From:  The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact:  Susan Kniep, President

Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032

March 6, 2009

 

 

Washington prepares for big bank failure

 

March 7, 2009, 12:12am, CNN: A bill introduced in the Senate would give FDIC chief, Sheila Bair, a huge loan to handle 'emergency situations' in the banking sector. NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The government is bracing for a big bank failure.

A bill introduced in Congress would give the FDIC, the agency that stands behind Americans' bank deposits, temporary authority to borrow as much as $500 billion from the government to shore up the deposit insurance fund. The bill -- the Depositor Protection Act of 2009, backed by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho -- wouldn't change the status of individual bank accounts, which through the end of this year are insured up to $250,000. But the Dodd-Crapo bill acknowledges what the financial markets have been signaling for the past month -- that the government must take the lead in a costly cleanup of the mess in the financial sector. http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/06/news/dodd.fdic.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009030700

 

Will the banks survive? More

 

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• National:  8.1% Unemployment;  In the Private Sector, 651,000 Jobs Were Lost in Feb, 655,000 in January, and 681,000 in December.  
• Connecticut:  The Democrat-controlled State Legislature Gave $86 million Taxpayer Dollars to a Public Sector Union while refusing to pass substantive Binding Arbitration reform to control state and local taxes.   

 

 

Please send to your family, friends and business associates

 

 

Surprise: State can’t borrow its way out of deficit, By Keith M. Phaneuf
Journal Inquirer, March 6, 2009,  HARTFORD — Since record-setting budget deficits first were projected last fall, officials have said the state may be forced to put billions of dollars on its credit card to ride out the recession.  But there is agreement now that one all-but-immovable obstacle makes that impossible: the state Constitution.  http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2009/03/06/news/doc49b13fdfcb7e4552934102.txt

 

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Calendar of  What is Transpiring at the State

 

 

 

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3/6/09 - Gov. Rell: State Web Site to Track Stimulus Funds, Projects, Jobs

 

3/6/09 - Gov. Rell Seeking Quick Passage of Legislation to Expedite Stimulus Money

 

3/5/09 - Gov. Rell: Voluntary Furloughs Saved State Over $1 Million Since January

 

3/4/09 - Gov. Rell: Layoffs, Higher Ed Cuts Inevitable Unless Other Savings Adopted

 

3/3/09 - Gov. Rell Orders Freeze on All State Agency Purchasing

 

 

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Rell to Dems: Cut spending or force layoffs, By Keith M. Phaneuf
Journal Inquirer,  March 5, 2009 

HARTFORD — Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell this week warned majority Democrats in the legislature that unless they begin to dramatically reduce state spending, employee layoffs will be inevitable.  Rell, whose mantra to this point has been that she hopes to do everything possible to avoid adding to the ranks of Connecticut’s unemployed, said lawmakers are leaving her little choice.

“I have cut agency spending over and over,” the governor said Wednesday, “and I have done everything in my power to avoid state employee layoffs in this extraordinarily difficult economic climate.” http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2009/03/05/news/doc49afefbfd1fec456647305.txt

 

 

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The $10 Trillion Hangover

http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=1320

 

 

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BAILOUT TRANSPARENCY NEWS

From OpenTheGovernment.org

http://www.openthegovernment.org/article/articleview/365/

 

 

Federal Reports and Letters

http://www.openthegovernment.org/article/articleview/367/

 

 

 

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Mortgage woes break records again in 4Q, By J.W. ELPHINSTONE – 1 day ago, NEW YORK (AP) — Foreclosures are spreading by epidemic proportions, expanding beyond a handful of problem states and now affecting almost 1 in every 8 American homeowners.  It's an economic role-reversal: The economy, driven down by the collapse of the housing bubble, is causing the housing crisis to spread. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g1dEfzc7iFDqzJKxQhYTANYIm-0AD96O7VS82

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YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK, Corruption hunt targets stimulus
'Accountability has to start now, the exposure has to happen now'

March 06, 2009 By Bob Unruh, WorldNetDaily

A nonprofit watchdog on the U.S. government is demanding documents from the federal Office of Management and Budget on special interest organizations that helped write the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.  "We're looking for corruption," Larry Klayman, founder of Freedom Watch, told WND today.

And he's confident he'll find it. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=90833

 

 

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Congress passes stopgap bill to avoid shutdown 3/6/2009 Associates Press,   WASHINGTON — Congress has approved a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running into next week. …The 2009 budget began last October, but election-year fights delayed $410 billion worth of budget work. After a hitch on Thursday night that forced Congress to step in with short-term funds, the Senate appears on track to send the rest of the budget to President Barack Obama next week. http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2009/03/06/news/doc49b15bb5ae7a3994803972.txt

 

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EARMARKS A PLENTY!!!!!!!!!

