The Cost of Government Financial Interventions, Past and Present

[Excerpt] Between March and September 2008, the federal government intervened financially with private corporations on three occasions, resulting in the government receiving significant debt and equity considerations. The firms affected were Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and AIG. Dissatisfaction with the case-by-case approach to addressing the ongoing financial turmoil led Treasury to propose a more comprehensive approach on September 19, 2008. On October 3, 2008, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA, P.L. 110-343) was signed into law, authorizing the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). TARP gave Treasury the option of purchasing or insuring up to $700 billion of assets from financial firms. On October 14, 2008, Treasury announced it was shifting its focus towards direct capital injections into banks through the purchase of preferred shares. Treasury’s announced “capital purchase plan” was for purchasing up to$250 billion in financial firms’ preferred stock under the TARP authority, with approximately $187.5 billion actually purchased as of December 31, 2008. In addition to the general capital purchase plan, there have been several other case-by-case interventions since the passage of the EESA. The initial$85 billion AIG loan from mid-September was first augmented and then revamped into a combination package of a $60 billion line of credit,$40 billion in preferred share purchases, up to $20.9 billion in commercial paper purchases, and up to$52.5 billion in troubled asset purchases. Citigroup received an additional $20 billion in preferred share purchases after an initial$25 billion, along with federal guarantees to cover losses on a $306 billion pool of assets. The U.S. automakers also received financial assistance through TARP, with a$5 billion preferred share purchase from GMAC, up to $14.4 billion in loans to GM and up to$4 billion in loans promised to Chrysler. These interventions have prompted questions regarding the taxpayer costs and the sources of funding. The sources of funding are relatively straightforward—primarily the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the U.S. Treasury. The costs, however, are difficult to quantify at this stage. In most of the interventions, many of the financial outflows that are possible have yet to occur, and the ultimate value of the debt and equity considerations received from the private firms is uncertain. At this point, the federal government has the option to own nearly 80% of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG. Depending on the final proceeds from the various debt and equity considerations, the federal government may end up seeing a positive fiscal contribution from the recent interventions, as was the case in some of the past interventions summarized in the tables at the end of this report. The government may also suffer significant losses, as has also occurred in the past. This report will be updated as warranted by legislative and market events

Government Interventions in Response to Financial Turmoil

This report reviews new programs introduced and other actions taken by the Treasury, Federal Reserve, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in response to the recent financial crisis. It does not cover longstanding programs such as the Fed's discount window and FDIC receivership of failed banks

Senate Banking: Financial Regulatory Improvement Act

This report briefly highlights some of the major policy proposals included in a May 12, 2015 discussion draft released by Senator Richard Shelby that is scheduled for markup by the Senate Banking Committee. The draft encompasses a broad package of reforms to the financial regulatory system, including some changes to the Dodd-Frank Act (P.L. 111-203)

Unexpected patterns of global population structure in melon-headed whales Peponocephala electra

Foraging specialization, environmental barriers, and social structure have driven the development of strong genetic differentiation within many marine species, including most of the large dolphin species commonly referred to as ‘blackfish’ (subfamily Globicephalinae). We used mitochondrial sequence data (mtDNA) and genotypes from 14 nuclear microsatellite loci (nDNA) to examine patterns of genetic population structure in melon-headed whales Peponocephala electra (MHWs), poorly known members of the blackfish family for which genetic structuring is unknown. MHWs are globally distributed in tropical and subtropical waters, and have formed resident populations around oceanic islands. They frequently mass strand, suggesting strong social cohesion within groups. Based on these characteristics, we hypothesized that MHWs would exhibit strong regional genetic differentiation, similar to that observed in other members of the Globicephalinae subfamily. Instead we found only moderate differentiation (median mtDNA ΦST = 0.204, median nDNA FST = 0.012) among populations both within and between ocean basins. Our results suggest that populations of MHWs that are resident to oceanic islands maintain a higher level of genetic connectivity than is seen in most other blackfish. MHWs may be more behaviorally similar to delphinids from the Delphininae subfamily (particularly the spinner dolphin Stenella longirostris), which are known to form coastal and island-associated resident populations that maintain genetic connectivity either through occasional long-distance dispersal or gene flow with larger pelagic populations. Our results suggest that differences in social organization may drive different patterns of population structure in social odontocete

