Corporate Governance

President Obama or any member of Congress should put their money where their mouths are before regulating internet gambling, one industry website said this week.

BluefirePoker.com, an online gambling site, challenged Obama and any member of Congress to a $1 million poker showdown to help prove the game is one of skill and not luck -- an issue at the crux of the debate over regulating online gambling.

Obama or the lawmaker would have to put up only one dollar while the site would spot the million. Proceeds would go to charity, and would be against any of the website's six professional players.

The group is taking aim at provisions in the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which prohibits bank transfers to online gambling websites.

Representatives of Detroit's troubled automakers are meeting with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and National Economic Council Chairman Lawrence Summers Friday to discuss the companies' requests for more assistance to survive.

In tandem with the rest of the so-called "auto task force," the officials will help decide the companies' fate by the end of this month, when they are required to report on General Motors and Chrysler's requests for additional assistance.

"The team is looking through those plans and figuring out how to be the best partner in what's next for the auto industry," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said aboard Air Force One on Friday.

"So the best way to get the auto industry back up on its feet and selling cars again is to get the overall economy going," Gibbs added. "You've got a lot of different -- you've got a lot of different sort of aches and pains, but one sickness -- and that's the overall economy."

Hedge fund manager Steve Rattner and former union adviser Ronald Bloom will travel to Detroit on Monday for additional meetings with auto industry officials, the Detroit News reported.

Centrist and conservative Democrats are most likely to "buy American" when purchasing cars, as broader sentiments that consumers should support the domestic auto industry has grown.

"Moderate/Conservative" Democrats were most likely to only consider buying American, with 46 percent telling pollsters they would only purchase domestic cars, according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll released Wednesday. 42 percent of "Conservative Independents" said the same, and 34 percent of conservative Republicans indicated they'd only buy American.

Liberal Democrats were most likely to only consider foreign-produced cars, with 22 percent of those surveyed saying they would only buy cars from other countries.

More broadly, 37 percent of consumers said they would only consider purchasing American-manufactured cars when purchasing a new automobile, an increase from 30 percent in December, the poll found.

The number of consumers who said they would consider both domestic and foreign-produced automobiles ticked down from 52 percent to 50 percent.

The survey results come amidst a slew of continuing bad news for U.S. automakers, whose restructuring proposals and requests for additional bridge loans are currently under review by the Obama administration.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Midwestern consumers were most likely -- compared to the East Coast, West, and South -- to only buy American.

The poll, conducted Feb. 20-22, has a three percent margin of errors.

The financial industry spent a collective $5 billion dollars on its political efforts over the past 10 years, a new report by a corporate watchdog group alleges.

Investment firms, commercial banks, hedge funds, real estate companies, and insurance companies spent $1.725 billion on political contributions between 1998 and 2008, and an additional $3.4 billion on lobbyists during the same time period, according to a report released Wednesday by Essential Information and the Consumer Education Foundation.

The report found that Democrats and Republicans split corporate donations almost evenly, with Republicans taking 55 percent of the donations between 1998 and 2008, and Democrats taking 45 percent. Democrats took just over half of the donations in the 2008 cycle.

The organizations are a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy groups which push for stronger consumer protection laws and to curb "excessive corporate power."

The report alleges that excessive deregulation of the financial sector combined with undue influence from the billions spent in lobbying and political contributions resulted in the current financial crisis.

"Congress and the Executive Branch...responded to the legal bribes from the financial sector, rolling back common-sense standards, barring honest regulators from issuing rules to address emerging problems and trashing enforcement efforts," said Essential Information's Robert Weissman, the lead author of the report. "The progressive erosion of regulatory restraining walls led to a flood of bad loans, and a tsunami of bad bets based on those bad loans. Now, there is wreckage across the financial landscape."

The United States may not be nationalizing banks, but they are certainly taking control, Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Wednesday.

Shelby, appearing on "Morning Joe" ahead of more hearings on financial regulation, said that when the government takes a 40 percent stake in banks, as it's expected to do with Citibank, "it's not nationalization, but it's control."

Shelby argued that some banks, who are sometimes alleged to be "too large to fail," should be allowed to do just that.

"They need to close some of these banks," Shelby added. "Some banks were too large to exist, so you can't be too big to fail."

The Banking committeeman said the most important thing to do now is to reform the financial regulatory system, adding that the Federal Reserve fell short in its oversight role leading up to the financial crisis.

Former President Bill Clinton said that though he believes the Obama administration does not want to nationalize the banks, the U.S. economy will be fine, even if the administration should have to resort to such a measure.

