Treasury Department

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Latest IRS Sin: $50M Spent on Conferences in 3 Years

'Inappropriate' outlay included line-dancing lessons

(Newser) - Sympathy might be in short supply for the IRS, which has been hit by an audit at a very inconvenient time. A government watchdog's look at the scandal-hit agency's books found that it spent around $50 million on more than 200 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012,...

Treasury Pays Down Debt for First Time Since Dubya

Taxes, cuts give Treasury unexpected $35B

(Newser) - Spending cuts and tax hikes have boosted the federal government's finances enough to actually pay off some debt for the first time since George W. Bush was president. The Treasury Department, which predicted earlier this year that it would end the second quarter another $103 billion deeper in debt,...

Rubio Joins Brouhaha Over Beyonce, Jay-Z Cuba Trip

US Treasury authorized 'people-to-people' visit: report

(Newser) - Now Marco Rubio is questioning Beyonce and Jay-Z's recent anniversary trip to Havana , a trip which an insider tells Reuters was licensed by the US Treasury department. Traveling to Cuba is normally forbidden for US citizens, with a potential punishment of 10 years in prison and $250,000 in...

Senate Panel OKs Jack Lew
 Senate Panel 
 OKs Jack Lew 
Feb 26, 2013 10:01 AM CST

Senate Panel OKs Jack Lew

Treasury nominee now heads to full Senate

(Newser) - The Senate Finance Committee has given Jack Lew its stamp of approval, pushing forward his semi-contentious nomination as secretary of the Treasury by a 19-5 vote, reports Politico . Max Baucus, the panel's Democrat chairman, said ahead of the vote that Lew had answered all questions "in a thorough...

Treasury: Forget About That $1T Platinum Coin

Treasury won't make it and Fed won't accept it

(Newser) - The $1 trillion platinum coin being touted as a bizarre solution to the debt ceiling debate will only ever exist as an illustration of just how dysfunctional Washington has become. A Treasury official tells the Washington Post that the department has no intention of minting such a coin to get...

Hurry, Mint That Platinum Coin
 Hurry, Mint That Platinum Coin 
Paul krugman
Jan 11, 2013 1:21 PM CST

Hurry, Mint That Platinum Coin

Paul Krugman: It's kind of a joke, but so is the current predicament

(Newser) - Despite facing plenty of blowback from wags, wonks, and politicos over the past week—such as Ezra Klein in the Washington Post —Paul Krugman is continuing his push for the $1 trillion platinum coin option to bypass the looming debt ceiling debate. ( Here's a summary of how...

How Iran Is Working Around Sanctions

Sticks to couriers, trading firms in other countries: US Treasury

(Newser) - Iran is managing to sneak around heavy economic sanctions using other countries' private trading houses, fake identities, and something called hawala, the US Treasury tells reporters. The sanctions have left the country "almost without recourse through ordinary banking channels," says a spokesman. So Iranian officials are in some...

Obama Will Pick Jack Lew to Replace Geithner: Source

He'll announce the pick tomorrow

(Newser) - President Obama will tomorrow name current Chief of Staff Jack Lew as his nominee for Treasury secretary, a source tells Bloomberg News . Obama has already offered the position to Lew, the source says. The move doesn't exactly come as a surprise; Lew, a former director of the Office of...

Quick Debt Ceiling Fix: $1T Coin
 Quick Debt 
 Ceiling Fix: 
 $1T Coin 
paul krugman
Jan 7, 2013 12:33 PM CST

Quick Debt Ceiling Fix: $1T Coin

Or, Obama could just raise limit himself

(Newser) - Think the whole debt-ceiling debate is silly? Paul Krugman does, too, and he's been pushing an admittedly "silly" way out of it. A legal loophole intended for making commemorative coins, he writes in the New York Times , could come in handy: Thanks to the rule, the US Treasury...

GM to Buy Back 200M Shares From Treasury

Move could speed up US exit from company

(Newser) - General Motors will spend $5.5 billion to buy back 200 million of its own stock from the US government in the next two weeks, accelerating Uncle Sam's exit from the automaker, the company announced today. GM will pay $27.50 a share, a 7.9% premium on yesterday'...

