Tag: bailout

The Silicon Valley Bank Bailout

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-silicon-valley-bank-bailout-chorus-yellen-treasury-fed-fdic-deposit-limit-dodd-frank-run-cc80761e?st=vt2heieydvfhixo&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Excerpt:

The Treasury and Federal Reserve stepped in late Sunday to contain the financial damage from Friday’s closure of Silicon Valley Bank, guaranteeing even uninsured deposits and offering loans to other banks so they don’t have to take losses on their fixed-income assets.

This is a de facto bailout of the banking system, even as regulators and Biden officials have been telling us that the economy is great and there was nothing to worry about. The unpleasant truth—which Washington will never admit—is that SVB’s failure is the bill coming due for years of monetary and regulatory mistakes.

Wall Street and Silicon Valley were in full panic over the weekend demanding that the Treasury and Fed intervene to save the day. It’s revealing to see who can keep a cool head in a crisis—and it wasn’t billionaire hedge-fund operator Bill Ackman or venture investor David Sacks, both frantic panic spreaders.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. closed SVB, and the cleanest solution would be for the agency to find a private buyer for the bank. This has been the first resort in most previous financial panics, and the FDIC was holding an auction that closed Sunday afternoon.

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But there is political risk from a bailout too. If the Administration acts to guarantee deposits without Congressional approval, it will face legitimate legal questions. The White House may choose to jam House Speaker Kevin McCarthy if markets aren’t mollified. But Mr. McCarthy has a restive GOP caucus as it is, and a bailout for rich depositors will feed populist anger against Washington.

The critics have a point. For the second time in 15 years (excluding the brief Covid-caused panic), regulators will have encouraged a credit mania, and then failed to foresee the financial panic when the easy money stopped. Democrats and the press corps may try to pin the problem on bankers or the Trump Administration, but these are political diversions.

Author(s): WSJ Editorial Board

Publication Date: 12 Mar 2023

Publication Site: WSJ

Yellen Said “No Bailout” But It’s a Huge Bailout of the Banking System

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://mishtalk.com/economics/yellen-said-no-bailout-but-its-a-huge-bailout-of-the-banking-system

Excerpt:

It won’t matter but I am pleased the Journal blasted Bill Ackman and venture investor David Sacks,  as “frantic panic spreaders“.

There’s more in the article about how Rohit Chopra, an Elizabeth Warren acolyte on the FDIC board, is hostile to bank mergers on ideological grounds, perhaps preventing a merger.

The Journal speculates how Biden might illegally act to guarantee all deposits or pressure House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

….

Once again, the Fed kept interest rates too low, too long, encouraged speculation, then bailed out the banks.

Spare me the sap about this was a depositor bailout not a bank bailout. 

When you value assets at par so that banks don’t have losses, what the hell is it.

Author(s): Mike Shedlock

Publication Date: 12 Mar 2023

Publication Site: Mish Talk

BIDEN PROMISES NEARLY $36 BILLION FOR NATIONAL PENSION BAILOUTS

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/biden-promises-nearly-36-billion-for-national-pension-bailouts/

Excerpt:

The Biden administration promised nearly $36 billion to stabilize pension plans for Teamsters nationwide after forecasts predicted the system’s default by 2026. Union members would have seen their retirement benefits slashed by 60% if the system defaulted.

President Joe Biden announced Dec. 8 the federal government will use nearly $36 billion to stabilize failing Teamsters union pension plans nationwide, preventing severe benefits cuts for more than 350,000 union workers.

….

Illinois is home to more than 20 Teamster’s chapters and the nation’s worst pension debt, estimated at nearly $140 billion by state authorities in 2022. Private investor services projected that debt as high as $313 billion, using more realistic assumptions on returns.

In September these state pension funds had just 47 cents for every dollar in promised pension benefits.

Springfield lawmakers cannot routinely rely on federal authorities to bail out overly generous and underfunded state and local pensions. Illinois public servants deserve to receive the retirements they’ve been promised in full – not the 40% that would remain after default.

Author(s): Patrick Andriesen

Publication Date: 12 Dec 2022

Publication Site: Illinois Policy Institute

PBGC Provides Financial Assistance to Struggling Metal Workers Pension

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/pbgc-provides-financial-assistance-to-struggling-metal-workers-pension/

Excerpt:

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation approved a Special Financial Assistance program from a Metal Sheet Workers local pension plan in Massillon, Ohio, on Wednesday.

