Big Financiers Start Lobbying for Wider Aid

[babylonsister]

Bunch of damned vultures, aren't they.

Big Financiers Start Lobbying for Wider Aid
By JENNY ANDERSON, VIKAS BAJAJ and LESLIE WAYNE

This article was reported by Jenny Anderson, Vikas Bajaj and Leslie Wayne, and written by Mr. Bajaj.


Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury’s proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions.

“The definition of Financial Institution should be as broad as possible,” the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents big financial services companies, wrote in an e-mail message to members on Sunday.

The group said a wide variety of institutions as varied as mortgage lenders and insurance companies should be able to take advantage of the bailout, and that these companies should be able to sell off any investments linked to mortgages.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/business/22lobby.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print

[ixion]

1. The definition of Financial Institution is mud, as far as I'm concerned

that they otherwise think so highly of themselves is neither surprising nor acceptable.

[marmar]

2. The real welfare queens.....

:argh:

[Mojorabbit]

3. This is beyond the pale. nt

[babylonsister]

4. Yep. I guess there's never enough for these blood suckers. nt