Your host Richard Morrison welcomes back guest co-host Jeremy Lott and special guest Greg Conko for Episode 47. We start with the new Obama-Geithner plan for expanding regulation of financial markets, the protests over the disputed presidential election in Iran and the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation of telemarketing robocalls. We then move on to the “beer bikes” of Amsterdam and some potentially scandalous investment choices made by Sen. Dick Durban. Finally, we talk health care with CEI Senior Fellow Greg…

Read the full story

One week after Washington Examiner ace investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney broke the blockbuster story reporting that American International Group’s post-bailout CEO Edward Liddy owned a large stake in Goldman Sachs. a top recipient of the AIG bailout, the New York Times has decided that this is news “fit to print.” But for some reason, the so-called paper of record didn’t think it was “fit” to give any credit to the original source of this story.

Almost all of the significant details…

Read the full story

Everyone should read the blockbuster exclusive in today’s Washington Examiner in which Timothy P. Carney confirms that American International Group CEO Edward Liddy — appointed to his position at the behest of Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner after the government takeover of AIG in September — still owns more than $3 million in stock in Goldman Sachs, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AIG bailout.

I am privileged to be quoted in this article that both breaks news and puts it…

Read the full story

Ironically, by getting rid of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, the Obama Administration has made it even harder for it to demand the painful changes needed to make the company competitive — meaning that the billions of additional dollars the Administration plans to dump on GM will likely be wasted (the way that England’s attempt to bail out its automakers failed, wasting billions). As Mickey Kaus notes,

“After visibly defenestrating GM CEO Rick Wagoner, and moving to replace the board of directors, won’t Obama…

Read the full story

After federal regulators took over failing mortgage giant Freddie Mac, they didn’t stop its risky lending practices. Instead, they ramped up its risk-taking, making it run up even bigger debts at taxpayer expense to try to artificially pump up the economy. They made Freddie buy countless risky mortgage loans. Recently, the Obama Administration forced it to incur $30 billion in losses as part of the administration’s bailout for irresponsible mortgage borrowers, which caps mortgage payments for even high-income borrowers at a ridiculously…

Read the full story

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner wants a “vast expansion” of his power over the financial system. This is the same guy whose bungled $170 billion AIG bailout gave billions of dollars to wealthy AIG clients like Goldman Sachs, which admits it neither needed nor expected the money it got from taxpayers.

Back in the 1990’s, Geithner, working with the IMF, destroyed Indonesia’s economy, by prescribing disastrous economic policies. The result was massive increases in child malnutrition, riots, and mushrooming poverty, in a major country that…

Read the full story

Obama gets a failing grade from economists. “U.S. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner received failing grades for their efforts to revive the economy from participants in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.”

Not content with the $8 trillion the Obama Administration has already committed for bailouts, pork, and welfare, Treasury Secretary Geithner, who was confirmed by the Senate despite cheating on his taxes, wants to spend $100 billion on IMF loans to bail out struggling nations in Eastern Europe and elsewhere…

Read the full story