Far more interesting than the rate cut is this little gem from Reuters:
NY Attorney General Cuomo warns 9 banks due to receive funds from TARP that bonus payments may be illegal under NY state law: report
Bring it on. We already knew he was seeking more information.
ED, 3:30pmEST… finally the full story:
“Specifically, corporate expenditures and payments, made in the absence of fair consideration of undercapitalized firms, may well violate NY Debtor and Creditor Law 274, which deems such payments illegal fraudulent conveyances,” Cuomo’s letter said.
The letter said that “obviously, we will have grave concerns if your expected bonus pool has increased in any way as a result of your receipt or expected receipt of taxpayer funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.”
Fraudulent conveyance = coal in lots of stockings courtesy of the NY attorney general. Or, in more general parlance, “take that.”
mr3 // Oct 29, 2008 at 8:29 pm
this is just wonderful news. i like the yinn/yang approach to bailed-out-bank bonus pools, because balance and moderation is the key. it’s important to make sure that bonus pools for these firms continue to exist…*but* it’s also important to ensure that they don’t increase from their currently modest levels by the hand of taxpayer dollars, of course. i’m also soothed by the fact that a rule like this is so easily enforceable. because the true nature of all bank money management will just become automagically visible. which is great since then we won’t have to foot the bill for costly investigations.
who said government regulation of the economy would be hard and wouldn’t work? that’s heretic crazytalk.
borg ix // Oct 30, 2008 at 6:40 am
Not only should these crapbags not get bonuses this year, their bonuses for the past 6 years should be confiscated. Also the pigmen should be forced to live in section 8 housing for the next 15-20 years. That’ll learn ‘em.
The Epicurean Dealmaker // Oct 30, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Crazytalk, indeed. That’s okay, though, ‘cuz Andrew is the Mayor of Crazytown.
http://epicureandealmaker.blogspot.com/2008/10/were-in-ur-boardroom-smokin-ur-sigarz.html
(Hat tip to LOLFed for the title idea.)
LOLFed » Cuomo v. Patterson, Goldman Bonus Deathmatch // Dec 21, 2008 at 9:52 am
[...] probably at least in part due to the rumblings from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo about fraudulent conveyance (while the legality of Cuomo’s claim is still debatable, the ink it got was massive and the [...]
LOLFed » IT’S A TARP! Troubled Asset Relief Program? O RLY? // Jan 22, 2009 at 10:23 pm
[...] Cuomo calls bonuses at firms receiving Troubled Asset Recovery Program funds illegal under NY law [...]