Obama Looking for Steps to Recoup Bailout Funds From Financial Institutions

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Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s budget, set for release in the next several weeks, likely will include provisions to ensure that the taxpayer money put into bailing out the financial system is repaid, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Gibbs declined to specifically address a report this morning in Politico that the administration was looking at imposing fees on financial institutions. He refused to rule such fees out.

“The president has talked on a number of occasions about ensuring that the money that taxpayers have put up to rescue our financial system is paid back in full,” Gibbs said.

The administration also is continuing to prod financial firms to tie bonuses to the long-term health of the company by giving the bulk of it in stock as a way to limit risks, Gibbs said.

“There are folks that just continue not to get it” on Wall Street, Gibbs said. Firms that continue to dole out large bonuses to executives risk raising the anger of the public, he said.

“There’s a divergence in reality” between Wall Street and Main Street on the state of the economy, Gibbs said.

Still, he said, “there’s a limit to what the president can do” in limiting compensation at firms that aren’t getting government assistance.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a02VEwU_Rctg
 
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is considering levying a fee on banks to recoup more of the taxpayer funds spent to rescue the financial system, according to an administration official.

The proposal is still subject to discussion and no final decision has been made as to what form it might take. It's expected to be included in next month's budget, and as such could also be presented as a way to pay down the U.S.'s large deficit.

Such a move comes as Wall Street banks, having regained their footing, are set to pay out large bonuses. Despite the mortgage meltdown, financial firms are coming off a blockbuster year. Revenue has rebounded to pre-crisis levels, and 2009 compensation is on pace to approach or surpass the record payouts of 2007.

Public ire about the bonuses, which many contrast with the stubbornly high unemployment rate, remains strong, and Congress has struggled to develop a way to respond that tamps rather than stokes that anger. Last year, lawmakers had to back down from proposals to tax bonuses following the bonus furor concerning American International Group Inc.

Some in Congress have suggested taxing a wide range of financial transactions as one way taxpayers might benefit from Wall Street's resurgence. The Treasury Department opposes that idea, which would require international coordination to be effective.

Ideas currently under consideration by the administration include a more straightforward fee. It's not yet clear whether the move would require congressional approval. The original legislation creating the Troubled Asset Relief Program provided a way for the government to recoup its investments.

One challenge faced by the administration is structuring a fee that doesn't simply get passed on to the bank's customers or other investors.

News of a possible bank fee was first reported by Politico.

Write to Deborah Solomon at deborah.solomon@wsj.com
 
If they are too big to fail then they are too big. Break them up and let them take all the risk they want and pay whatever bonuses they want. These banks should not have the economy and the taxpayer as their hostage. Break them up!
 
Quote from the1:

If they are too big to fail then they are too big. Break them up and let them take all the risk they want and pay whatever bonuses they want. These banks should not have the economy and the taxpayer as their hostage. Break them up!
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Agreed. Unfortunately these banks OWN both sides of the isle.
 
Why would politicians do anything that would actually hurt the financials? The banks made a deal to support the markets as long as they could keep growing as much as they want, and any regulation would be for show and not hurt them much. By supporting the market everyone feels better and confidence helps the economy, and therefore helps the political party in office. How else is it possible that they are making record amounts of money and paying record bonuses during the worst crisis since the great depression? Their actions directly contributed to the problem and for their failings they were bailed out, allowed to have their debt guaranteed, got to mark their toxic assets wherever they want, grow as large as they want, take as much risk as they were taking before, were paid 100% on assets from a bankrupt entity, and get to borrow as much as they want at 0%.

If the American people knew what the politicians and banks have done to them there would be pitchfork carrying mobs enacting change, but they are too worried about Jon and Kate’s marriage and who will win dancing with stars to care.
 
Bwahhahhahhahhahaha!!!

Funny the hubris of the functionally stupid.

I'll bet you also think monkey was a great president.



Quote from PlusMinus:

There's one person they don't own. Sara Palin.
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Obama just wants those funds to be counted as future revenue so he can spend the hundreds of billions again on his liberal agenda.

Don't think for a minute that those funds will ever go to reducing the federal debt if they are ever returned in full.
 
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