The plan covered 1,649 participants in the sheet metal trade. About 850 of them saw their benefits cut an average of 24% in May 2020 under the terms of the Multiemployer Pension Reforms Act of 2014. SFA will pay $28.8 million to make up the shortfall.

The MPRA allowed trustees of multiemployer plans to submit an application to the Treasury Department to reduce pension payouts if such a reduction is necessary to prevent the fund from running out of money.

Author(s): Paul Mulholland

Publication Date: 7 Oct 2022

Publication Site: ai-CIO

SFA Update – 9/2/22

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://burypensions.wordpress.com/2022/09/02/sfa-update-9-2-22/

Graphic:

Excerpt:

The PBGC Special Financial Assistance program for troubled multiemployer plans updated today with one new filer (Toledo Roofers Local No. 134 Pension Plan), one withdrawal (Bricklayers Union Local No. 1 Pension Fund) and one approval asking for more (Local Union No. 466 Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers Pension Plan). 

Author(s): John Bury

Publication Date: 2 Sept 2022

Publication Site: burypensions

PBGC Finalizes Rescue of Ailing Multiemployer Pension Plans

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/pbgc-finalizes-rescue-of-ailing-multiemployer-pension-plans/

Excerpt:

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, under the direction of the Biden administration, has published the final rule implementing the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021’s Special Financial Assistance program.

According to supporters of the program, the Special Financial Assistance program, which is already operating on an interim basis, will protect millions of workers in stressed multiemployer union pension plans who previously faced the possibility of significant cuts to their benefits.

….

Initially, the interim final rule applied a single rate of return included in the statute that is higher than could be expected for SFA funds given that they were required to be invested exclusively in safe, but low-return, investment-grade fixed-income products. The final rule uses two different rates of return for SFA and non-SFA assets, so that the interest rate for SFA assets is more realistic given the investment limitations on these funds.

Another change in the final rule allows up to 33% of SFA to be invested in return-seeking assets that are projected to allow plans to receive a higher rate of return on their investments than under the interim final rule, subject to certain protections. Namely, this portion of plans’ SFA funds generally must be invested in publicly traded assets on liquid markets to ensure responsible stewardship of federal funds. These return-seeking investments include equities, equity funds and bonds. The other 67% of SFA funds must be invested in investment-grade fixed-income products.

The third major change is meant to ensure plans can confidently restore both past and future benefits and enter 2051 with rising assets. PBGC designed the final rule to ensure that no “MPRA plan”—a group of fewer than 20 multiemployer plans that remained solvent by cutting benefits pursuant to the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014—was forced to choose between restoring its benefit payments to previous levels and remaining indefinitely solvent. Instead, the final rule ensures that all MPRA plans avoid this dilemma, supporting them with enough assistance so that these plans can both restore benefits and be projected to remain indefinitely solvent going into 2051.

According to PBGC leadership, these changes collectively ensure that all plans that receive SFA are projected to be solvent and pay full benefits through at least 2051.

Author(s): John Manganaro

Publication Date: 7 July 2022

Publication Site: ai-CIO

UMWA 5500 Update – 6/30/21

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://burypensions.wordpress.com/2022/06/02/umwa-5500-update-6-30-21/

Excerpt:

Five years ago retired coal miners traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby lawmakers to put in place a federal safety net in case the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) pension fund fails. Coal plant closures and company bankruptcies have sent the pension fund to the edge of collapse. In October, 2019 Murray Energy, the last major company propping up the dwindling fund, also went bankrupt and the prediction was insolvency in FY23.

By the April 15, 2022 deadline, the plan submitted their 5500 form for the year ended 6/30/21 showing only 68 active participants remaining and providing an idea of how much more taxpayers will now be on the hook for on top of what appears to be the $330 million that came in during the plan year.

Author(s): John Bury

Publication Date: 3 June 2022

Publication Site: Burypensions

HOW HAVE STATES USED THEIR DIRECT COVID RELIEF FUNDS?

