New Transparency in Bailout: The Treasury Department has begun posting online the bailout agreements it has made with financial institutions. The move is designed to increase transparency and accountability in the Troubled Assets Relief Program. Contracts already completed will be posted on a "rolling basis," and future contracts will go online at the Treasury Department's website within five to 10 business days. Among the contracts posted in the first round were ones with Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, AIG, General Motors, GMAC, and Chrysler. "Today, we are taking a step toward increased transparency by committing to place all of our TARP investment agreements on the Internet so that taxpayers can see how their money is being spent and the terms these institutions must agree to before we invest taxpayer money," says Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
Treasury Sends Millions to Local Banks: About $386 million has recently been invested in 23 banks across the country as part of the Capital Purchase Program that is designed to send cash to banks to open up lending markets, the Treasury Department has announced. Since the program began in October 2008, it has made more than $194 billion of investments in 317 institutions in 43 states ranging in size from $1 million to $25 billion. Under the program, the Treasury Department is buying some $250 billion in senior preferred shares in the banks. In addition to paying a 5 percent dividend, the institutions must agree to restrictions on executive compensation. The recently announced investments range from $1 million to Calvert Financial Corp. in Missouri to $111 million to 1st Source Corp. in Indiana.
North Korea a Challenge for Diplomacy: Uncertainties about the health of Kim Jong Il and what might happen should he die or step down could lead to three widely divergent scenarios, according to a new report by the Council on Foreign Relations. The report, "Preparing for Sudden Change in North Korea," notes that the country not only possesses nuclear weapons but also has missiles to deliver them. The report says that "the risks are too great and the stakes too high ... to rely on last-minute improvisation for a peaceful and stable outcome." The report examines three scenarios: a managed succession in which power is passed to a new leader, a contested succession with differing factions fighting for power, and a failed succession that ends with a weakened state government, setting up the possible absorption of North Korea by South Korea.
Union Membership Edges Up: Union membership rose to 12.4 percent of the workforce in 2008, the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. The figure was up from 2007's 12.1 percent rate and represents an increase of 428,000 workers. According to the statistics, 16.1 million U.S. workers belong to a union. The union membership rate in 1983, the first year with comparable union data, was 20.1 percent. The new report shows that government workers were five times as likely to be union members and that the highest unionization rate was 38.7 percent for those in education, training, and library occupations. The state with the highest unionization rate was New York, with 24.9 percent, and the lowest was North Carolina, with 3.5 percent. The union membership rate for the public sector was 36.8, compared with private industry workers, who had just a 7.6 union membership rate.
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James Raider of WA 3:19AM February 01, 2009