Treasury Doles Out Another $1.15B To Banks

42 Banks In 25 States Get New Payments From $700B Financial Rescue Fund

(AP)  The Treasury Department has provided $1.15 billion to 42 banks in new payments from the government's $700 billion financial rescue fund.

The department said Tuesday that the latest capital infusions went to banks in 25 states, including the first awards in Nebraska.

The latest distributions were made Friday and mark the second round of payments from the bailout fund since President Barack Obama took office. Under the law Congress passed on Oct. 3 creating the bailout fund, the government has two business days to publicize the transactions.

The latest payments mean a total of 359 financial institutions in 45 states and Puerto Rico have received over $195 billion in support. The government plans to devote $250 billion of the bailout program's first $350 billion to making direct purchases of bank stock.

Other portions of the rescue fund have gone to insurance giant American International Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., as well as struggling auto companies General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC and their financing arms.

The first $350 billion of the bailout fund has been committed. Obama won a victory before taking office when the Senate refused an effort to block release of the second $350 billion.

Congress passed the bailout plan to combat the worst financial crisis to hit the country since the 1930s, but the efforts to recapitalize banks to get them to resume more normal lending have had limited success.

Critics have charged that the Bush administration failed to impose enough restrictions on banks getting support to ensure they would use the fresh capital to boost lending to consumers and businesses.

The Obama administration has pledged to overhaul the program's operations and that effort is expected to be announced next week. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner already has made changes to toughen lobbying restrictions on banks seeking the funds, and to increase the transparency of the fund's operations by posting all contracts on the Treasury Department's Web site.

The administration also may ask Congress for additional support that could total $1 trillion or more in an effort to deal with toxic assets that are still weighing down banks' balance sheets and making them reluctant to resume more normal lending operations.

The banks receiving the largest amounts in the latest round of payments were Flagstar Bancorp Inc. of Michigan with about $266.7 million, and PrivateBancorp Inc. of Illinois which received over $243.8 million.

Farmers and Merchants Bank of Nebraska received over $7.5 million through its bank holding company, Country Bankshares Inc. "We believe this investment will enable our institution to take advantage of opportunities to further strengthen our position in the marketplace," said Gerry Dunlap, president of Country Bankshares.

The other Nebraska institution getting support was Adbanc Inc., which received over $12.7 million.

[nevminer735]

From the Rocky Mountain News
%u201CWhat I do know is, given their performance the last eight years, Republicans have lost all credibility on economic matters. To hear GOP leaders, who offered up vast helpings of budgetary pork (remember the farm and highway bills, to name two notorious examples) complain about unnecessary spending in the stimulus package is laughable. What do they offer now? The same tired litany of tax cuts and cuts to social programs. Given the catastrophic failures of their economic philosophy.%u201D
This is the startling truth and tells it all.

[mainedoggie]

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Democrats pissing away more of my tax money. When are they going to learn they can''''t fix the problem by throwing more money at it.

Posted by win4usa
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Um, not quite *********. This is the brainchild of republican thugs.

Just give them the money, no questions asked, and nobody''s business what they are doing with it.

[geezer62]

I''m really tired of all this c rap. Let''s just turn it all over to the republians and then they can give it out to the very wealthy and be done with it. The middle class is doomed as the republicans main goal it to destroy it. We, the middle class, were a mistake and were never supposed to exist and when the elite discovered their mistake they started to take steps to solve their mistake. This has been a slow process since they did not want riots in the streets but they are close to reaching their goal now. The question that keeps poping up in my mind is who will they rape when the middle class is gone?

[terrmen2]

What the hell is the Sun Star Doing trying to get more people in their community un-employed, Oh I forgot that Merced County has so many jobs available and new Housing projects are plentiful why would the Sun Star care about causing panic among County Banks Customers for no apparent reason at all. Other than to sell a few news papers. Maybe the Sun Star should report Bank of America%u2019s, Wells Fargo%u2019s or the other big Monster banks losses for the year. County banks would seem small in comparison I%u2019m sure. Maybe the Sun Star should try and promote their community instead of trying to destroy it, County Bank will survive this crises. But will the Sun Star survive their total disregard of the Community?

[whitemale08]

I don''t like more money going to insolvent banks but at least there is finally talk of ''nationalizing'' the banks.

Just make sure you put them first through receiversip re-organization.

Obama is already the nation''s hero by removing and replacing the picture in the White House of that pro-Hitler idiot Winston Churchill with Abraham Lincoln.

Winston Churchill by the way, was the one who caused the ma mai army uprising in Kenya where Obama''s father was tortured by British imperial troops.

Be careful these British oligarchs are not typical bankers but a mafia slime mold of banksters who will ''take ya out'' if you shut down the Federal Reserve.

Just today CEO Dimon of British owned JP Morgan threatened President Obama''s scolding of Wall Street bonuses with taxpayer money.

[win4usa]

Democrats pissing away more of my tax money. When are they going to learn they can''t fix the problem by throwing more money at it.