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Rare Show Of Bipartisanship
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Rare Show Of Bipartisanship
House and Senate lawmakers - in a rare show of bipartisanship voted Friday to
extend a two-percentage-point payroll-tax cut for the rest of the year, sending
legislation to President Barack Obama nearly two weeks before a tax hike would
have gone into effect for nearly 160 million Americans. House lawmakers voted
293-132 and Senate voted 60-36 to approve the bill that will extend the current
4.2% payroll tax through the end of 2012, as well as extend prolonged jobless
benefits and prevent payment cuts for Medicare doctors. Republicans earlier this
week dropped their insistence that the payroll-tax cut be offset by spending
cuts elsewhere. “This is a compromise and not everyone likes everything in
here,” said Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, who chairs the House Ways and Means
Committee. The Congressional Budget Office said the package adds $89.3 billion
to the deficit over 10 years. The bill gradually reduces the maximum duration of
extended jobless benefits from 99 weeks to 73 weeks. The bill is also paid for
by among other things sales of broadband spectrum and a cut of $5 billion to a
public-health fund that is part of Obama’s health-care law.
Labor Department reported Friday that U.S. consumer prices for January increased
at the largest rate since September. On the month, consumer price index rose a
seasonally adjusted 0.2%. Energy prices rose 0.2% last month, the first increase
since September. Core CPI, the measure of retail-level inflation that strips out
food and energy prices to get a better handle on underlying inflationary trends,
increased 0.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis. Since summer, core prices have
been increasing at a rate of either 0.1% or 0.2%. Over the past 12 months, the
CPI is up 2.9% and inflation has been moderating after hitting a 3.9% annual
rate in September 2011. Core CPI is up 2.3% over the past year striking the
largest gain since September 2008. Federal Reserve officials said that they
expect inflation to moderate in the near term after last year’s spike in
commodity prices. With prices rising 0.2% for urban workers and average hourly
earnings up 0.2%, on an inflation-adjusted /real basis, weekly earnings were
seen as flat during January; tobacco prices increased 0.5% and apparel prices
rose 0.9%. Over the past year, real weekly earnings are down 1.0% and housing
prices were up 1.9%. In January - housing prices were up 0.1%; owners equivalent
rent rose 0.2%; food prices rose 0.2%; prices of food purchased to consume at
home were flat; energy prices rose 0.2% including a 0.9% increase in gasoline
prices.
Late Thursday, Lehman Brothers Holdings and its creditors said they want to
subpoena Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner - who was president of the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York at the time of the Lehman collapse - to question him
under oath over allegations J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. illegally siphoned billions
of dollars from the collapsing investment bank in the days prior to the filing
of the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Lehman's official committee of
unsecured creditors said Geithner has refused to comply with an August 9, 2011
subpoena and wants a court to force Geithner to give a deposition by a March 16
deadline. "Despite being a crucial fact witness on these issues, Secretary
Geithner has refused to appear at a deposition in accordance with a valid
subpoena issued by the Committee," the committee's lawyers said in the filing.
The committee said in its filing that it additionally wants to question
then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson but he too has turned the request down. The
committee said in its filing that Geithner had more than 35 phone conversations
with then-Lehman Chief Executive Richard Fuld and more than 10 with J.P. Morgan
Chief Executive Jamie Dimon in the week before Lehman's September 2008
bankruptcy filing. Lawyers for Lehman subpoenaed Geithner as part of a civil
lawsuit against J.P. Morgan claiming Dimon and other top executives used inside
knowledge to take advantage of Lehman as its financial state worsened. The
weekend before Lehman's monumental bankruptcy filing, the Geithner-led New York
Fed became the meeting place for Wall Street titans and Washington policy makers
trying to sort things out. The committee said in its court papers, "The
Department of the Treasury now turns its back on the President's commitment to
transparency as it refuses to provide the creditors of Lehman Brothers with key
evidence from the current Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy F. Geithner, who
was a crucial witness to certain key events at issue in the creditors'
litigation with JPMorgan Chase Bank." In May 2011 Lehman Brothers sued J.P.
Morgan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, charging the bank demanded over
$8.6 billion in collateral in September 2008, triggering a liquidity squeeze
that contributed to Lehman Brothers' collapse. The estate is hoping to recoup
billions in collateral the bank demanded, and other damages. J.P. Morgan, which
served as Lehman's clearing bank, countersued, claiming Lehman tricked it into
lending $70 billion in the days following the investment bank's September 2008
collapse and left it with toxic securities that Lehman's own traders referred to
as "goat pooh." J.P. Morgan says Lehman led it to believe it would be repaid the
$70 billion advanced to keep Lehman's broker-dealer business afloat in the days
surrounding Lehman's historic bankruptcy filing and the sale of its core
business to Barclays PLC. Lehman wants to question Min Euoo-sung former chairman
and chief executive of Korea Development Bank - under oath -who was a key
potential bidder for Lehman weeks and months leading up to its bankruptcy.
Lehman claims J.P. Morgan sought to advise KDB with respect to the Lehman deal
and its lawyers want to ask Min if J.P. Morgan may have learned that it wasn't
going to bid for Lehman before that information became public, prompting the
bank's call for more collateral.
A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European leaders expect
euro-zone finance ministers to reach agreement Monday on a long-delayed second
bailout for Greece. In a conference call Friday - Merkel, Greek Prime Minister
Lucas Papademos and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti discussed the situation
and are 'confident' that the ministers will 'find a solution to outstanding
issues'. Greece would still be required to complete a list of 24 'prior actions'
before the end of February as a condition for releasing the aid. An agreement by
euro-zone finance ministers on Monday would likely be followed by the launch of
a long-awaited, voluntary, private-sector bond swap that aims to knock 100
billion Euros off of Greece’s debt load. In order for Greece to avoid a hard
default on March 20, the private-sector-bond swap must be initiated next week.
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February
17, 2012
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Top of the page | |
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Total for Year |
Last Week |
$207,545.00 |
$15,148.00 |
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| |
Total for Year |
Last Week |
$54,280.00 |
$7,557.50 |
|
| |
Total for Year |
Last Week |
$477,923.89 |
$44,196.66 |
|
| |
Total for Year |
Last Week |
$395,980.00 |
$47,570.00 |
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| |
Total for Year |
Last Week |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
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