General Motors Accidently Tells the Truth

Note to Geithner: Its buy low, not sell low
Remember how President Obama promised Taxpayers that the government would recover most or all of the billion it handed General Motors during the 2008 $85 billion Auto Industry Bailout? “We expect Taxpayers will get back all the money my administration has invested in GM. Over time, that is going to be extraordinarily significant. It means we stood up this industry and you know what, we got a return," Obama told Detroit autoworkers in August. Not going to happen. Although the Treasury Depar...

Congressional Oversight Panel: Auto Bailouts Will Only Cost Taxpayers $19 Billion
Obama’s “car czar” Ron Bloom is saying that America is “better off” thanks to the auto Bailouts. That’s $19 billion in lost Tax Dollars worth of “better off,” according to a congressional Oversight Committee that says the likelihood that the Taxpayers will ever be paid off in total for the auto bailouts is pretty much nil. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — A Congressional Oversight Panel says that a “starkly improved” outlook for the auto ind...

Taxpayers Will Lose Money on GM Bailout
The Federal Government will not recoup the entirety of the money spent on rescuing General Motors, according to a report released by the Bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel today. The panel reported that the Congressional Budget Office now expects that the government will lose $19 billion from the Bailout. Part of that loss is due to the Treasury’s decision to sell some of the GM holdings at $33 per share in November — significantly less than $44.59 per share needed to ensure th...

Auto bailout's estimated cost to taxpayers: $19 billion
New York (CNNMoney) - A Congressional Oversight Panel says that a "starkly improved" outlook for the Auto Industry has reduced the likely Taxpayer loss on the Bailout by more than half to about $19 billion. The previous estimate from the panel was that taxpayers would lose $40 billion of the $81.3 billion given to the automakers and their finance arms from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. ...

TARP watchdog warns of hidden costs
Don't count your TARP profit eggs before they're hatched. That's the message of a report released Thursday by the top federal Bailout Watchdog, Neil Barofsky, the special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Barofsky's report focuses on the special aid extended to Citigroup (C) during the 2008-2009 Financial Meltdown. The government recently sold the last of its Citi stock and has been saying Taxpayers made $12 billion on the Bailout of the No. 3 U.S. bank. Barofsky accepts ...

General Motors Accidently Tells the Truth
At Big Government, Tim Slagle writes looks at the latest commercial from corporatist Government Motors and does not like what he sees — but is quick to add, “You can’t really blame General Motors:” When you have an extra 19 billion to play with, why not plant windmills and trees? It seems like the corporate suites, are working on a bigger Buzz than the one they hired to do the voice-over. A more rational voice might ask about the forest that had to be cut down to print all ...

Taxpayer tab for auto bailout: About $19 billion
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A Congressional Oversight Panel says that a "starkly improved" outlook for the Auto Industry has reduced the likely Taxpayer loss on the Bailout by more than half to about $19 billion. The previous estimate from the panel was that taxpayers would lose $40 billion of the $81.3 billion given to the automakers and their finance arms from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The bailouts funded the automakers' operations through Bankruptcy and Treasury ended up with ...

Should the Government Have Held Onto its Stake in GM?
Today, the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) overseeing the government's Bailout activities released a report (.pdf) on the Auto Industry rescue. In it, the COP said that it's unlikely the government will recoup all of its $40 billion Bailout of General Motors and Chrysler, though the loss appears to have been reduced to $19 billion. If further criticizes the handling of the GM initial public offering of stock, saying that Taxpayers might have been better off if the government had waited. That...

AIG repays the Fed
AIG repays the Fed Posted by Colin Barr January 14, 2011 12:59 pm Let no one say the government and AIG are dragging their feet on the road to their eventual separation. The Treasury announced Friday the completion of the three-way transaction that repays all the Federal Reserve's Bailout loans to American International Group (AIG) and leaves the Treasury with a $68 billion stake in the insurer – including 92% of its common stock. Unlikely highflier The closing comes just over three mo...

SIGTARP on Citi Rescue: Ignoring a Bomb That Has Yet to Be Defused
On the one hand, I must confess to a “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” response to reading the SIGTARP report on the extraordinary assistance extended to Citigroup, starting in November 2009. The well-documented, blow by blow account, taken from the perspective of Regulators, dovetails neatly with the reports here and on other blogs during those fear-filled, gripping times. (As an aside, frustratingly, the media is treating some factoids in the account, such Citi’s ...

AIG recapitalization deal closes
NEW YORK | Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:36pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - The recapitalization of bailed-out insurer American International Group Inc (AIG.N) closed on Friday, leaving the government with a 92 percent stake and plans to sell its shares quickly. The recapitalization was intended to simplify AIG's $182 billion Bailout by paying off the Federal Reserve and leaving the U.S. Treasury as AIG's majority owner. The Treasury said on Friday its cash investment in AIG is now $68 billion. "Treasury re...

FYI, Citigroup Didnt Actually Want That Bailout
Proving yet again that in this country, we don’t let banks fail, no matter how hard they try. Citigroup Inc. executives, on the brink of a bank run in 2008 that U.S. officials believed could imperil the Global Economy, griped that terms of a Taxpayer Bailout would be too costly for the company. “Many people” at Citigroup opposed the proposal, even after the bank’s stock price plunged below $5, companies started pulling deposits and trading partners demanded collateral, according to

What Does Wikileaks have on Bank of America?
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is promising to unleash a cache of secret documents from the Hard Drive of a U.S. megabank executive. In 2009, he told Computer World that the bank was Bank of America (BofA). In 2010, he told Forbes that the information was significant enough to "take down a bank or two," but that he needed time to lay out the information in a more user-friendly format. Recent new reports suggest that BofA is now moving into high gear on damage control, creating a "war room" ...

