Sale of Citi stock to net US taxpayers $8 billion.

[Mr. Peepers]

washingtonpost.com

Not bad... Not bad at all. Now can you "conservatives" see that this administration is NOT trying to take over your precious private industry, esp. banks? Can you admit this now?

 

[Toro]

Meh

The American government risked a helluva lot more than the return we are getting.

 

[Mr. Peepers]

Really? How so? If we make back with interest much more than what we loaned, how is that a bad thing for US taxpayers, which was ALWAYS the intent? It was never the goal of the administration to control the banks, despite what you guys have been screaming all along about "socialism". And you know all the banks are paying back all money + interest...

 

[dilloduck]

Funny----none of that money feels like it's mine anymore

 

[California Girl]

washingtonpost.com

Not bad... Not bad at all. Now can you "conservatives" see that this administration is NOT trying to take over your precious private industry, esp. banks? Can you admit this now?

"IF".....

And... this conservative was for the bank bailout - not to save the banks but to save all of us. Because had the major banks collapsed, the whole world would have collapsed with them - we... as individuals would have lost everything overnight.

Now, we want OUR money back. It is not Obama Money - no matter what the left might think. It's ours. So.... IF the Government get it back - they better ******* well not 'redistribute it' to anyone but the taxpayers.

 

[kitty]

How else could they use it, except for the benefit of taxpayers?

 

[Toro]

Really? How so? If we make back with interest much more than what we loaned, how is that a bad thing for US taxpayers, which was ALWAYS the intent? It was never the goal of the administration to control the banks, despite what you guys have been screaming all along about "socialism". And you know all the banks are paying back all money + interest...

Risk/Reward

The government didn't get much for what they risked.

They have risked the economic future of our country because they have risked the future of the dollar. If people lose faith in the dollar, then we will have economic chaos and disorder.

Warren Buffett got a much better deal than the government.

 

[Immanuel]

Three things about this:

1) That is great if the government were to net a profit on this.

2) If the government starts unloading all that stock, the price will plummet and they won't net $8 Billion. Also, think about the other investors... hell maybe even your own 401(k).

3) Do we really want the government speculating with our tax dollars and that is in effect what they are doing.

Those thoughts are just off the top of my head.

Immie

 

[Mr. Peepers]

3) Do we really want the government speculating with our tax dollars and that is in effect what they are doing.

I don't think it was speculation, but conditions of the loan. You always pay interest on a loan, no matter what it is for.

 

[kyzr]

Three things about this:

1) That is great if the government were to net a profit on this.

2) If the government starts unloading all that stock, the price will plummet and they won't net $8 Billion. Also, think about the other investors... hell maybe even your own 401(k).

3) Do we really want the government speculating with our tax dollars and that is in effect what they are doing.

Those thoughts are just off the top of my head.

Immie

Your thinking is correct. Here are a few facts for the discussion:
1. If CITI and a few of the other "too big to fail banks" were allowed to fail, the ultimate loser would have been the taxpayers. Every dollar of investor losses gets deducted from IRS taxes, yes EVERY DOLLAR. So by saving CITI, Bank of America, and Merrill Lynch the Feds did a great thing, they saved jobs and saved tax revenue both now and going forward.
2.The government speculated with FANNIE & FREDDIE who went bankrupt. Investors lost Billions because of corruption.
3. I'm on the fence about AIG, I hate their "derivatives" and massive debt, that one should be broken-up and strictly regulated.
4. IMHO the only to fix the US economy is to develop it, no derivatives/options/or selling-short. The only investments alowed in the US are long stocks that provide capital and create jobs.
5. I also like Obama's reining-in of fat-cat multi-million compensation packages. Obama should limit salaries & bonuses
6. I also like Obama's going after the 55,000 numbered Swiss bank accounts who are tax-dodgers. We need that capital at work here in the US.

 

[Mr. Peepers]

2) If the government starts unloading all that stock, the price will plummet and they won't net $8 Billion. Also, think about the other investors... hell maybe even your own 401(k).

