Wells, Wachovia and Sweet, Sweet Deals
During the early days of the financial meltdown, the news was that Wells Fargo Bank was set to acquire teetering Wachovia, but those reports were overshadowed by the news that the FDIC had brokered a deal with Citigroup for the acquisition.
If you read beyond the smear headlines that seem to dominate every major news source, you’ll discover the following:
- The brokered deal by the FDIC would have Citigroup acquiring Wachovia for $1/share, down from over $4/share a year ago.
- Citigroup’s offer only included the banking operation
- The offer by Wells Fargo was for $7/share and included all operations of the company.
- Wells Fargo has long been interested in expanding its presence to be competitive with Bank of America on the national banking landscape. An acquisition of Wachovia opens the door for them to become competitive while sparing the government $42 billion dollars of absorbed losses.
- A Wells Fargo acquisition protects employees who hold shares of Wachovia in their retirement accounts from huge losses.
On its face, it would seem that a Wells Fargo acquisition of Wachovia is a far superior solution to the fire sale brokered by the FDIC.
Now both deals are mired in expensive, urgent litigation. As of this writing, New York State Supreme Court justice Charles E. Ramos had blocked the Wells Fargo merger. That injunction was lifted by an appeals court a few hours ago.
Meanwhile, the FDIC frets that other deals might not happen because…
The litigation could put regulators in a tough spot. The Wells Fargo deal may be better for taxpayers, but if it succeeds, in the future other financial institutions may not be willing to help the government, as Citigroup did, because of the risk that they might not reap the anticipated benefit.
I’ve heard this before. Specifically with respect to AT&T and illegal wiretaps. Where the Bush administration urged Congress to give immunity because otherwise there was no incentive for companies to cooperate.
Have you ever heard such bogus logic? The Citigroup deal was so sweet it was nearly saccharine. What more incentive would they have needed? The fact that the “benefit” to Citi would have come at the expense of employees and individual shareholders seems to carry no weight. Just as the Bush Administration’s whine about AT&T’s non-cooperation was bogus, given that they were operating under court orders and all…
I have never in my life seen such wanton greed and corruption displayed for the world to see. Let’s hope voters are keeping their eyes open.
Sphere: Related ContentThe needle and the damage done…
Evidently Floridians have been injected with the offshore drilling meth now, too.
Have we become a nation of such uneducated, black and white thinkers that no one bothers to go beyond campaign rhetoric to the facts?
Of everything McCain has said in his campaign stops, his specious and irrational touting of offshore drilling as some sort of answer to oil prices (along with the suspension of the federal gas tax, which of course accomplishes nothing but screwing states out of road funds) is to me, the most despicable.
Blood money is funding his campaign. The blood of our shores, of our natural resources, of the wonders of our coasts, sold out to oil companies for campaign donations.
Remember, this is a train the Democrats cannot stop. They stand no chance of placing the moratorium into the budget, because Bush lifted the executive order and will not approve it.
Sphere: Related ContentExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron et al Claim Victors’ Spoils
The horsemen of the apocalypse are on the hunt. Here’s the latest news on the pale horses of death: ExxonMobil, Total, Chevron, Shell, et al who have been given preferential treatment and no-bid contract opportunities to service Iraq’s oil fields. (Remember this?)
The NY Times reports:
The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion, and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations.
The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India. The contracts, which would run for one to two years and are relatively small by industry standards, would nonetheless give the companies an advantage in bidding on future contracts in a country that many experts consider to be the best hope for a large-scale increase in oil production.
By now there’s probably very little doubt in anyone’s mind about the evil living in the White House. But this should make us all choke on our $4.50/gallon gas.
And the Bush/McCain diversion? Offshore domestic drilling, endorsed by flip-floppers Bush and McCain.
Here’s a rhetorical question. After George W. Bush and his merry band of neocons have raped us all for the last 8 years and now do it again without the benefit of even a kiss, do you think it wise to allow them to rape our natural resources here in the US for…oh…another 50 years or so? 100 years? 1,000 years? 10,000 years?
Just like McCain’s fake gas tax holiday, the call for domestic offshore drilling is just another invitation for the American people to bend over and take it quietly.
Seriously, there is much more to say about this, but for now, just let the brazen, wanton greed of our current Administration and their chosen successor to sink in. Breathe the stench. Be as disgusted as you want, and then feel free to copy this and email it to your friends with the title “Bush/Cheney into rape and incest. Will McCain follow suit?”
Let it go viral.
Sphere: Related ContentTom Delay Hardly “Knows” Obama
That’s probably because Barack Obama doesn’t speak the language of liars and thieves, Tom. Only out of the mouth of an accused money-launderer could an accusation like this be spoken:
“And if McCain does not define him as what he is — hey, I have said publicly, and I will again, that unless he proves me wrong, he is a Marxist,
In the same interview, he says “nobody knows him.” I guess Tom doesn’t read either.
Aside from the fact that Delay is even more irrelevant than Hannity, it’s a point of amazement to me that pronouncements like his can be made without reading a book or two. Maybe he’d consider picking this one up.
Gosh, there’s a Leader We Can Believe In. Nice friends you’ve got there, John McCain.
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