Salon.com > Treasury

Bloomberg editor apologizes for, explains spying

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:30:00 +0000

In an Op-Ed titled "Holding Ourselves Accountable," published late Sunday, Bloomberg News editor Matthew Winkler weighed in on the current scandal brewing around the news service, following claims that reporters used Bloomberg terminals (ubiquitous in the financial sector) to spy on bankers. As noted here last week, Goldman Sachs had complained to Bloomberg LP following the revelation that at least one reporter had access to a wide array of information about customer usage. Winkler commented:

Our client is right. Our reporters should not have access to any data considered proprietary. I am sorry they did. The error is inexcusable. Last month, we immediately changed our policy so that reporters now have no greater access to information than our customers have. Removing this access will have no effect on Bloomberg news-gathering.

The Bloomberg editor went on to explain how his journalists had such access in the first place and that the information available through the terminals was limited:

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has improved his signature

Tue, 07 May 2013 21:45:00 +0000

Recently inducted Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has been busy since his confirmation in February, most likely occupied with improving his hilariously bad signature -- the one that could soon have appeared on American dollar bills. But alas, it looks like Lew has an autograph more fitting for a land governed by adults, now:

Salon reached out to a bunch of handwriting experts who weighed in on Lew's puzzling signature, asking via email what the change says (or doesn't say) about Lew.

Graphologist Eileen Page, who said his first signature had "a logo factor," says that his new one "brings up more questions than answers":

Spy agencies to get access to Americans’ finances

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:58:00 +0000

The Obama administration will grant spy agencies -- the CIA and the NSA -- full access to a vast database of financial data belonging to U.S. citizens and individuals who bank in this country, Reuters reported late Wednesday. Up until now only law enforcement agencies have had full access to the database, known as FinCEN (the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) -- spy agencies have to make case-by-case requests for information. Financial institutions the U.S. have to file regular "suspicious activity" reports to FinCen, including "all personal cash transactions exceeding $10,000, as well as suspected incidents of money laundering, loan fraud, computer hacking or counterfeiting."

The proposal to extend access to FinCen was detailed on a March 4. Treasury document obtained by Reuters. It constitutes a furthering of efforts to centralize the broad monitoring of U.S. citizens on the grounds of counterterror and anti-crime efforts. Reuters noted that privacy advocates have reacted with concern to the proposal, which remains in its early stages:

The platinum coin joke falls flat

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 18:06:00 +0000

Just so we're all clear, there will be no platinum trillion-dollar coin made with John Boehner's face on it now or any time soon. The entire idea is a silly joke to highlight the absurdity of Republican Congress members threatening to hold the debt ceiling hostage unless the president makes even more spending cuts. But outside the hermetically sealed box, which walls off the political commentariat from the material world, it's not a particularly funny joke.

But all jokes are funniest when taken apart and explained, so I'll give you this one blow by blow. Warning: There's not much of a punch line.

The country is soon approaching its debt limit, which in and of itself is nothing new and scary. It only became a worrying prospect when Tea Party Republicans began in 2011 to threaten to refuse to raise the debt limit, thus risking the U.S. default on its financial commitments, which is roundly considered to be a catastrophe worth avoiding. As in 2011, these Republicans are again threatening not to raise the debt ceiling unless their austerity demands are met.

Treasury to sell GM stake within 15 months

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 13:39:00 +0000

So much for socialism.

The Treasury department said it would be selling off its remaining 500.1 million shares of General Motors stock within the next 12-15 months, according to a press release.

GM is expected to buy 200 million shares of Treasury's stake for $27.50 each with the $5.5 billion deal expected to close by the end of this year. The department will sell its remaining 300.1 million shares through other channels subject to market conditions.

“The auto industry rescue helped save more than a million jobs during a severe economic crisis, but TARP was always meant to be a temporary, emergency program. The government should not be in the business of owning stakes in private companies for an indefinite period of time,” assistant secretary for financial stability Timothy G. Massad said in the release.

The department sold off the last of its stake in insurance giant AIG earlier this month. It says that it has "recovered more than 90 percent ($381 billion) of the $418 billion in funds disbursed for TARP."

Including the 200 million share sale to GM, Treasury it will have recovered $28.7 billion of the $49.5 billion that it invested in the company. The department cites independent estimates to say that its rescue of the U.S. auto industry saved 1 million jobs and has created 250,000 new jobs since June 2009.