"It's clear that the Treasury Department and the White House don't want to nationalize the banks," Clinton told CNBC's Betsy Quick in an interview aired in portions this morning. "They apparently believe that if the banks are nationalized they will be worthless to the investor, and therefore, they're getting out now."

"I take the administration at its word: they are doing everything they can to avoid having to do a takeover of the very largest banks," he said. "The point I want to make to everybody is: whatever happens, we'll probably be alright, as long as we deal with it this year."

Clinton praised the Obama administration's plan as thoughtful and pragmatic, and also touted the work of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairwoman Sheila Bair.

Clinton emphasized that the method the administration adopts to assist the banks is not as important as the administration taking decisive action to help the economy this year.

"Nobody thinks the federal government will be the banker of America in the long run," the former president and husband of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton added.

Access videos of the Clinton interviews here.

Northern Trust bank is drawing scrutiny for having thrown parties in Los Angeles this past weekend, despite having received $1.6 billion in (unsolicited) assistance from the federal government.

According to the Hollywood gossip website TMZ.com, the Chicago-based bank sponsored a golf tournament this past weekend, performances by Sheryl Crown and Earth, Wind & Fire, and rented out rooms in pricey hotels for clients and employees.

Northern Trust participated in the Treasury Department's Capital Purchase Program (CPP) voluntarily, helping meet the government's goal of gaining the participation of all major banks in the U.S., Northern Trust said in a statement.

"CPP funds are not allocated to operating expenses, including marketing, advertising, corporate sponsorship or charitable activities," the bank continued. "Unlike common shareholders, U.S. taxpayers are contractually assured a return on their investment."

The bank laid off four percent of its workforce this past December.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (D) filed a motion seeking to force former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain to testify about his company's bonuses, a move expected to aid lawmakers working with Cuomo in their investigations into executive compensation.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Joint Economic Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) have been working regularly with Cuomo, sources in both Washington and Albany said Monday, to assist each others' investigations into bonuses paid to bankers receiving federal bailout funds.

"I received briefings from Attorney General Cuomo over the past few weeks and questioned [Bank of America CEO] Lewis about Thain's actions in a hearing two weeks ago," Maloney said. "I, along with Attorney General Cuomo, will not stand for this behavior, especially when taxpayer money is at stake."

Cuomo filed a motion in New York state court to compel Thain to testify about when his former company, Merrill Lynch, awarded millions of dollars in bonuses to company officials before being acquired by Bank of America. Bank of America, Thain's attorney said during depositions, had ordered the former Merrill chief not to answer.

"I've been directed not to disclose by [Bank of America] names other than the names of the top people who are under Section 16," Thain's attorney told investigators. "We were directed by Bank of America counsel."

"We've been in touch with Barney Frank, and when he held that hearing, we sent a letter to Barney that day outlining all the different bonuses," a source in Cuomo's office said of their work with congressional leaders also investigating Thain. The source similarly identified Maloney as another congressional partner.

"Thain's actions were egregious -- nothing short of looting the company," Maloney added, while her office maintained that information obtained in the future by Cuomo would likely be used eventually in further investigations by the Joint Economic or Financial Services Committees.

A long-rumored candidate to have interest in statewide office in New York, Cuomo's investigation mirrors those of lawmakers. The state attorney general was rumored to be under consideration by New York Gov. David Paterson (D) to fill the vacancy left by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Senate. He was passed over by Paterson, in favor of now-Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D).

The government's larger stake in Citibank does not constitute a nationalization of banks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) argued Monday.

"I think the American taxpayer deserves some protection," Reid said during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "That's what this is all about."

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the federal government would increase its ownership of Citigroup, increasing its investment to a 40 percent stake in the troubled bank.

"This is not nationalization, it's protecting the taxpayers' interest," Reid said Monday.

"I think what we're doing in banking now in a time of distress is the right thing to do," the Senate's Democratic leader argued. "I think we're getting really close to stabilizing the banking industry."

Reid's comments come amidst the backdrop of a market wary of "nationalization" talk, selling off Friday afternoon after Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) indicated he may be open to a temporary takeover of banks.

Futures markets trended positively on news of the Citigroup news.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is expected to lay out more elements of his proposed plan to bolster support of the financial industry, according to reports.

After markets expressed unease with the lack of details in the plan, Geither will seek to fill in the details of how the government will seek to assist banks in eliminating toxic assets from their holdings.

Geithner will release more details as a response to pressure from Wall Street, CNBC's Charlie Gasparino reported.

The increased details will come amidst a public debate over what the government should do to help the struggling banks. Congressional leaders have debated, among other plans, whether or not banks should be partially and temporarily taken over by the federal government.