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Friday, June 8, 2012

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See how the newlywed mom-to-be has changed -- from her cherub-cheeked early days to her status as a Hollywood golden girl

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Banking industry gradually finding a new 'normal'

By Wendell Cochran, Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University

Bank profits are rising and lending is growing as the battered industry struggles to regain a semblance of normality, new government figures show.

Some of the signs:

Profits are up. Banks made $35.6 billion in the first quarter, according the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. That?s the best quarter since mid-2007, before the industry was plunged into its worst crisis in a generation.
Lending is growing, despite a small downturn in the first three months of the year. Business lending is up by 14 percent in the past year.
Troubled assets are down. The amount of troubled assets ? a combination of nonperforming loans and the value of foreclosed property ? continues to tumble, according to an analysis of FDIC quarterly financial reports by the Investigative Reporting Workshop. At the end of March, the nation?s banks were carrying over $240 billion in troubled assets, but that?s the lowest level since December 2008, when the scope of the financial crisis was beginning to be understood.

To some extent, whether banking is back depends on which banker you talk to.

Herbert Marth Jr., president of the $390-million asset Central Virginia Bank in Powhatan, Va., laughs at the question. ?Oh, man. No.?

?Business people are still very cautious. Loan demand is still very, very weak. That?s probably the toughest issue right now,? he says.

At Northwest Financial Corp., which owns three banks in Iowa, President Jeff Plagge says, ?I?m not sure what ?normal? is.?

Still he senses that people think it is time to get back to business, although they remain wary because of events like last week?s stock price tumble caused by worry over European financial issues. Unlike Marth, Plagge sees some rekindling of loan demand.

?In our three banks we are seeing people kind of back to what I call ?normal,?? he says. Strong grain and livestock prices over the past few years have helped many banks in the agricultural heartland get through the crisis in better shape than banks elsewhere. Only two Iowa banks have failed since the beginning of 2007.

He also is vice chair of the American Bankers Association and says that ?even in the most troubled places? his colleagues around the country ?at least think it?s found the bottom.?

Look up your bank or credit union with BankTracker

You couldn?t blame bankers for being a bit cautious about saying the industry is out of the woods. It has been traumatized by its experiences over the past five years. For many banks there still is a mountain of troubled debt and a long line of foreclosures to work through.

Since the end of 2007, 438 banks have failed, and another 788 have merged into other institutions, meaning that on average banks have gotten larger. The rate of failures has slowed, peaking at 157 in 2010, down to 92 last year and 24 so far this year.

Between September 2008 and December 2008, the federal government handed out $204.9 billion in capital assistance to more than 800 banks through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). All but about $11.6 billion of that has been repaid, according to the Treasury Department. Workshop records show that 393 banks still have not repaid their TARP investments. (Note: The Workshop links TARP investments to individual banks, not just to the holding companies that own them. The Treasury Department says it invested in 707 institutions.)

By its accounting, Treasury has lost about $2.7 billion of TARP funds in banks and related financial institutions that failed, including $2.3 billion to CIT Group Inc., which declared bankruptcy in 2009, less than a year after getting the TARP money. The company?s bank subsidiary, CIT Bank, did not fail and continues to operate. Treasury also has accepted less than its full investments in some cases where banks merged into other institutions.

Since TARP began in 2008 Treasury has collected nearly $21.5 billion in interest and dividends on its investments. Of the active banks that still owe money, 197 are behind on their dividend payments, owing a total of more than $305 million at the end of April, according to the Treasury Department. The Treasury Department has installed government observers in 51 TARP banks to better oversee their activities.

It may be awhile before the government sees much of the money it is still owed. While the nation?s largest banks lobbied for and got quick permission to pay back their government funds (in part because they wanted to escape restraints on executive pay), smaller regional and community banks have had a harder time getting out of the program.

The Inspector General for the TARP program reported to Congress in late April that the banks still in TARP are generally smaller community banks and that they are institutions that ?have an uphill battle to exit TARP because they cannot find new capital to replace TARP funds.?

The Central Virginia Bank, where Marth is president, is an example of the issues smaller banks face trying to exit TARP. Marth says having TARP money, ?definitely helped us out and continues to help us out.? The $390 million-asset bank got an $11.4 million infusion from TARP in January 2009.

Marth says the bank mostly needed the money because it lost $18 million overnight in September 2008 when the government took over mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, wiping out the bank?s investment in their preferred stock. ?If we had that money today, we wouldn?t have needed TARP,? he says.

Central Virginia has had a difficult time keeping up its payments because of heavy loan losses in 2009 and 2010. At the end of April it owed the Treasury about $1.3 million in dividends on TARP. The bank worked its way back to profitability in 2011.

