The markets are sharpy down today, more than 300 points by 1:15 p.m., after the announcement of the revamped and renamed TARP financial industry bailout plan (now called FSP for Financial Stability Plan) by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Here’s is what it looks like on StockCharts.com:
Geithner’s full remarks after the jump.
Some of the major financial institutions that are recipients of tens of billions of our TARP tax dollars weren’t as grateful as you would think they would have been, or as busy trying to right their own ships or lending some of that money out to prospective homeowners or credit card holders. Why? One reason is they apparently spent too much time on conspiratorial conference calls about blocking labor legislation and bundling big bucks for GOP lawmakers who help them out.
Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community’s top legislative priority.
Participants on the October 17 call — including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG — were urged to persuade their clients to send “large contributions” to groups working against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill.
Bernie Marcus, the charismatic co-founder of Home Depot, led the call along with Rick Berman, an aggressive EFCA opponent and founder of the Center for Union Facts. Over the course of an hour, the two framed the legislation as an existential threat to American capitalism, or worse.
“This is the demise of a civilization,” said Marcus. “This is how a civilization disappears. I am sitting here as an elder statesman and I’m watching this happen and I don’t believe it.”
The Huffington Post story has amazing audio of the telephone conference call between the banks and retailers as they bemoan the labor legislation, which would change the way companies could be unionized, as the end of the world, or at least the free-market world.
As for Bank of America’s involvement, HuffPo says: Read the rest of this entry »
