Sandy Weill: Banks break up theory

Former Citigroup chairman Sandy Weill -- who engineered a series of corporate takeovers and lobbying efforts to create Citigroup -- explained during an interview on CNBC why he now thinks a firewall between commercial and investment banks is needed.

"What we should probably do is go and split up investment banking from banking," Weill said. "Have banks do something that's not going to risk the taxpayer dollars, that's not too big to fail."Weill's call to break up the nation's largest banks comes a little more than a decade after he helped orchestrate the merger of Travelers Group and Citicorp, a deal that created what was the world's largest financial services company.

The deal was not have been possible with Glass-Steagall, a Depression-era law that prevented commercial banks from dabbling in investment banking, on the books.But after intense lobbying by Weill and his associates, Congress repealed the act in 1999. Some critics argue that its demise paved the way for deposit-taking banks to make colossal bad bets, while bank traders chased profits and big bonuses.Citigroup, where Weill would serve as chairman until 2006, would eventually receive taxpayer-funded bailouts during the financial crisis.On Wednesday, Weill attributed many of the problems faced by banks in the run-up to the financial crisis to over-leveraging and a lack of transparency. The end result, he said, is a banking system that now lacks innovation and is distrusted by the public.
Sandy Weill just wants to move on
 Weill said he hasn't discussed his views with current Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) CEO Vikram Pandit or JPMorgan's (JPM, Fortune 500) Jamie Dimon.

The comments from Weill, who also served on New York Fed Board of Governors, indicate a remarkable evolution in his thoughts on the risks posed by large financial institutions.The New York Times has reported that as recently as 2010, Weill had a 4-foot wide portrait of himself hanging in his office that was etched with the words "The Shatterer of Glass-Steagall."But on Wednesday, Weill said that current conditions demand something new."Well, you know I think the world changes, and the world that we live in now is different than the world we lived in 10 years ago," Weill said.

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Joe Paterno statue removed from Penn Staten | News Online

Penn State University’s statue of legendary football coach Joe Paterno was removed from campus Sunday morning in the wake of an investigation that harshly criticized Paterno for failing to take action in the sex abuse case of his former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky.

Penn State president Rodney Erickson issued a statement shortly before the statue was removed that said, “Coach Paterno’s statue has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing in our university and beyond. For that reason, I have decided that it is in the best interest of our university and public safety to remove the statue and store it in a secure location.”

The bronze statue, an image of Paterno running out of the locker room with his players in tow, was toppled onto its side and is being carried out by a forklift.

In response to the statue’s removal, Paterno’s family issued this statement: “Tearing down the statue of Joe Paterno does not serve the victims of Jerry Sandusky’s horrible crimes or help heal the Penn State Community. We believe the only way to help the victims is to uncover the full truth.”

The statement goes on to say that Paterno never had a hearing, and only selective evidence has been made public. The Freeh report, Paterno’s family says, is not the equivalent of a fair trial, although it has been accepted by the media as the definitive conclusion on the Sandusky scandal.

“It is not the University’s responsibility to defend or protect Joe Paterno. But they at least should have acknowledged that important legal cases are still pending and that the record on Joe Paterno, the Board and other key players is far from complete,” the statement reads.

Several fans of the late coach showed up with their rally cry, chanting, “We are Penn State.”

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Usher's stepson Kile Glover dies in hospital 2 weeks after lake accident

 Kile Glover is the stepson of Usher(Usher Raymond).Kile Glover, was pronounced brain dead
 following a traumatic head injury suffered during a jet-ski accident
, the 11-year-old boy died
 of heart failure on Saturday.The boy was run over July 6 by a personal watercraft on Lake Lanier, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. He had been hospitalized with a major brain injury. Lake Lanier is about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta. Authorities said the accident continues under investigation.

Given the seriousness of his injury, which resulted from blunt trauma to the head after Glover was hit by a jet-ski while floating in an inner tube on Atlanta's Lake Lanier, a neurologist told about the prospects for victims of such major brain injuries.

"There is no one that has been declared brain dead that has survived to being functional," said neurologist Dr. Brent Masel, national director of the Brain Injury Association of America and medical director of the Transitional Learning Center of Galveston, Texas several days before Glover was pronounced dead. "They will not get better."
Masel, who was not treating Glover and had no first-hand knowledge of the case, explained that the prognosis in such cases is so grim because of the make-up of the brain. "When someone is declared brain dead, it's not that their brain is not functioning at all," he said. "There are two components to the brain, the cerebrum, which is the thinking part and the brain stem, which narrows and becomes the spinal cord."

The stem is the automatic part, which controls respiration and heart rate and someone can technically live without a functioning cerebrum, which is not unusual in such injuries. "The thinking part of the brain is no longer functioning and all the patient has functioning is the brain stem," he said. "Very often what happens when you're deciding if someone is brain dead, you take them off the respirator and they're not even breathing and the only thing going is their heart, which will stop functioning if you're not breathing."

Before the accident, Usher, whose full name is Usher Raymond, had been in a legal battle with his ex-wife arising from a custody fight over their two sons.
Condolences flooded social media sites late Saturday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. It said those who sent tweets of condolences included Justin Bieber, singer Toni Braxton and singer Eric Benet, among others.

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