111th Congress

Financial regulatory reform is being discussed in the 111th Congress, the continuation of a policy debate that began before the September 2008 financial disruption. This report reviews issues related to financial regulation. It provides brief descriptions of comprehensive reform bills in the 111th Congress that addresses these issues

Differences in the Quality of Pediatric Resuscitative Care Across a Spectrum of Emergency Departments

Importance: The quality of pediatric resuscitative care delivered across the spectrum of emergency departments (EDs) in the United States is poorly described. In a recent study, more than 4000 EDs completed the Pediatric Readiness Survey (PRS); however, the correlation of PRS scores with the quality of simulated or real patient care has not been described. Objective: To measure and compare the quality of resuscitative care delivered to simulated pediatric patients across a spectrum of EDs and to examine the correlation of PRS scores with quality measures. Design, Setting, and Participants: This prospective multicenter cohort study evaluated 58 interprofessional teams in their native pediatric or general ED resuscitation bays caring for a series of 3 simulated critically ill patients (sepsis, seizure, and cardiac arrest). Main Outcomes and Measures: A composite quality score (CQS) was measured as the sum of 4 domains: (1) adherence to sepsis guidelines, (2) adherence to cardiac arrest guidelines, (3) performance on seizure resuscitation, and (4) teamwork. Pediatric Readiness Survey scores and health care professional demographics were collected as independent data. Correlations were explored between CQS and individual domain scores with PRS. Results: Overall, 58 teams from 30 hospitals participated (8 pediatric EDs [PEDs], 22 general EDs [GEDs]). The mean CQS was 71 (95% CI, 68-75); PEDs had a higher mean CQS (82; 95% CI, 79-85) vs GEDs (66; 95% CI, 63-69) and outperformed GEDs in all domains. However, when using generalized estimating equations to estimate CQS controlling for clustering of the data, PED status did not explain a higher CQS (beta = 4.28; 95% CI, -4.58 to 13.13) while the log of pediatric patient volume did explain a higher CQS (beta = 9.57; 95% CI, 2.64-16.49). The correlation of CQS to PRS was moderate (r = 0.51; P \u3c .001). The correlation was weak for cardiac arrest (r = 0.24; P = .07), weak for sepsis (rho = 0.45; P \u3c .001) and seizure (rho = 0.43; P = .001), and strong for teamwork (rho = 0.71; P \u3c .001). Conclusions and Relevance: This multicenter study noted significant differences in the quality of simulated pediatric resuscitative care across a spectrum of EDs. The CQS was higher in PEDs compared with GEDs. However, when controlling for pediatric patient volume and other variables in a multivariable model, PED status does not explain a higher CQS while pediatric patient volume does. The correlation of the PRS was moderate for simulation-based measures of quality

Flukicidal effects of abietane diterpenoid derived analogues against the food borne pathogen Fasciola hepatica.

Control of liver fluke infections remains a significant challenge in the livestock sector due to widespread distribution of drug resistant parasite populations. In particular, increasing prevalence and economic losses due to infection with Fasciola hepatica is a direct result of drug resistance to the gold standard flukicide, triclabendazole. Sustainable control of this significant zoonotic pathogen, therefore, urgently requires the identification of new anthelmintics. Plants represent a source of molecules with potential flukicidal effects and, amongst their secondary metabolites, the diterpenoid abietic acids can be isolated in large quantities. In this study, nineteen (19) chemically modified abietic acid analogues (MC_X) were first evaluated for their anthelmintic activities against F. hepatica newly excysted juveniles (NEJs, from the laboratory-derived Italian strain); from this, 6 analogues were secondly evaluated for their anthelmintic activities against adult wild strain flukes. One analogue, MC010, was progressed further against 8-week immature- and 12-week mature Italian strain flukes. Here, MC010 demonstrated moderate activity against both of these intra-mammalian fluke stages (with an adult fluke EC50 = 12.97 µM at 72 h post culture). Overt mammalian cell toxicity of MC010 was inferred from the Madin-Darby bovine kidney (MDBK) cell line (CC50 = 17.52 µM at 24 h post culture) and demonstrated that medicinal chemistry improvements are necessary before abietic acid analogues could be considered as potential anthelmintics against liver fluke pathogen