of dollars in tax breaks and threatened to prevent the confirmation of several nominees for senior Treasury posts until the department suspended efforts to collect a tax penalty from hundreds of small businesses.
Hours later, the Internal Revenue Service, an arm of Treasury, announced that it would extend a moratorium on collecting the penalty. Grassley’s office, in turn, said the senator would allow the nominations to move forward, but that he still planned to investigate the Citigroup ruling…..
Buffett’s back, Billionaire looks to lock up GMAC’s ResCap – NY Post
Warren Buffett is in talks to buy GMAC’s Residential Capital, one of the biggest residential mortgage-servicing firms and originators, sources told The Post.
Buffett, along with Appaloosa Management and Avenue Capital, is said to have large debt positions in ResCap.
To stay in compliance with its loans, ResCap needs to have a net worth of $250 million, but in recent months has come close to falling below that threshold…..
Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won – NY Times
….While the investigations are in the early phases, authorities appear to be looking at whether securities laws or rules of fair dealing were violated by firms that created and sold these mortgage-linked debt instruments and then bet against the clients who purchased them, people briefed on the matter say.
One focus of the inquiry is whether the firms creating the securities purposely helped to select especially risky mortgage-linked assets that would be most likely to crater, setting their clients up to lose billions of dollars if the housing market imploded…..
‘Squawk Box’ Broker Mahaffy Says U.S. Hid Evidence of Innocence – Bloomberg
A former broker at Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citigroup Inc. who was convicted of selling access to his brokerages’ internal “squawk boxes” will seek a new trial because, he says, prosecutors hid evidence of his innocence.
Federal prosecutors withheld 27 transcripts of testimony from witnesses in a related civil lawsuit that may have cleared him, a lawyer for Kenneth Mahaffy Jr. said in a court filing yesterday. The lawyer said he discovered the documents on Dec. 7, four days after Mahaffy was sentenced to two years in prison, and will now seek a new trial…..
Auto headlines: Millions OK’d for GMAC CEO – Detroit Free Press
Michael Carpenter, named last month as CEO of bailed-out lender GMAC Inc., will receive a pay package of as much as $9.5 million.
Carpenter will get an annualized cash salary of $950,000, $5.4 million in stock and long-term restricted shares that could be worth as much as $3.1 million, according to documents released Wednesday by the U.S. Treasury and signed by Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration’s special master on pay….
Judge denies Stanford’s plea for pretrial release – Reuters
Without comment, U.S. District Judge David Hittner on Wednesday issued an order denying the pleas from Stanford’s lawyers and family that cited his physical and mental deterioration and inability to help prepare his defense.
Hittner’s order said he had considered the request and supporting documentation filed this week, which included a spate of letters from family members and friends…..
Anchor Alexis Glick leaving Fox Business Network – LA Times
Fox Business Network’s Alexis Glick, who was a big hire for the News Corp.-owned cable channel in 2006, announced Wednesday that she was leaving her job as anchor of “Opening Bell” and vice president of news.
“I’m about to embark on a new venture,” said Glick, 37, adding that Wednesday was her last day on the show…..
Tags: Alexis Glick, Bad Legislation, Barack Obama, Barclays, Bob Diamond, Citigroup, FBN, Goldman Sachs, Health Care, Jamie Dimon, John Mack, JP Morgan, Lloyd Blankfein, Morgan Stanley, National Debt, Politics, Warren Buffett
