Oli
09-26-2008, 03:56 AM
McCain move upsets Wall St bailout talks: Dems
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Negotiations toward a massive bailout for Wall Street fell into disarray on Thursday after Democrats said they learned in a White House meeting that presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is backing a new plan differing markedly from one that has been under discussion.
Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee and a participant in the afternoon White House meeting, said negotiations could be seriously set back.
"House Republicans, in some kind of arrangement, with McCain went off to wherever. I don't know whether they're ready to negotiate this. Their thing was some totally different mortgage insurance plan ... that would clearly delay this for a week or more," Frank told reporters.
"We're waiting to hear from the House Republicans," said Frank, who has played a key role in talks over a Bush administration proposal to spend $700 billion in taxpayer money to buy up bad mortgage debt from banks.
A group of conservative House Republicans on Thursday offered a mortgage insurance plan as an alternative to the Bush plan, which has encountered criticism on Capitol Hill.
The conservative group's plan calls for the U.S. government to offer insurance coverage for the roughly half of all mortgage-backed securities that it does not already insure.
The Treasury Department, they said, should charge premiums to holders of those securities to finance the insurance.
They also called for temporary tax cuts and regulatory relief for businesses. In addition, they said, financial institutions participating in their proposed program would have to disclose more about their mortgage asset holdings.
Waxman said McCain appears to have embraced the proposal from conservative House Republicans including Wisconsin's Paul Ryan, Texas' Jeb Hensarling and Virginia's Eric Cantor.
"It seems like (McCain) embraced Jeb Hensarling's position ... It's a completely different approach," Waxman said. "It's hard to imagine where we go from here."
Frank said his committee held a hearing on Wednesday where witnesses included Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the two officials who have championed the Bush administration's massive bailout plan.
Frank said Hensarling attended the hearing as a committee member, "but he never mentioned an alternative plan."
Speaking to reporters elsewhere in the Capitol, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd complained that up until Thursday's White House meeting, no Republicans brought up an alternative plan for the Wall Street bailout, including during meetings and Senate hearings.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was "a little stunned" when he heard talk at the White House about a completely new plan drawn up by House Republicans.
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed7/idUSTRE48P05S20080926
China banks told to halt lending to US banks-SCMP
BEIJING, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Chinese regulators have told domestic banks to stop interbank lending to U.S. financial institutions to prevent possible losses during the financial crisis, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.
The Hong Kong newspaper cited unidentified industry sources as saying the instruction from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) applied to interbank lending of all currencies to U.S. banks but not to banks from other countries.
"The decree appears to be Beijing's first attempt to erect defences against the deepening U.S. financial meltdown after the mainland's major lenders reported billions of U.S. dollars in exposure to the credit crisis," the SCMP said.
A spokesman for the CBRC had no immediate comment. (Reporting by Alan Wheatley and Langi Chiang; editing by Ken Wills)
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSPEK16693720080925
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Negotiations toward a massive bailout for Wall Street fell into disarray on Thursday after Democrats said they learned in a White House meeting that presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is backing a new plan differing markedly from one that has been under discussion.
Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee and a participant in the afternoon White House meeting, said negotiations could be seriously set back.
"House Republicans, in some kind of arrangement, with McCain went off to wherever. I don't know whether they're ready to negotiate this. Their thing was some totally different mortgage insurance plan ... that would clearly delay this for a week or more," Frank told reporters.
"We're waiting to hear from the House Republicans," said Frank, who has played a key role in talks over a Bush administration proposal to spend $700 billion in taxpayer money to buy up bad mortgage debt from banks.
A group of conservative House Republicans on Thursday offered a mortgage insurance plan as an alternative to the Bush plan, which has encountered criticism on Capitol Hill.
The conservative group's plan calls for the U.S. government to offer insurance coverage for the roughly half of all mortgage-backed securities that it does not already insure.
The Treasury Department, they said, should charge premiums to holders of those securities to finance the insurance.
They also called for temporary tax cuts and regulatory relief for businesses. In addition, they said, financial institutions participating in their proposed program would have to disclose more about their mortgage asset holdings.
Waxman said McCain appears to have embraced the proposal from conservative House Republicans including Wisconsin's Paul Ryan, Texas' Jeb Hensarling and Virginia's Eric Cantor.
"It seems like (McCain) embraced Jeb Hensarling's position ... It's a completely different approach," Waxman said. "It's hard to imagine where we go from here."
Frank said his committee held a hearing on Wednesday where witnesses included Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the two officials who have championed the Bush administration's massive bailout plan.
Frank said Hensarling attended the hearing as a committee member, "but he never mentioned an alternative plan."
Speaking to reporters elsewhere in the Capitol, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd complained that up until Thursday's White House meeting, no Republicans brought up an alternative plan for the Wall Street bailout, including during meetings and Senate hearings.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was "a little stunned" when he heard talk at the White House about a completely new plan drawn up by House Republicans.
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed7/idUSTRE48P05S20080926
China banks told to halt lending to US banks-SCMP
BEIJING, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Chinese regulators have told domestic banks to stop interbank lending to U.S. financial institutions to prevent possible losses during the financial crisis, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.
The Hong Kong newspaper cited unidentified industry sources as saying the instruction from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) applied to interbank lending of all currencies to U.S. banks but not to banks from other countries.
"The decree appears to be Beijing's first attempt to erect defences against the deepening U.S. financial meltdown after the mainland's major lenders reported billions of U.S. dollars in exposure to the credit crisis," the SCMP said.
A spokesman for the CBRC had no immediate comment. (Reporting by Alan Wheatley and Langi Chiang; editing by Ken Wills)
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSPEK16693720080925