(1888PressRelease)
March 25, 2009 - Hoffman Meyer Associates CE, Douglas Morgan, said Monday “The severe banking crisis shows the U.S. financial system failed a major test and is in need of an overhaul.”
Douglas told a Seattle conference “The Obama administration plans to work with Congress to put in place a stronger, more stable system with a modernized government regulatory structure.” He went on to say "The system basically failed its most fundamental test," he said "It was too fragile."
Treasury Secretary Geithner will appear with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee which is examining the government's handling of the bailout of troubled insurance company American International Group Inc.
AIG last week sent off a firestorm of criticism after it paid $165 million in bonuses. The House overwhelmingly passed legislation to tax those bonus payments at up to 90 percent, though President Obama has questioned the bill on constitutional grounds.
Lawmakers had argued the employees who received the payments worked for the AIG division that drove the company nearly to collapse with risky trades in credit default swaps and should not be getting bonuses after the government was forced to plow more than $180 billion into AIG to keep it afloat.
Geithner, who has come under criticism for not doing enough to stop the bonus payments, will use his appearance before the panel Tuesday to explain a key part of the administration's reform agenda. The administration will urge Congress to grant it the authority to take over major troubled institutions whose collapse is judged to pose a threat to the entire financial system. The administration would have the power to limit payments to creditors and to break contracts for executive bonuses, the issue that raised the furor with AIG.
Hoffman Meyer Associates is Seattle's leading merger and acquisition, business brokerage firm. As a mergers & acquisition firm, our principals have completed scores of transactions of privately and publicly held companies during the past 25 years.
Over the years, our firm has developed strong relationships with companies and individuals that are ancillary to the mergers & acquisition process including banks, mezzanine lenders, asset lenders, transaction attorneys, certified public accountants, and financial planners. We are also affiliate members of leading merger & acquisition, business valuation, accounting and brokerage associations.
###