 

Taxpayers for Common Sense UPDATE -- $7.7 Billion In Earmarks In 2009 Omnibus Spending Bill
http://www.taxpayers.org/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=1961&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS#

 

 

Spending bill includes 16 earmarks from Emanuel, Mar. 2, 2009 McClatchy Newspapers, WASHINGTON - Even though President Barack Obama has repeatedly pledged to ban congressional earmarks, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has 16 such projects, worth about $8.5 million, in the bill the Senate is scheduled to begin debating Tuesday. The earmarks include funds for a Chicago planetarium and a Chicago suburb. Obama has been relentless in criticizing the use of earmarks; in his address to a joint session of Congress last week, he boasted how the economic stimulus package was "free of earmarks." http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/03/02/20090302earmark-emanuel0203-ON.html

 

 

Earmark-laden bill a line in the sand for pork-barrel politics

Obama vowed to press reforms; many doubtful by Dan Nowicki - Mar. 6, 2009 12:00 AM, The Arizona Republic The Senate is getting ready to pass a giant spending bill stuffed with congressional pet projects that critics decry as unnecessary pork.  .. The 8,570 earmarks in the bill represent $7.7 billion, according to the nonpartisan group Taxpayers for Common Sense. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/03/06/20090306earmarks0306.html

 

 

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U.S. economy sheds 651,000 jobs in February

By Lucia Mutikani – March 6, 2009  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. unemployment rate hit a 25-year high of 8.1 percent last month as employers buckling under the strain of a severe recession axed 651,000 jobs, government data showed on Friday.  Adding to the gloom, a combined 161,000 more jobs were lost in January and December than previously believed, the Labor Department said. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the economy has shed 4.4 million jobs, with more than half purged in the last four months alone. "The economy is in a tailspin. Businesses are shedding workers at breakneck pace and there's no reason to expect that to change," said Richard Yamarone, chief economist at Argus Research in New York. "A million job losses a month have moved from possible to probable." http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE52517Z20090306

 

 

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From Dowd Muska

Facts, Fantasies, and Regionalization

http://www.dowdmuska.com/2009columns/col022609.htm

 

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Pimco's El-Erian: Strong firms cutting jobs By Jennifer Ablan and Daniel Burns, Reuters, March 6, 2009  NEW YORK (Reuters) - The precipitous drop in U.S. payrolls in February shows that profitable companies are bracing for the recession to deepen by shedding jobs, Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co., said Friday.  "The situation is getting worse, not better," El-Erian told Reuters Television on Friday. http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUKTRE5253ON20090306

 

 

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House approves mortgage bankruptcy overhaul, By Kevin Drawbaugh, March 5, 2009, Reuters  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - ….. President Barack Obama on Wednesday launched a $75 billion foreclosure relief plan, part of a $275 billion housing stimulus program …. http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE52482F20090306

 

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US sees serious threat in Mexico drug violence By MATTHEW LEE

Associated Press Writer  WASHINGTON -- Spiraling drug violence in Mexico, narcotics trafficking elsewhere in Latin America and a thriving opium trade in Afghanistan pose significant national security threats to the United States, the Obama administration said Friday.  In its annual survey of global counter-narcotics efforts, the State Department painted a grim picture of the situation in Mexico, where government attempts to fight traffickers are hindered by rampant corruption. The battle between authorities and drug cartels killed more than 6,000 people last year and more than 1,000 so far in 2009.  Mexico is the main transit point for cocaine entering the U.S. and a source for much of the heroin, marijuana and methamphetine consumed in America. The report praised Mexican President Felipe Calderon for "courageous" and "unprecedented" steps to combat drug trade, but noted corruption still plagues the effort. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/924945.html

 

 

 

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Merrill’s $10 million Dollar Men Top 10 Earners Made $209 Million in 2008 as Firm Foundered - As bad as 2008 was for Merrill Lynch & Co., it was very good for Andrea Orcel, the firm's top investment banker. Although Merrill's net loss ballooned to $27.6 billion last year, Mr. Orcel, 45 years old, was paid $33.8 million in cash and stock, just shy of his pay in 2007.  While Merrill staggered, 11 top executives were paid more than $10 million in cash and stock last year, say people familiar with the situation. An additional 149 received $3 million or more. The stock awards, which accounted for much of the compensation, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123612736445024231.html

 

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Bernanke Blasts AIG For 'Irresponsible Bets' That Led to Bailouts, March 4, 2009, Washington Post  ....."AIG exploited a huge gap in the regulatory system," Bernanke said. "There was no oversight of the Financial Products division. This was a hedge fund, basically, that was attached to a large and stable insurance company, made huge numbers of irresponsible bets -- took huge losses. There was no regulatory oversight because there was a gap in the system." On Monday, AIG announced a loss of $61.7 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008, the biggest quarterly corporate loss in U.S. history. The federal government simultaneously announced that it would once again restructure the terms of the AIG bailout, which began in September and had grown to a $152 billion total package. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/03/AR2009030303810.html

 

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From the National Taxpayers Association 

Chance to lower your tax bill.

https://secure.ga1.org/05/tsr0902

 

 

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"It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error".
-U.S. Supreme Court, in American Communication Association v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382, 442