But they are going to implement a reverse-split of the stock, and the other banks are lining up to underwrite it, according to the article. I think this is really good news and a promising sign.

 

[boedicca]

washingtonpost.com

Not bad... Not bad at all. Now can you "conservatives" see that this administration is NOT trying to take over your precious private industry, esp. banks? Can you admit this now?

How much debt and how much interest are we going to be supporting for generations just so Obama can add $8B to his slush fund?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

washingtonpost.com

Not bad... Not bad at all. Now can you "conservatives" see that this administration is NOT trying to take over your precious private industry, esp. banks? Can you admit this now?

We only need like 20 more deal like that to break even on Fannie and Freddie

If you only count the gains, then yes, Obama is nipping at Warren Buffett's heels; but when you add in the positions deep deep deep underwater, he's down in the Laurentian Abyss

 

[uscitizen]

washingtonpost.com

Not bad... Not bad at all. Now can you "conservatives" see that this administration is NOT trying to take over your precious private industry, esp. banks? Can you admit this now?

"IF".....

And... this conservative was for the bank bailout - not to save the banks but to save all of us. Because had the major banks collapsed, the whole world would have collapsed with them - we... as individuals would have lost everything overnight.

Now, we want OUR money back. It is not Obama Money - no matter what the left might think. It's ours. So.... IF the Government get it back - they better ******* well not 'redistribute it' to anyone but the taxpayers.

It is all borrowed money. You can have it if you accept the debt.

 

[Mr. Peepers]

How much debt and how much interest are we going to be supporting for generations just so Obama can add $8B to his slush fund?

Future generations already had their fate sealed by the useless sand hole that is the Iraq MIC money-making scheme instrumented by the previous administration. Now how much of a return did we get on that farce again?

 

[kyzr]

washingtonpost.com

Not bad... Not bad at all. Now can you "conservatives" see that this administration is NOT trying to take over your precious private industry, esp. banks? Can you admit this now?

How much debt and how much interest are we going to be supporting for generations just so Obama can add $8B to his slush fund?

Hang-in until 2010 when the GOP gets to control the money. Obama needs to stop compounding the problem. Wait until the interest rate starts climbing and he has to pay interest on that $787b of stimulus largess.

 

[uscitizen]

LOL, yeah wait till the Rebutlickens get in there and really starts spending. It is proven by the empirical data.

 

[Mr. Peepers]

Hang-in until 2010 when the GOP gets to control the money.

I wouldn't count on that...

 

[boedicca]

LOL, yeah wait till the Rebutlickens get in there and really starts spending. It is proven by the empirical data.

Oh really? Here's what the deficit looks like:

And ObamaCare just made it Much Much Worse.

 

[Immanuel]

3) Do we really want the government speculating with our tax dollars and that is in effect what they are doing.

I don't think it was speculation, but conditions of the loan. You always pay interest on a loan, no matter what it is for.

They are speculating with it now. That is what concerns me. Sell or not and what will happen to Citicorp stock when they do start unloading those shares. If they start dumping those shares on the open market it would be a smaller scale view of what will happen when and if the Chinese start dumping our debt on the market.

I'm not really sure how I feel about this. It concerns me that the federal government has so much control over the market for Citicorp. The reason being is that the government does not need to behave like normal investors looking to make a profit. They can simply dump, what was it $33 billion of Citicorp stock tomorrow and take maybe $18 Billion for it in the mean time Citicorp shareholders get killed or they would if they tried to or had to sell their stock around the same time before the market stabilized again.

Note: I'm just throwing the $18 Billion number out there, because if they start flooding the market with all that stock as the sales begin the price will fall and what is worth $33 Billion at the beginning of the sale will be worth much less when the final sale is made.

I'm also not sure they would simply flood the market rather than slowly sell the stocks but truthfully there is no reason for the government to behave like intelligent investors.

Immie