Treasury announces bank warrant auctions
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government announced Friday that it will auction warrants it holds from Citigroup Inc. and two smaller banks in the First Quarter of this year. It is the latest effort to recoup costs of the $700 billion financial Bailout. The Treasury Department said that it would conduct warrant auctions for Citigroup, Massachusetts-based Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc. and Wintrust Financial Corp., based in Lake Forest, Ill. Sales of the warrants will sever the remaining tie...

AIG, Treasury, Fed complete recapitalization deal
The deal was intended to simplify AIG's $182 billion Bailout by paying off the Federal Reserve and leaving the U.S. Treasury as AIG's majority owner. The Treasury said on Friday its cash investment in AIG is $68 billion. "Treasury remains optimistic that Taxpayers will get back every dollar of their investment in AIG," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement. The government stands to make a profit in the tens of billions of dollars on its AIG shares, given their appreciation ove...

Govt cut chances of GM taxpayer recovery: panel
A new report from a congressional Watchdog says that when the government sold a block of its shares in General Motors for $33 each, it reduced the chances of Taxpayers fully recovering their $50 billion investment in the auto giant. The report issued Thursday by the Congressional Oversight Panel notes that the $85 billion Bailout of GM, Chrysler and auto lender GMAC — now known as Ally Financial — appears to have put them on the path to financial stability. But it says the companies ...

U.S. criticized over Chrysler Financial settlement
By John Crawley WASHINGTON | Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:14am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury may not have fully vetted the settlement of its interest in Chrysler Financial last year and not gotten a strong enough return for Taxpayers, a Bailout Watchdog said in a report on Thursday. The deal most clearly illustrated a broader finding of the Bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel: that the Obama Administration may be too enamored of the politically appealing scenario of quickly cutting ...

Govt cut chances of GM taxpayer recovery: panel
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new report from a congressional Watchdog says that when the government sold a block of its shares in General Motors for $33 each, it reduced the chances of Taxpayers fully recovering their $50 billion investment in the auto giant. The report issued Thursday by the Congressional Oversight Panel notes that the $85 billion Bailout of GM, Chrysler and auto lender GMAC — now known as Ally Financial — appears to have put them on the path to financial stability. Bu...

U.S criticized over Chrysler Financial settlement
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury may not have fully vetted the settlement of its interest in Chrysler Financial last year and not gotten a strong enough return for Taxpayers, a Bailout Watchdog said in a report on Thursday. The deal most clearly illustrated a broader finding of the Bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel: that the Obama Administration may be too enamored of the politically appealing scenario of quickly cutting its stake in the auto business rather than patiently managin...

House panel will probe health overhaul, gas curbs (AP)
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's Health Care overhaul, new rules overseeing the Internet and administration plans to curb Gas Emissions will be scrutinized in congressional hearings, the Republican chairman of a House subcommittee said Friday. The announcement by Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., was the latest signal from GOP leaders that they will use their control of the House over the next two years to aggressively pick through administration actions in a broad range of areas. Republi...

Geithner: Systemic Risk Is Whatever I Say It Is (Youre Welcome, Citigroup)
Shahien Nasiripour’s article about how close Citibank was to Bankruptcy in November 2008 makes for pretty good reading. But the most significant part comes well into the story, when Tim Geithner drops some truth. Regulators throughout the SIGTARP report say they made “judgment calls” on how best to handle Citi’s problems; judgment calls, I might add, that always militated toward saving the bank. Geithner basically says “So it goes”: Treasury Secretary Timoth...

Dodd expects the 112th to be a 'Congress of oversight'
Retired Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) expects the 112th Congress to take on primarily an Oversight role, as divided control will make lawmaking a tough task. "My hope is that this new Congress coming in, and given the political realities of the new Congress, it might be well advised to be a Congress of oversight," he said Friday at an event exploring the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform law, hosted jointly by the George Washington University Law School and School of Business. "It's not likely to legisl...

U.S. to auction warrants in Citi, two other banks
WASHINGTON | Fri Jan 14, 2011 8:54am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury said on Friday it will auction warrants in Citigroup Inc (C.N), Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc (BPFH.O) and Wintrust Financial Corp. (WTFC.O) during the current quarter. The Treasury said it will sell the warrants, obtained when it provided Bailout capital to the banks during the Financial Crisis, through a modified Dutch-style auction. The auctions would rid the Treasury of its final investments in those...

Dimon, Gorman, Moynihan pitch for AIG share sale
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some of the top Bankers in the United States flocked to a Midtown Manhattan Law Firm on Thursday to make a pitch for managing what could be one of the largest share sales in history -- a secondary offering of potentially $20 billion for bailed-out insurer AIG. The Bankers were expected to offer a cut-rate fee, trading profits for the prestige of managing a historic offering and getting in line for future underwriting business from the company. Those that are chosen will pro...

Big Bank Bailout Redux
Central to the Tea Party revolt was a fierce reaction against the Bailout of the big banks. Will the Republican Congress now spit that sentiment in the eye and push through another bailout, this time by overturning centuries of property law and nationalizing what has always been governed by state law? Will the power of their Donors overwhelm the power of their voters and the platitudes of their ideology? The Third Way, one of a gaggle of outlets for the corporate wing of the Democratic Party,...