Burr feared banks would fail


U.S. Sen. Richard Burr said he panicked when he first learned of the banking crisis.

The Winston-Salem Republican told the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce that he called his wife, Brooke, and told her to withdraw money from the bank after talking with former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

The remarks, first reported by the Hendersonville Times-News, have since been picked up by The Hill, a Washington-based newspaper, and various political blogs:

"On Friday night, I called my wife and I said, 'Brooke, I am not coming home this weekend. I will call you on Monday. Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine, and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take. And I want you to tomorrow, and I want you to go Sunday.' I was convinced on Friday night that if you put a plastic card in an ATM machine the last thing you were going to get was cash."

Burr also said that he does not think the current economic problems — which he termed a depression — would have a U-shaped or V-shaped recovery, as past recessions have had.

"Those are the only things they talk about," he said. "Either it’s a lack of imagination or some belief that you can make everything fit into those two. Let me suggest to you today, I think we are in a Nike swoosh."

You must be logged in to post a comment on this blog. If you already have an N&O online user account, click here to log in. Otherwise, click here to register (it's free!).

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Re: Burr feared banks would fail

James, exactly what quote are you talking about from Paulson? I have read the entire article and there is not one quote from Paulson there. Was he at the event? How did the reporter in Hendersonville obtained this "never before heard Burr only quote" from Paulson.

First of all, James, please present the entire story told by Burr.

“On Wednesday morning of that week, after they had given the transfer notice to the bank, the Chicago bank called and said, ‘We didn’t transfer the money. There is no money being transferred. There is no money that will transfer from a bank to a bank anywhere in the United States, and likely there is no money that will transfer from a bank to a bank anywhere in the world,’” Burr said.

“On Friday night, I called my wife and I said, ‘Brooke, I am not coming home this weekend. I will call you on Monday. Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine, and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take. And I want you to tomorrow, and I want you to go Sunday.’ I was convinced on Friday night that if you put a plastic card in an ATM machine the last thing you were going to get was cash.”

Burr's story as quoted in the original article never offers any specific dates. Thus I am not sure how James knows exactly what he knew about the financial markets on that particular "Wednesday". James' argument is founded in taking a quote out of context and playing the "victimhood" card.

Yet, James, HuffPo and others claims that Burr was subject to insider information.

Can you provide the dates of that Wednesday, James?

For a smart guy, you sure have a way of missing the point

Why are you trying to make this about partisanship or Obama? This is about a sitting Senator learning something from the Secretary of the Treasury and then acting on that information privately to protect his own financial interests.

I followed this issue closely throughout all the Congressional deliberations. I'd never heard that Paulson quote before yesterday. Had you? Only one person that I know of for sure got that information from Henry Paulson. His name is Richard Burr. There may have been others, that's hard to say. But those others didn't include me - nor did they include millions of other North Carolinians.

With that information in hand, Burr acted in his own self interest. To use his own words, he panicked. Just what we need in a senior Senator.

Not.

Re: Burr feared banks would fail

People, please read the entire article - instead of the hack job of quotes assembled PREVIOUSLY...

“On Wednesday morning of that week, after they had given the transfer notice to the bank, the Chicago bank called and said, ‘We didn’t transfer the money. There is no money being transferred. There is no money that will transfer from a bank to a bank anywhere in the United States, and likely there is no money that will transfer from a bank to a bank anywhere in the world,’” Burr said.

The incident and others at the time pushed Paulson to make improvements to the “financial architecture” in the country, where the “simple transfer of money could happen,” he said.

“It’s safe to say when you don’t have money moving from institution to institution, you don’t have an economy,” Burr said. “And you certainly don’t have a financial market.”

"Paulson and Congress eventually crafted the $700 billion bank bailout bill, the Troubled Assets Recovery Plan, and Burr voted for it. The goal was to get the financial markets moving by shoring up the financial architecture and purchasing toxic assets, Burr said.

The state of the financial system at that time had a profound impact on the senator.

“On Friday night, I called my wife and I said, ‘Brooke, I am not coming home this weekend. I will call you on Monday. Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine, and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take. And I want you to tomorrow, and I want you to go Sunday.’ I was convinced on Friday night that if you put a plastic card in an ATM machine the last thing you were going to get was cash.”

After learning that no money was moving from bank to bank, I guess it would be a good idea to remove money.

Perhaps if anyone was the event - the quote would not have taken out of context, but since it appears no one on this board was - here is what an attendee said...

"Local businessman Jeff Miller said the talk was refreshing.
Burr did not discuss partisanship or criticize the Obama administration, he said.

“It’s scary,” Miller said. “It’s the stone cold truth. It’s what we needed to hear.”

Re: Burr feared banks would fail

Please print more articles about cooper and his lawsuit.

Burr is not well known versus I cannot tell the truth in campaign ads Cooper. Hmm, who should we vote for?

Re: Burr feared banks would fail

Well with the extra $10 TRILLION of debt we are getting under Obama, it might be a great idea to buy precious metals with you dollars. Hyper inflation here could make us look much worse than WEIMAR Germany in the 30's.

Insider trading?

This doesn't really rise to the level of being illegal, to my knowledge. Just stunningly bad judgment.

A rising star!

Maybe Senator Burr is finally getting the attention he so badly wants.

Now up at Huffington Post.

Re: Burr feared banks would fail

Didn't Martha Stewart go to jail for insider info?
If you think Burr or any other Republican has YOUR best interests at heart, I have some beach property in Arizona for sale cheap!

Re: Burr feared banks would fail

Robini has predicted an "L-Shaped" depression. Some (Orlov) are saying it will be more like the collapse of the Soviet Union, except Americans will be less prepared than Russians were.

Re: Burr feared banks would fail

That seems somewhat cowardly of Senator Burr to start panicking about his own personal financial situation after receiving inside information from Henry Paulson instead of being a Senator for the people of North Carolina and getting this information out to his constituants.

Thanks

Richard Burr was using privileged, insider information from the Secretary of the Treasury to protect his own financial interests. He didn't Twitter or email me that night to warn me about a liquidity crisis. Did he contact you?