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2022/01/how-have-states-used-their-direct-covid-relief-funds

Graphic:

Excerpt:

The federal government provided $512 billion in direct financial assistance to help state and local governments cover their expenditures and revenue losses associated with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. So far, about $400 billion of that total has been disbursed. Here are some notable trends showing how lower levels of government have spent some of their relief funds using a database compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

Publication Date: 14 Jan 2022

Publication Site: Peter G. Peterson Foundation

Second SFA Decision

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://burypensions.wordpress.com/2021/12/23/breaking-news-second-sfa-decision/

Excerpt:

The PBGC Special Financial Assistance program for troubled multiemployer plans has ruled on the third plan to apply for bailout money.

According to a PBGC press release:

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced today that it has approved the plan application for the Idaho Signatory Employers-Laborers Pension Plan (Idaho Signatory) in Portland, Ore. The plan covers 682 participants in the construction industry and will receive $13.9 million in special financial assistance, including interest to the expected date of payment to the plan.

Author(s): John Bury

Publication Date: 23 Dec 2021

Publication Site: Burypensions

What Illinois didn’t tell you about its celebrated early payment of federal loan – Wirepoints

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://wirepoints.org/what-illinois-didnt-tell-you-about-its-celebrated-early-payment-of-federal-loan-wirepoints/

Excerpt:

In fact, the state originally did intend to pay off the Federal Reserve loan with other federal bailout money from ARPA, the American Rescue Plan Act, according to The Bond Buyer. But the “Treasury threw a wrench in repayment prospects” when the initial federal guidance barred the use of ARPA aid for debt repayment. “The state lobbied for a change in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. But as state tax collections turned rosier, state leaders opted instead to cover repayment with tax collections,” says The Bond Buyer.

The bottom line is that all of us, as federal taxpayers, will bear the cost of the federal bailout, for Illinois and other states, whether through higher taxes to repay the Treasury or inflation created by Federal Reserve money creation. And Illinois will be worse off because only Illinois borrowed extra and incurred interest costs.

So, no, Governor Pritzker, paying back this loan ahead of schedule doesn’t mean Illinois achieved a “level of fiscal prudence not seen in our state for decades.”

Author(s): Mark Glennon

Publication Date: 7 Jan 2022

Publication Site: Wirepoints

Unprecedented federal borrowing floods state budgets

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/556660-unprecedented-federal-borrowing-floods-state-budgets

Graphic:

Excerpt:

Once per calendar quarter, the state of Michigan conducts a Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference that provides updates on both the national and state economies and the state’s fiscal outlook. The May conference each year is especially significant because it sets the official revenue targets for the next fiscal year’s state budget. 

The May meeting packet contained a broad range of data points, but a few jumped out.

….

Another chart broke down the components of personal income. Over the previous four quarters, personal income was nearly $3,000 higher than pre-pandemic forecasts had expected. However, employee compensation actually declined by about half that amount. The entire increase is the result of the 53 percent increase in federal transfer payments that have floated U.S. households over the past year.

Author(s): DAVID GUENTHNER

Publication Date: 5 June 2021

Publication Site: The Hill

Treasury Rescue Won’t Bail Out Chicago, New Jersey From Debt

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://news.yahoo.com/treasury-lifeline-won-t-bail-190632365.html

Excerpt:

(Bloomberg) — The U.S. Treasury Department is sending a message to states and cities that the billions in aid from the American Rescue Plan should provide relief to residents, not their governments’ debt burdens.

The department on Monday released guidance on how state and local governments can use $350 billion in funding from President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion rescue package. The funds are intended to help states and local governments make up for lost revenue, curb the pandemic, bolster economic recoveries, and support industries hit by Covid-19 restrictions. In a surprise to some, these funds can’t be used for debt payments, a potential complication for fiscally stressed governments that had already etched out plans to pay off loans.

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Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker had suggested using some of the state’s $8.1 billion in aid to repay the outstanding $3.2 billion in debt from the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending facility and to reduce unpaid bills. Illinois was the only state to borrow from the Fed last year, tapping it twice. On Tuesday, Jordan Abudayyeh, a Pritzker spokesperson, said the administration is “seeking clarification” from the Treasury on whether Illinois can use the aid to pay back the loan from the Fed.

…..

The rule could also affect New Jersey, which sold nearly $3.7 billion of bonds last year to cover its shortfall during the pandemic. Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick, a Republican, in April had called for Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, to use some of the federal aid to pay down the state’s debt.

Author(s): Shruti Date Singh, Amanda Albright

Publication Date: 11 May 2021

Publication Site: Yahoo Finance