One of the discussions going on at the G-20 summit happening in Philadelphia is all about the stimulus packages and exit strategies. However, the policymakers in the G-20 have agreed to keep stimulus measures in place until all of the countries involved are on their way to sustained recoveries and until exit strategies from the economic stimulus can be coordinated. (It appears as though the G-20 is about to replace the G8 as the main council for global economic coordination.)
This is an interesting point, since there are concerns that economic stimulus measures, if not lifted at the right time, could …read more

The Obama administration has set aside more than $500 million for the economic stimulus of renewable energy development projects, and Spanish company Iberdrola SA will receive the largest portion of these funds. Iberdrola SA will receive $236 million to build wind farms throughout Texas, Oregon, and Minnesota, while a Pennsylvania wind project will receive $59 million.
 
In all, twelve different projects will receive a portion of the funds, with 59 percent of the money going to Iberdrola’s various projects throughout the three states. This money, which comes from a $3 billion fund that the Obama administration set aside for economic recovery, …read more

OptionsHouse CEO, George Ruhana, today posted an open letter to U.S. Department of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on his blog on the online brokerage’s Web site. Ruhana wrote the letter to highlight the shortcomings of the TARP warrant buyback process and propose real alternatives to help bolster the struggling U.S. economy and chip away at the national deficit.
From Ruhana’s blog post:
“The U.S. taxpayers backstopped the banks that accepted TARP money when no one else would and should be rewarded for stabilizing the system. However, rather than working to secure the best return for the American people by opening up the …read more

Many investors and a large part of the general public have expressed their outrage and disgust at the excessive compensation practices of several corporate executives essentially draining their companies dry. In response to this situation, Obama has proposed new legislation that would give shareholders larger control over pay practices, allowing them to limit these golden parachutes and other forms of reckless compensation.
 
“This financial crisis had many significant causes, but executive compensation practices were a contributing factor,” according to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in a statement he released today.
 
The say on pay law, as the concept is referred to in the …read more

SNL stress tests.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called for legislation that would require derivatives to be traded on exchanges or clearinghouses, rather than in over-the-counter (OTC) transactions. This proposed authority over the largely unregulated derivatives multi-trillion-dollar market is aimed at mitigating the systemic risk that contributed to the current global financial crisis. Here are some of the responses to this week’s news.
TheDeal.com identified the stakeholders and explored the politics of derivatives regulation.
The key players here are regulators and payments systems executives around the world, two groups that have long been deeply intertwined and, to the public, mostly invisible. The battlefield has two locales: …read more

Thanks to good news coming out of the banking industry, Tuesday saw the stock market rally after a slow start. Many experts are saying Timothy Geithner, the Unites States Secretary of the Treasury, played a vital role in increases confidence in the nation’s banks.
By the end of the trading period, the Dow Jones industrial average was at 7,969.6 — up nearly 1.7% on the day. NASDAQ was up 2.2% to 1,643.9, Russell 2000 was up nearly 4% to 470.1 and the S&P’s 500 was up approximately 2% to 850.1.
On Monday, banks suffered mightily on the stock market. On Tuesday, they …read more

Timothy Geithner wants to increase government regulation of such investment vehicles as derivatives, money market mutual funds and hedge funds. The thinking is that deregulation and opacity in many financial instruments is one of the reasons we’re in the middle of a financial meltdown. Since it was impossible for regulators and evaluators to assess a value for some of these assets, and since transparency was not a priority, the heavy leveraging eventually led to insolvency.
But perhaps it’s time to take a look at all investment vehicles — not just those we think of as complicated. It’s nice to change the …read more