Posted on 11/12/2008 7:04:15 AM PST by Red Badger
American Express Co. which is being hit by slowing consumer spending and rising defaults, is seeking roughly $3.5 billion in taxpayer-funded capital from the federal government, according to people familiar with the situation.
The card issuer is the latest company not directly hit by the housing crisis to request cash from the federal government. While retailers, car companies and others hit by the slowdown in consumer spending haven't gotten the government money, financial firms of all kinds are getting federal bailouts.
It isn't clear if the application under ...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Yeah, T. Boone Pickens could sell them some unused wind turbines..........
Not as long as there is green ink and paper............
why don't you charge up about 1 billion and then you could probably go to TARP and get a bailout.
The airlines will be next.....
What worries me most about this, though, is that agriculture, one of the great strengths of our country, is largely under control of agribusiness now. I don't trust them to feed the people of our nation first. It'll go where the highest profit is to be made. Wild currency fluctuations will mean that will be somehwere other than here.
Seems like all AMEX knows what to do is sue and ask for handout. They successfully sued Mastercard and Visa for a bad business decision made years ago, now they are asking for a handout. You weasled your way onto a network you didn’t help create, MC and Visa did all the hard work for you. How about lowering your user fees, thus gaining merchants who will accept your card.
I wonder what would happen if millons of p*ssed off Americans just suddenly stopped filing income tax returns? The IRS is so screwed up it would probably take them years to figure out why tax revenues are drying up.
Now that's what I call "throwing good money after bad"...
That is mostly BS, a household finances is a household fiances. Many poor fools put their food and other expenses on credit cards so they could pay the mortgage. But of course they we just digging the hole deeper.
In my humble opinion I think American Express is covering up other financial issues. I do not believe that a bunch of slow paying credit card holders would force them to the Federal Reserve pig trough.
Instead I would be more suspecting that AM EX was a player in the Credit Default Swap business.
I want a bailout for my company too....I’ll be cheap and take $100,000....
There are two government agencies that are extremely good at what they do. The military and the IRS.........
I’m with you. There is something about this AM EX bailout that does not pass the smell test.
Classic!
>Thats odd. BofA is usually a sane lender.........<
Si Senor`, Banco America is one fine banco. No SS ID for me is OK at the Banco America ! America is one fine country, Senor`. My whole family come here soon to America.
Only a hundred g’s? They won’t even notice you unless you ask for at least a billion................
Banco Americo probably make mucho dinero on all those Foreign transactions.........
Pikers. AIG started at $75B and are now asking for $150B. When AMEX is ready to play in the big leagues give us a call.
I see this picture, some poor slob is on the phone with the call center in India bugging him about last months unpaid AMEX bill as he watches the news about AMEX getting a bailout. About the time he realizes that his tax dollars are paying for the Indian call center is when the riots start.
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