Marth says that when the economy and capital markets improve, ?We ought to be able to raise additional capital.? But, he adds, given the uncertainty around the financial situation in Europe, ?Right now is not the time.?

The largest outstanding TARP advance went to Synovus Financial Corp. of Columbus, Ga., which received $967.9 million in December 2008. Synovus is current on its dividends and has never missed a payment, according to Treasury Department reports. The smallest remaining TARP investment is $301,000 owed by tiny The Freeport State Bank, Harper, Kan. , which also is current on its dividend payments. In its statements on TARP, Treasury is generally upbeat. It highlights that between repayments and dividends, the bank investment program is in the black.

Paul Miller, FBR Capital Markets, discusses whether there's still room to run for the regional banks.

But the Inspector General?s report?in April takes a much tougher tack.

The IG says, ?TARP?s costs and legacies involve far more than just dollars and cents. Using a microscope to narrowly focus on the profit or loss of TARP risks losing sight of the bigger picture of whether TARP has been successful in meeting its goals. It also glosses over whether lessons learned from the financial crisis have been adequately implemented so that Treasury, banking regulators, and Congress do not find themselves in the position of rushing out another massive bailout of the financial industry, i.e., TARP 2.0.?

For example, the IG says, ?A significant legacy of TARP is increased moral hazard and potentially disastrous consequences associated with institutions deemed ?too big to fail.??

In other words, the government came to the rescue to prevent imperiled big banks from failing, even though there was widespread agreement that it was the banks? own actions that put them and the whole financial system in jeopardy. The lesson to the banks: ?It doesn?t matter what we do, the government will save us if we are big enough.? Since the advent of TARP in September 2008, the biggest banks have gotten bigger and claimed a larger share of banking assets and deposits.

The inspector general?s report also notes, as the Workshop has reported previously, that TARP did not stimulate bank lending, even though that was a stated goal of the program. ?This may be in part due to Treasury?s failure to require?increased lending in exchange for TARP funds,? the report says.

"Treasury did not even require TARP recipients to report on how they used TARP funds, providing an opaque cover for those institutions that continued to cut lending,? the IG says.

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Thursday, June 7, 2012

Surveillance ends at blind China activist village

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2010 file photo, unidentified men block a journalist's vehicle from entering Dongshigu Village, Yinan county, China. Suddenly the guard posts came down and the hired toughs who manned them melted away, restoring an air of freedom this week to the village that authorities turned into a prison to keep blind activist Chen Guangcheng under house arrest for nearly two years. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 2011 file image made from video released on Feb. 10, 2011, by China Aid Association, Chinese activist and lawyer Chen Guangcheng speaks in Dongshigu village, Shandong province, China. Suddenly the guard posts came down and the hired toughs who manned them melted away, restoring an air of freedom this week to the village that authorities turned into a prison to keep the blind activist under house arrest for nearly two years. (AP Photo/China Aid Association, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2010 file photo, unidentified Chinese men escort a foreign television journalist after they blocked a road at the entrance to Dongshigu Village, in Yinan county, China. Suddenly the guard posts came down and the hired toughs who manned them melted away, restoring an air of freedom this week to the village that authorities turned into a prison to keep blind activist Chen Guangcheng under house arrest for nearly two years. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

BEIJING (AP) ? Suddenly the guard posts came down and the hired toughs who manned them melted away, restoring an air of freedom this week to a village that authorities turned into a prison to keep blind activist Chen Guangcheng under house arrest for nearly two years.

The checkpoints, surveillance cameras and other measures had remained in place even though Chen fled Dongshigu village six weeks ago for sanctuary at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and ultimately went to New York to study. While directed at Chen, the security restrictions made life uncomfortable for his fellow villagers, who felt liberated with their removal.

"Finally we can sleep at night," said a villager who only gave her family name, Du, because the return to normalcy still felt uncertain. "In the past you could always hear footsteps from patrolmen and car noises at night, and the dogs barked."

"You no longer need to stop at checkpoints when you leave or enter the village. You can now walk down the road," said Du, a mother in her 20s who also farms. "I feel more at ease and happier."

So thorough was the cleanup this past weekend that locals said the surveillance cameras trained on Chen home had been removed and the high voltage street lamps dimmed. Two adjoining huts built at the village's entrance to house the guards ? and where outsiders trying to visit Chen had been beaten ? had been torn down. Even the trash they piled up had been taken away.

"It was as if the whole thing evaporated," said Chen's older brother, Chen Guangfu, who lives in the village with several others in the Chen family. "I feel liberated."

The persisting of the security barriers even after Chen's escape had raised questions about whether local authorities seemed intent on punishing other members of the family and the villagers who helped him flee.

Blinded by fever in infancy, Chen taught himself law and became known for defending the rights of poor farmers and the disabled in the wheat, soybean and peanut farming country of Shandong province. His exposure of forced abortions and sterilizations during an enforcement campaign for the government's one-child policy embarrassed local officials.

