The U.S. Goverment Exacts up to 9% Interest on Banks
What is your credit card rate? Mine is 13%, but then again I only have a modest credit line with American Express. Up until now I was under the impression that our government simply handed over $700b in RISKY TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) loans with the great expectations that the recipients would repay.
To date we have earned $6b in interest fees from banks. Revealed in a linked GAO (Government Accountability Office) report, by the Propublica website devoted to shining sunshine on the abstraction that can be the US Treasury’s activities, the underlying rules of the bailout were a bit more comforting that the digested sound bytes bounced off of satellites around the world. Below is a table compiled by the Treasury Department:
TARP Dividend Payments Received as of June 30, 2009 (Dollars in thousands)
Program: Capital Purchase Program (CPP):
Dividend payments received: $5.2b;
Cumulative dividends not declared and not paid: $5.9b;
Noncumulative dividends not declared and not paid: $802m.
Program: Targeted Investment Program (TIP):
Dividend payments received: $1.1b;
Cumulative dividends not declared and not paid: [none];
Noncumulative dividends not declared and not paid: [none].
Program: Automotive Industry Financing Program[A] (AIFP):
Dividend payments received: $159.6m;
Cumulative dividends not declared and not paid: [none];
Noncumulative dividends not declared and not paid: [none].
Program: Asset Guarantee Program (AGP):
Dividend payments received: $107.5m;
Cumulative dividends not declared and not paid: [none];
Noncumulative dividends not declared and not paid: [none].
Program: Systemically Significant Failing Institutions Program (SSFI):
Dividend payments received: [Empty];
Cumulative dividends not declared and not paid: [none];
Noncumulative dividends not declared and not paid: [none].
Program: Total:
Dividend payments received: $6,650,758b;
Cumulative dividends not declared and not paid: $5,962b;
Noncumulative dividends not declared and not paid: $802m.
Source: Treasury OFS, unaudited.
1 day ago
It’s a GREAT exhibition, but I guess, as so often happens in life, the politics of it all eclipses the genious…
1 day ago[adapted from Kahlil Gibran's 'On Woman']
escritores y poetas tratan de comprender la verdad sobre el amor,
pero aún hoy el corazón se les escapa.
para que mirarla a través del velo del deseo y de ver sólo la forma de su cuerpo.
y la miran a través de la lupa de la auto-percepción y encontrar en su extravagancia y la resistencia sólo tonto.
El amor de ayer fue un feliz amor? Es el amor de hoy muy diferente?
¿Es el amor remodelado cuando se estira a través de kilómetros, miles?
En el pasado, caminaba ciegamente en la luz. Ahora, ella camina los ojos bien abiertos en la oscuridad.
Es aterrador el amor hoy en día? Con todas nuestras entradas de datos y puntos de venta de información estamos dispuestos a amar?
Por último, ¿el amor se nos escapan?
here is a great site where you can plug in your city and state and find out which fruits and vegetables are grown and harvested locally, in your area.
early afternoon cravings
each time , after our online conversation is finished
i sit, still, staring at the dialogue box on the screen
carefully rereading our entire exchange on the glowing screen
from beginning to end:
what I said, what you said
how i responded, how you responded
the whole thing is still there on the screen
burrowing a painful emptiness into me
as my eyes follow the rows of characters you had made
i can hear your voice
i can recognize the rise and fall of your voice
your quivering hovering over an english consonant
while your mind races to find the right word
the text of the last line stares back at me
like a sharp cliff before a bottomless depth,
“Raul has signed out.”
i’m stuck for a moment
confused by my emotions
unclear of my intentions
certainly uncertain of yours
i know you’re a fan of the short verse
perhaps driven by a supreme confidence
in the honesty and passion of a week
if you have a verse
these eyes in new york are craving a long read
a long kiss
and a night-long lie in bed that ends only in the afternoon
a novel use of social media to raise necessary funds from a vaired constituency and across a vast geographic space.
Merce's Memorial
Merce’s Memorial
Merce’s farewell
Merce’s final, intimate kiss goodnight to his City
standing there last night under the impossibly high ceiling of the Armory suddenly having the vast open space feel intimate with familiar abstract sounds, familiar faces and the most exquisite and familiar dances ever to have graced the Armory on Park Avenue.
The young, athletic bodies dancing in a center space then disperse, unseen, to reappear on three diagonally situated stages. Lithe bodies bound and rebound, contract and extend, leap and land on mere toes.
Thank you dancers, administrators, audience and Merce!
