CORRESPONDENTS

Chris Adams

Levin asks Goldman: Was it just hedging, or something worse?

A Senate investigations panel confronted Goldman Sachs executives Tuesday with evidence that the firm peddled subprime mortgage securities its traders considered to be "crap" as they secretly made huge bets on a housing downturn. The hearing stretched on for more than 10 hours, culminating in the testimony of Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein. | 04/27/10 21:35:00 By - Greg Gordon and Chris Adams

Goldman executives: 'No regrets' for deals that accelerated crisis

Goldman Sachs traders who helped the firm rack up billions of dollars in profits from secret bets against the housing market told a Senate investigating panel Tuesday that they'd done nothing wrong. | 04/27/10 19:08:42 By - Chris Adams and Greg Gordon

Senate probe: Goldman misled clients and nation — and made billions

Senate investigators said Monday that Goldman Sachs reaped "billions and billions of dollars" by betting that the U.S. housing market would collapse, a finding that contradicts Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein's claims that his firm did not massively "short" the subprime mortgage securities market. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said an 18-month investigation shows that Goldman "repeatedly put its own interests and profits ahead of the interests of its clients." | 04/26/10 17:12:53 By - Greg Gordon and Chris Adams

Pulitzer finalist: McClatchy probes of Goldman Sachs, Moody's and SEC

McClatchy Washington Bureau reporters Greg Gordon, Chris Adams and Kevin G. Hall were named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for their examination of the nation's financial collapse, including what the Pulitzer judges called "a powerful series on the involvement of Goldman Sachs." | 04/12/10 16:28:28 By -

Commerce Department: China dumped cheap steel in U.S.

In a ruling important to many companies across the country, the Commerce Department announced Friday that Chinese steelmakers sold steel tubes used by the oil and gas industry at below-market value in the U.S., a practice that domestic steelmakers say has harmed their operations. | 04/09/10 20:18:00 By - Kevin G. Hall and Chris Adams

Though LandAmerica clients lost millions, no bailout granted

As LandAmerica Financial Group lurched toward bankruptcy in late 2008, its leaders looked to the one place they thought could help: Washington. | 03/20/10 00:01:00 By - Chris Adams

LandAmerica touted its safety but clients lost millions

On the day before Thanksgiving 2008, Jean Ann Simmons came home after picking up her children at school to find an express mail package on her front porch in this small Texas town. A unit of LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. — the company the Simmonses had entrusted with more than a quarter of a million dollars — informed the family in a one-page letter that it was going out of business. Nine months earlier, officials at LandAmerica had learned that the supposedly safe investments they'd made for clients such as the Simmonses had tanked. | 03/20/10 00:01:00 By - Chris Adams

Mortgage foreclosures still swamping federal efforts to help

Banks and other lenders are still foreclosing on Americans' homes at a rate that's outpacing the Obama administration's main effort to stem the crisis. The Treasury Department's Home Affordable Modification Program has started the mortgage modification process for almost 760,000 homeowners, less than 5 percent of those workouts have become permanent. One member of the Congressional Oversight Panel that monitors the program called it "a failure." | 01/03/10 00:01:00 By - Chris Adams

For the feds, some Wall Street firms are too big — to punish

Forget too big to fail. In the eyes of federal regulators, many Wall Street firms are too big to punish. These firms, including Bank of America, Citigroup and AIG, got, sometimes repeatedly, special exemptions from the Securities and Exchange Commission that have saved them from a regulatory death penalty that could have decimated their lucrative mutual fund businesses. | 12/08/09 16:31:00 By - Chris Adams

Is a 1940 securities law too old to be enforced?

Companies routinely request a special waiver from the Securities and Exchange Commission by arguing that a tough enforcement law written in 1940 shouldn't apply to them. | 12/08/09 16:33:00 By - Chris Adams

How Bank of America dodged a harsh penalty

Although it's been overshadowed by other market collapses, a 2008 scandal over products called "auction rate securities" ensnared several Wall Street firms and tens of thousands of customers nationwide. | 12/08/09 16:32:00 By - Chris Adams

Firms are getting billions, but homeowners still in trouble

The federal government is engaged in a massive mortgage modification program that's on track to send billions in tax dollars to many of the very companies that judges or regulators have cited in recent years for abusive mortgage practices. | 10/04/09 06:00:00 By - Chris Adams

Several mortgage firms getting federal funds have spotty records

Several firms now participating in the Treasury's program to modify troubled mortgages have run into problems with federal or state regulators for their treatment of their customers over the years. | 10/04/09 06:00:00 By - Chris Adams

GOP calls VA pamphlet a 'death book.' Experts say it isn't

While Republicans are calling a Department of Veterans Affairs health planning booklet a "death book" that encourages veterans to kill themselves or forgo care, ethicists and legal and medical experts say it's a reasonable attempt to help America's veterans plan for the end of their lives. | 09/02/09 17:21:00 By - Chris Adams

Is VA a model for health care? Hard to know, says CBO

The Department of Veterans Affairs has made significant improvements to its health system over the past two decades, but the fragmented way that most veterans receive medical care makes comparing the VA with other systems difficult, according to a new report. | 08/14/09 17:42:00 By - Chris Adams

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