Posted on 11/23/2008 8:43:14 PM PST by mathwhizz
The federal government agreed Sunday to take unprecedented steps to stabilize Citigroup Inc. by moving to guarantee close to $300 billion in troubled assets weighing on the bank's books, according to people familiar with details of the plan.
Treasury has agreed to inject an additional $20 billion in capital into Citigroup under terms of the deal hashed out between the bank, the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Treasury officials will charge a higher interest rate for the capital injection -- 8% for the first few years -- than it has charged to dozens of other banks now borrowing money under the government's the $700 billion rescue package approved by Congress last month.
In addition to the capital, Citigroup will have an extremely unusual arrangement in which the government agrees to backstop a roughly $300 billion pool of its assets, containing mortgage-backed securities among other things. Citigroup must absorb the first $37 billion to $40 billion in losses from these assets. If losses extend beyond that level, Treasury will absorb the next $5 billion in losses, followed by the FDIC taking on the next $10 billion in losses. Any losses on these assets beyond that level would be taken by the Fed.
Citigroup would also agree to work to modify -- if possible -- troubled mortgages held in the $300 billion pool, using standards created by the FDIC after the collapse of IndyMac Bank.
The government is not expected to require any management changes, as that was seen as potentially being too destabilizing.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The money we are throwing around in these "bailouts" does not grow on trees at a government farm. We take it from the economy to put it back in, but with big, big, costs added.
The only thing more stupid is "stimulus" packages, which treat the economy as if it were a drug addict and as if a fix would actually help him. The worst part of the Bush legacy may turn out to be "stimulus", which is now received wisdom by both parties, the press, and the public. Just a few years ago it was recognized by Reagan Republicans for what it is: non-economic, cynical vote buying by career politicians.
“What is President Bush thinking?????”
A nice long retirement with his dad, Clinton and all the cronies he helped “bailout”.
Also thinks all these bailouts will save millions of jobs, we shall see (While taking on huge deficits).
I posted this on a blog last night re: this situation:
Why not this instead?
Citigroup has many divisions, including retail banking, credit cards, consumer finance, insurance, investments, auto loans, mortgages, etc.
Sell off the branch network by itself. Citi’s branch network is relatively benign, and could be bought by several other large banks that are in good shape. For that matter, they could even be further split regionally and sold off in pieces.
Sell off the credit card division the same way, or, create a seperate company similar to what Providian was before WaMu bought them out.
The investments side could easily be pulled into an independent entity, or sold to another commercial or investment bank.
The mortgage division could be closed down, and the existing notes sold to various other companies. The mortgage officers in retail branches could now originate for the purchasing bank.
The auto loans and consumer loans, see above.
Citifinancial, the ubiquitous subprime lending group, could either exist on its own, or be sold to HSBC or someone similar, and folded into what’s left of Household or Beneficial.
And on and on. The pieces are likely worth more than the whole and could be bought more easily than the entire bank.
Furthermore, it would cost the taxpayers less money and probably cause less economic upheaval in the process.
He’s royalty, what does he care. The U.S. is an oligarchy like Mexico.
What on earth does THAT mean?
That, mein freund, is a certainty.
Read the fine print! It goes to $400 billion if payment is not remitted in the first 28 days of the billing cycle.
“Does this mean my Citibank credit card bills will be comped from here on out?”
That’s what I want to know. Are these companies going to get it back FROM the customers AND get this nice payoff from the government?
How does this effect the custumers????
If I could advance my certain knowledge of what and what would not happen by several days/weeks AFTER the time an apparently attractive buy-write oppty presented itself, I’d change my general opinion of buy-writes from “yuk” to “yowza”!
I hate buy-writes. Deeply.
When we are slaves. Or when we fight.
The stock market has fallen something like 30% since Lehman went bust, and the credit crunch has intensified, pointing to a deep recession. Citigroup’s failure would have even bigger effects than Lehman’s. In terms of assets, Citigroup is one of the biggest banks in the country, and I think allowing it to fail would be disastrous. I don’t know enough about Citigroup’s “troubled” assets to say if the bailout has been structured in a reasonable way, but something had to be done.
As Bill Hemmer said on FoxNews this morning, “Invest in ink.”
The government is going to be buying tankers full to print all the money they are needing for these bailouts.
DOW Future is up 150. They may be learning to like the bailouts, after all.
GOLD: $821.90 UP $20.30
SILVER: $10.33 UP .69
Mama Like! :)
Keep up the great work, Pelosi, Reid, et al. You’re makin’ me rich.
Dorks.
He's not thinking, he's doing. It's called "Compassionate conservatism", and we voted for it. Sounded vaguely liberal and like an admission against interest, but we voted for it anyway.
Are we finally getting the picture that there is no difference between the two parties? If John Kerry had won in 2004 and presided over this, we would not be surprised. Bush does the exact same things and we dumb-asses wonder why.
The whole point is the evisceration and demoralization of this country. We won't be able to defend ourselves because we have no manufacturing and no money. Why can't we see it?
Next time they send you a bill, tell them it's already been taken out of your check!
I'm thinking we should start burning down the forests!
Does this explain their stocks’ 60% increase this morning?
“Get ready to work until you’re 80 years old...”
...unless you just bought a bunch of CitiGroup stock. Sell when it´s high, and move out of the country.
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