Big Banks Get $125 Billion Cash Going Away Gift From Paulson and the Bush Administration

Please sit down before you read this. If you have high blood pressure or heart trouble don't even try to read this, find a decent sports page instead, this is not for you.

Half of the first $250 billion tranche of money approved by Congress for the mortgage crisis will end up in the hands of the "healthy" big banks.

"For the good of the American financial system," Treasury Secretary Paulson has told the big banks they must take his $125 billion dollar handout, reports NYT.

Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase were told they would each get $25 billion; Bank of America and Wells Fargo, $20 billion each (plus an additional $5 billion for their recent acquisitions); Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, $10 billion each, with Bank of New York Mellon and State Street each receiving $2 to 3 billion. Wells Fargo will get $5 billion for its acquisition of Wachovia, and Bank of America the same for amount for its purchase of Merrill Lynch. So much for bailing out the mortgage market.
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They Are Getting Ready To Divvy Up The Lucre
The Bush administration summoned executives from leading banks to a meeting in Washington Monday afternoon to work out details of the $700 billion plan.

And, as they say in Chicago, "If you are not at the table, you are on the menu."

For the record those expected at the table are:
Here

Retirement Accounts Have Lost $2 Trillion So Far...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans' retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months - about 20 percent of their value - Congress' top budget analyst estimated Tuesday as lawmakers began investigating how turmoil in the financial industry is whittling away workers' nest eggs.The upheaval that has engulfed financial firms and sent the stock market plummeting is also devastating people's savings, forcing families to hold off on major purchases and even delay retirement, Peter Orszag, the head of the Congressional Budget Office, told the House Education and Labor Committee.As Congress investigates the causes and effects of the meltdown, the panel pressed economists and other analysts on how the housing, credit and other financial troubles have battered pensions and other retirement funds, which are among the most common forms of savings in the United States.