The Media Continue to Ignore Welfare for Citi Shareholders

[girl gone mad]

The Media Continue to Ignore Welfare for Citi Shareholders
Dean Baker, http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press_archive?month=02&year=2009&base_name=the_media_continue_to_ignore_w">The American Prospect

The NYT piece on bailout III for Citigroup looks like it was written by Citi's lobbyists. The piece never once points out that the government has handed tens of billions to Citigroup for almost nothing. Let me say that about six more times: the NYT article on the latest Citi bailout never once points out that the government has handed tens of billions to Citigroup for almost nothing. The NYT article on the latest Citi bailout never once points out that the government has handed tens of billions to Citigroup for almost nothing. The NYT article on the latest Citi bailout never once points out that the government has handed tens of billions to Citigroup for almost nothing.I suppose tens of billions for Citi doesn't deserve as much attention as $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts or $25 million for the Smithsonian.

The article even includes a bizarre statement to discourage those who oppose welfare for the super-rich: "Nationalizing Citigroup outright would be a huge challenge, given the company’s size and international sweep. In countries like Mexico, for instance, a state-controlled bank might run afoul of local ownership regulations."

This could almost be a line in a comedy routine -- Mexico is going to keep the United States from putting a bankrupt bank in receivership. It's too bad that the NYT didn't identify anyone who made such a statement, we all could ridicule this person until they faded from public life.

It's time that the media stopped covering up for Wall Street. The issue is not "nationalization," the issue is a bankruptcy type receivership for insolvent banks. It is absurd to pretend that this is prevented by trade agreements or anything other than the power of the shareholders and executives who run these banks.

--Dean Baker

[exboyfil]

1. We have already sent Citibank 4 times its market capitalization

Think about it even with our money ($45B) in its coffers we could buy the whole thing for $11B.

It should have already been taken over, its managers fired, and proceedings started for liquidation with an attempt to get as much cash back for the Treasury as possible (reverse auction the bad paper until it makes more sense to continue to hold onto it etc). The stockholders and management have failed.

The same could be said for BoA and AGI.