American International Group Inc

Pity the pay czar. When Ken Feinberg announced last month that he would slash pay at seven firms that received federal bailout funds and convert large chunks of compensation to stock units that can't be sold for years, he was met with almost universal opprobrium. Critics of Wall Street protested that simply paying out salaries in stock rather than cash would have little effect on executives at the bailed-out firms, to say nothing of the banking culture at large.

This is a ploy to appease a public enraged by Wall Street bonuses, particularly Goldman’s which is notably unaffected by the move   -Yves Smith

 

Throughout the financial crisis key officials -- most notably Timothy Geithner, who was president of the New York Fed in 2008 and is now Treasury secretary -- have shied away from doing anything that might rattle Wall Street. And the bitter paradox is that this play-it-safe approach has ended up undermining prospects for economic recovery. The job of fixing the broken economy is far from done -- yet finishing the job has become nearly impossible now that the public has lost faith in the government's eff  

Perhaps the single greatest reason for the unbridled expansion of credit over the past 50 years is the existence of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, another government-sponsored enterprise created by Congress. The coming rush of bank failures is an outcome made inevitable the very day that Congress created the FDIC. The reason is that the creation of the FDIC allowed savers to believe that their deposits at banks are "insured" against loss.  

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's nomination to a second term will be the subject of a Senate Banking Committee hearing next month, the panel's chairman said Friday. President Barack Obama nominated Bernanke to another four-year term in August. The nomination requires Senate approval.  

About 50 million Americans, including quarter of all children, struggle to get enough to eat. NEW YORK - We turn now to the latest on the economy. A pair of new government reports released this week paint a startling picture of where the country is, more than a year after the economic meltdown.  

Insurance companies ended the week flat. Manulife ( MFC Quote ) shed 0.62% ending at $17.70 a share at the closing bell. The change seemed miniscule compared to its more than 6 percent drop the day before, after the insurer revealed a $2.7 billion stock offering.  

Perhaps the single greatest reason for the unbridled expansion of credit over the past 50 years is the existence of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, another government-sponsored enterprise created by Congress. The coming rush of bank failures is an outcome made inevitable the very day that Congress created the FDIC. The reason is that the creation of the FDIC allowed savers to believe that their deposits at banks are "insured" against loss.  

U.S. stocks finished the week mixed, after reaching new highs for the year earlier on the week. The NASDAQ Composite and S&P broke two weeks of consecutive gains, while the Dow posted a small gain of 0.46%. Index Impact:  

The love-hate tango between Beijing and Taipei. The cast: China's top stock manipulator who fled the country with billions in a crime that brought down a senior market regulator; two mainland princelings; one of the most influential families in Taiwan; two Hong Kong tycoons; five market miscreants, a retired government minister, and a top-notch retired banker. The title: The Nan Shan Feast , or should we say, Circus ?