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Dodd's Dealings Illustrate Holes in Financial Disclosure
By Bill Allison Mar 9, 2009 6:22 p.m.Via InstaPundit comes this commentary from the Hartford Courant by Kevin Rennie, an attorney who writes a weekly column for the paper, on Sen. Chris Dodd's real estate deals. The Senate Ethics Committee is already looking at his mortgage with Countrywide Financial (more details here); Rennie writes that other Dodd properties might be worth looking into:
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Financial Bailout: Are congressional leaders invested in the crisis?
By Bill Allison Sep 26, 2008 8:10 p.m.Members of Congress continue to debate the bailout package that may well affect the bottom line of every taxpayer in the country, as well as those of big banks, brokerages, and other financial firms. While they hear from numerous experts, including distressed Wall Street titans, on the dangers facing their firms, what sort of exposure do members themselves have if those firms fail?
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Financial Bailout: Who does Dodd see at his fundraisers?
By Bill Allison Sep 24, 2008 2 a.m.Among Sen. Christopher Dodd's top career donors are employees, their family members and PACs of the following players in the nation's financial meltdown: Citigroup ("written off and lost $53.6 billion through the credit crunch so far, which is more than any other bank or broker,") Bear Stearns ("Bear Stearns's mortgage business, a big driver of profits, has been eviscerated,"), SAC Capital Partners (vehemently denies charge that they helped bring down Bear Stearns), American International Group (saved by an emergency $85 billion rescue), Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (each of which are morphing into bank holding companies), Greenwich Capital Markets ("a top issuer of mortgage-backed securities in the subprime market, Royal Bank of Scotland (which owns Greenwich Capital Markets), Credit Suisse Group (which misled some investors about its auction rate securities), Merrill Lynch (which needed Bank of America to rescue it), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (which bought Bear Stearns) and Lehman Brothers (which failed).
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Will Dodd and Conrad Attend Financial Literacy Brunch?
By Bill Allison Aug 7, 2008 6:21 p.m.Earlier today, we posted schedules for some 370 events at the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions, many of which are sponsored by private interests. The RNC list is here, the DNC list is here. On page 7 of the latter document, there's an event called the "FSR Financial Literacy Brunch," sponsored by 21 companies, including Bank of America, which authored much of the recent bank bailout bill, according to media reports. Bank of America also took over distressed subprime lender Countrywide Financial, which gave preferential mortgage deals to, among others, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
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