Over the nearly seven years since, he was either in prison or under house arrest, and his treatment carried the taint of a vendetta.

Rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, a friend of Chen Guangcheng, said local authorities likely got rid of the surveillance to destroy evidence ahead of an investigation by the central government. After his escape, Chen said a citizens complaints official told him Beijing would investigate his detention.

"If Beijing wants to go through the motion, it can do so" with the absence of evidence, Jiang said. "But if Beijing wants a real investigation, it can still do so because there are plenty of witnesses."

Calls to the local town police were unanswered, and employees in the government office at Yinan county, which oversees Dongshigu, said they were not clear about the removal of security.

Five people from Dongshigu and a nearby village corroborated the weekend cleanup and said that they were relieved now that the community is free of guards for the first time since 2005.

"I feel much relaxed now," said a villager who also gave only her surname, Liu. "No one is blocking roads and keeping watch on the village."

Liu also expressed her puzzlement. "Why didn't they do it in broad daylight instead of removing the security at night?" Liu said.

With the security gone, much remains unsettled in Dongshigu. Chen's nephew is in police custody on charges of attempted murder after he fought with local officials who stormed into his house looking for Chen Guangcheng after his escape. He has been unable to see the lawyers his family wants to represent him.

Instead, the court has appointed two lawyers from the same law firms that defended Chen Guangcheng in his 2006 trial.

Chen Guangfu said the firms did not provide much defense then. "All they said in court was, 'no objection,'" the brother said.

During the 19 months since Chen Guangcheng was released from prison into house arrest, local officials and the people they hired sometimes beat Chen and his wife, roughed up his mother and harassed their young daughter. Some of the hired toughs came from the village or surrounding communities, getting paid 100 yuan, or $16, a day to chase away unwanted visitors and torment the Chen family.

Chen's supporters also welcomed the end of heavy security, seeing it as a possible sign that Beijing is acknowledging the unfairness of local authorities.

"I feel this is a step in the right direction," said He Peirong, an activist who aided Chen's escape by driving him away from the village. "It goes to show the government is not unchangeable but that it can make adjustments."

Associated Press

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New US leverage seen in talks with Pakistan

In this Wednesday, June 6, 2012 photo, Pakistani oil tanker drivers, sit on the ground chatting next to their tankers which were used to transport NATO fuel supplies to Afghanistan, and parked in a compound in Karachi, Pakistan. U.S. negotiators pushing Pakistan to allow NATO troop supplies to resume to neighboring Afghanistan could get a boost from a deal the coalition struck to withdraw military equipment from the war-torn country through Central Asia. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

In this Wednesday, June 6, 2012 photo, oil tankers, which were used to transport NATO fuel supplies to Afghanistan, are parked in Karachi, Pakistan. U.S. negotiators pushing Pakistan to allow NATO troop supplies to resume to neighboring Afghanistan could get a boost from a deal the coalition struck to withdraw military equipment from the war-torn country through Central Asia. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

In this Wednesday, June 6, 2012 photo, a Pakistani man who sells tea walks between oil tankers, which were used to transport NATO fuel supplies to Afghanistan, parked in a compound in Karachi, Pakistan. U.S. negotiators pushing Pakistan to allow NATO troop supplies to resume to neighboring Afghanistan could get a boost from a deal the coalition struck to withdraw military equipment from the war-torn country through Central Asia. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

In this Wednesday, June 6, 2012 photo, a Pakistani man cleans the roof of an oil tanker which was used to transport NATO fuel supplies to Afghanistan, and parked with other tankers in a compound in Karachi, Pakistan. U.S. negotiators pushing Pakistan to allow NATO troop supplies to resume to neighboring Afghanistan could get a boost from a deal the coalition struck to withdraw military equipment from the war-torn country through Central Asia. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? The U.S. is trying to break deadlocked talks with Pakistan over reopening a route for NATO troop supplies into Afghanistan ? a deal that has proven elusive due to Islamabad's demands for more money and Washington's refusal to apologize for accidentally killing Pakistani forces.

Now the U.S. may have a little more leverage on its side, thanks to an agreement struck with some Central Asian countries to carry NATO equipment out through their territory. Before this week's agreement, Pakistan provided the only available land route to pull out gear.

Peter Lavoy, a senior Defense Department official, is expected in Islamabad at the end of the week to try to resolve the current dispute.

Pakistan first closed the supply line in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November. Prior to the attack, the U.S. and other NATO countries shipped about 30 percent of their nonlethal supplies through Pakistan into southern Afghanistan.

Since then, the coalition compensated by using a longer, more costly route that runs through northern Afghanistan, Central Asia and Russia. This alternative route was only available to ship supplies into Afghanistan until Monday, when Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan agreed to allow the coalition to withdraw equipment as well. NATO already has an agreement with Russia for the withdrawal of material.