US Hawks Last AIG Shares, Pushes Profit to $22.7B

Treasury to bring in $7.6B in sale today

(Newser) - The US is getting ready to sell off Uncle Sam's remaining shares in AIG—and when it's all over, the government's bailout of the company will have resulted in a $22.7 billion return, the Treasury Department says. It's selling some 234 million common shares today...

We Could Fix Debt Crisis With ... Platinum Coins?

Bizarrely, laws restrict issues of gold, silver, copper, but not platinum

(Newser) - President Obama says he is " not going to play that [debt ceiling] game " with Republicans again. But how to avoid disaster if Congress doesn't raise the ceiling? It turns out the president has one ridiculously simple solution as an option—platinum coins. Incredibly, there is no legal...

US Selling Off $18B Stake in AIG

With sale, US will be minority shareholder for first time since bailout

(Newser) - The US government is selling another $18 billion in AIG, a move that will make it a minority stakeholder for the first time since bailing out the insurance giant in 2008, reports the Wall Street Journal . Four other sales since March 2011 have reduced the government's stake in AIG...

Feds Fume Over NY Attack on British Bank

Treasury Department, Fed pretty peeved over the move

(Newser) - Standard Chartered wasn't the only one caught off-guard by Monday's accusations from the New York Department of Financial Services that the bank had gone "rogue" and helped Iran hide $250 million in transactions. The Treasury Department and Federal Reserve were just as stunned by the charges, along...

Feds Checking Giant Gold Stash

 Feds Open Vault, 
 Double-Check 
 Giant Gold Stash 
in case you missed it
Aug 5, 2012 7:00 PM CDT

Feds Open Vault, Double-Check Giant Gold Stash

Auditors drilling into Uncle Sam's NY Fed holdings

(Newser) - Have Die Hard-style criminal masterminds made off with part of the world's biggest stash of gold? Probably not, but the federal government has been quietly double-checking its holdings in the New York Federal Reserve's vault anyway, the Los Angeles Times finds. The fortress deep below Manhattan holds close...

Debt Limit Debacle&#39;s Tab: $1.3B
 Debt Limit Debacle's Tab: $1.3B 
GAO report
Jul 24, 2012 9:11 AM CDT

Debt Limit Debacle's Tab: $1.3B

Treasury maneuvering cost taxpayers dearly

(Newser) - Last summer's debt ceiling showdown cost taxpayers at least $1.3 billion in increased borrowing costs, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released yesterday. Legislators' game of brinkmanship spooked investors, driving up the cost of government borrowing. It also forced the Treasury to perform some financial gymnastics,...

Treasury Officials Hired Prostitutes, Took Gifts

Inspector General report finds shenanigans at regulatory agencies

(Newser) - Treasury Department officials have been reprimanded for hiring prostitutes, golfing with the bankers they're supposed to be regulating, and taking improper gifts, according to inspector general reports spotted by the Hill that were published following Freedom of Information Act requests. Though the identities of all the perpetrators were redacted,...

Watchdog: TARP Profit Is &#39;Misconception&#39;
 Watchdog: 
 TARP Profit Is 
 'Misconception' 
SMALL BANKS STILL STRUGGLE
Apr 25, 2012 1:05 PM CDT

Watchdog: TARP Profit Is 'Misconception'

Hundreds of small banks struggling to repay loans

(Newser) - The Treasury Department tends to give glowing reviews to the TARP bailout, but the program's inspector general has a distinctly different view. "It is a widely held misconception that TARP will make a profit," writes Christy Romero in a new report to Congress, according to the Huffington...

US to Pay Indian Tribes $1B Over Mismanagement

Some disputes over land, resources more than 100 years old

(Newser) - The White House has settled with 41 Indian tribes to the tune of $1.023 billion in disputes over the federal mismanagement of trust funds and resources, reports Indian Country . Some of the disputes are more than 100 years old. It's among the largest financial settlements to Indian tribes...

Geithner: Obama Won't Ask Me to Stay

Treasury secretary says he's done after election

(Newser) - Tim Geithner is pretty sure he's going to be joining the ranks of the jobless after the election: The Treasury secretary—the longest serving member of President Obama's economic team—tells Bloomberg that Obama is "not going to ask me to stay on, I’m pretty confident....

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