Bancorp Exec:TARP a "lousy program" -Wells Fargo Chair: Stress-test policy "asinine"

[terisan]

Ah where is the "love; where is the "gratitude ? "


The U.S. Treasury in October injected more than $120 billion from the TARP program into nine of the biggest U.S. banks. More than 500 banks, insurers and credit-card companies applied for capital, and the government has distributed almost $300 billion. Lenders including Bank of America, U.S. Bancorp and New York-based Goldman Sachs have said they want to give back the TARP money.

Dimon of New York-based JPMorgan this month called on government officials to stop demonizing Wall Street, saying “it’s just hurting our country at this point.”

“When I hear the constant vilification of corporate America, I personally don’t understand it,” Dimon said in a speech earlier this month hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington.

US Bancorp’s Davis called TARP a “lousy program” last month during a speech in Minneapolis, and Wells Fargo Chairman Richard Kovachevich said the stress-test policy is “asinine.”



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Meanwhile Obama Team stance is to respectfully seek support of the Bailed Out Banker Giants according to full article from Bloomberg:


The White House meeting at noon Washington time is scheduled to include chief executive officers Vikram Pandit of Citigroup Inc., Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., all headquartered in New York. They are among as many as 15 banking executives expected to attend.

Lawrence Summers, Obama’s top economic adviser, said the meeting was a measure of the ties between the government and banking industry at a time of economic crisis.

“This is about our duty to do everything we can to support a robust and sustained economic expansion and the reality that the country’s major financial institutions have a major role to play,” Summers said.

White House advisers said the meeting will focus on stabilizing financial markets, boosting lending to businesses and consumers, reducing foreclosures and imposing regulatory overhaul rather than specific issues at individual institutions.

With the U.S. economic recovery tethered to the health of the financial industry, Obama has proposed a public-private partnership to soak up the banks’ toxic assets and help unlock credit, as well as new regulations on banks, hedge funds, private-equity firms and derivatives markets.

“It’s terribly important that an environment of consensus replace the polarization of recent weeks,” said former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt, now a senior adviser to The Carlyle Group based in Washington and a board member of Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News. “It’s essential to the business community that they be very much part of this process.”

full story at :

<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aLhW6WphVhAk&refer=home>

[Xipe Totec]

1. Stop demonizing Wall Street, it’s just hurting our country club n/t

[terisan]

2. ...and that will hurt the Club lower-level employees, making me an enemy of the people.