Salon.com > Treasury Department

Is the IRS “scandal” all hype?

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:55:00 +0000

During remarks at the White House yesterday evening, President Obama offered his opinions on the Treasury Department Inspector General's report [PDF] finding that the IRS used "inappropriate criteria to identify organizations applying for tax-exempt status," in order to review those groups "for indications of significant political campaign intervention."

He described "the misconduct that is uncovered" in the report as "inexcusable". He said that "Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it," adding that he "will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but especially in the IRS, given the power that it has and the reach that it has into all of our lives."

Obama then announced that his Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, had requested and accepted the resignation of the Acting Commissioner of the IRS --- the man who wasn't even in that role during the period in question at the IRS --- "because given the controversy surrounding this audit, it's important to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence going forward."

Canada tightens restrictions on Bitcoin trading

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:31:00 +0000

In the United States, the difficult-to-trace digital currency Bitcoin is largely unregulated. Recently, the Treasury Department has issued some guidelines, though they remain rather broad.

The regulatory environment in Canada, however, is rather more strict, as several Bitcoin entrepreneurs have found out.

Bitcoin drew international attention through Cyprus’s banking emergency, its inclusion in the American financial regulatory framework, and increasing press coverage. The currency recently spiked to as high as $266 before crashing to a low of about $50, then rebounding to a post-crash high of $162.

The Fed messed with the wrong senator

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:43:00 +0000

I have spent the better part of four years trying, with little success, to raise awareness about foreclosure fraud, the largest consumer fraud in the history of the United States. In fact, there’s a whole little band of us writers and activists and foreclosure fighters. We have provided multitudes of evidence about fake documents, forged documents, illegal foreclosures, foreclosures on military members while they served overseas, foreclosures on homes with no mortgages, breaking and entering into the wrong homes, suicides by foreclosure victims, and above all the complete lack of accountability for these crimes and abuses.

More disingenuous GOP obstruction

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:30:00 +0000

Chuck Hagel isn’t the only Obama nominee Senate Republicans are raking through the coals for dubious political reasons.The President's pick to head the Treasury, Jack Lew, is getting his own hazing.

Although it got less publicity than Hagel's hearing, Lew, too, faced a torrent of tough questions during his first round of confirmation hearings before the Senate Finance Committee earlier this month. Now, this week, Sen. Chuck Grassley, the number two Republican on the panel, is stepping up the pressure.

Yesterday, he asked Committee Chairman Max Baucus to postpone a vote on Lew’s confirmation until the he answers more of Grassley’s questions (a request Baucus denied).

At issue for Grassley is a series of loans provided to Lew in the early 2000s, especially one for $1.4 million in 2002 from New York University, where Lew served as executive vice president. Lew said the loan was to help pay for housing and was part of his compensation package, but couldn’t recall some of the details Grassley demanded.

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.