Monday's deal means that the coalition will be able to ship back to Europe tens of thousands of vehicles, containers and other items as it seeks to withdraw most combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

"I think this will be an advantage for the U.S. and leverage over Pakistan, especially against those who said the U.S. was dependent and had no other choice," said Pakistani defense analyst Hasan-Askari Rizvi. "I think greater realism will dawn on Pakistani policymakers that the U.S. has shown it can use the northern channel, although it will be expensive and take more time."

It's not exactly clear how much more expensive the northern route is compared to the one that was previously used via the Pakistani port of Karachi.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, said recently that the northern supply line through Central Asia was twice as expensive as the one through Pakistan. But Pentagon figures obtained by The Associated Press in mid-January indicated the U.S. was paying six times as much to use the northern route.

Before Pakistan closed the southern route because of the November attack, it was charging $250 per truck. Now it is demanding $5,000 per truck, while the U.S. has countered with an offer of $500.

"If most of the weapons systems and equipment ends up being transported out through the northern route, it means Pakistan would be losing out on a great opportunity," said Talat Masood, a Pakistani defense analyst and retired army general. "It would be losing out both in terms of its economy and its relations with NATO."

President Barack Obama made clear U.S. anger at Islamabad's refusal to reopen the supply line at a NATO summit at the end of May in Chicago, where he refused to have a one-on-one meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

Pakistan's reluctance to reopen the route is linked to concerns about political backlash at home, where anti-American sentiment is rampant despite receiving billions of dollars in U.S. aid in the past decade.

"Money is an issue, but public backlash is a greater concern because the government is unpopular and they don't know what to do about the response," Rizvi said.

The U.S. airstrikes that killed the 24 Pakistani soldiers at two Afghan border posts in November brought outrage in Pakistan. The U.S. military has said the attack was an accident, but the Pakistani army has claimed it was deliberate.

Pakistan's parliament demanded the U.S. apologize for the attack and also used the opportunity to press Washington to stop drone strikes in the country.

The Obama administration has expressed regret over the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers but has refused to apologize out of concern that it could open the White House to criticism at home, where anger at Pakistan is high because of its alleged support for militants fighting U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

The U.S. has refused to stop drone strikes in Pakistan's northwest tribal region because they are seen as a key tool in fighting al-Qaida and Taliban militants. The latest success came Monday when a drone killed al-Qaida's second-in-command, Abu Yahya al-Libi, in the North Waziristan tribal area.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made it clear during a trip to India on Wednesday that the strikes will continue as long as the U.S. needs to defend itself against terrorists who threaten America.

The attacks are unpopular in Pakistan because they are seen as a violation of the country's sovereignty and many people believe they mostly kill innocent civilians, an allegation disputed by Washington. The complaints about sovereignty are also deemed suspect because elements of the Pakistani government and military are widely believed to support the strikes.

Panetta said the U.S. goal was not only seeking to get the supply route reopened, but also to try to improve relations with Pakistan.

"That is not easy, but it is necessary that we continue that effort," he said.

The Pakistani army, which is the most powerful institution in the country, is believed to want the supply route reopened to free up more than $1 billion in U.S. military aid that has been frozen. But it has tossed the issue to the civilian government out of concern about the domestic backlash, Rizvi said.

"Pakistan should realize they are going to be pushed out of the game if they continue with these kinds of policies," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Slobodan Lekic in Brussels and Lolita Baldor in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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U.S. stiffens opposition to EU law on aviation emissions

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Doctor says she has delegates for Green Party nod

FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2011 file photo, Jill Stein of Lexington, Mass. speaks during a news conference outside the Statehouse in Boston. Stein, a medical doctor who once ran against Mitt Romney for governor of Massachusetts says she has enough delegates to win the Green Party's presidential nomination. The campaign of Jill Stein says she clinched the nomination after the California primary on Tuesday and now has won two-thirds of the delegates allocated. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) ? A medical doctor who once challenged Mitt Romney for governor of Massachusetts says she has enough delegates to win the Green Party's presidential nomination.

The campaign of Jill Stein says she clinched the nomination after California's primary Tuesday and now has won two-thirds of the delegates allocated.

Green Party delegates will gather in July in Baltimore for their nominating convention. The party says it's committed to ecology, social justice, grass-roots democracy and non-violence.

Also seeking the Green Party nomination for president are comedian Roseanne Barr, retired Michigan state worker Harley Mikkelson and San Diego County air quality inspector Kent Mesplay.

Stein's campaign describes her as a mother, housewife, physician, longtime teacher of internal medicine and environmental-health advocate. She lives in Lexington, Mass.

Associated Press

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