It. Never. Fucking. Ends. ........ This time its stock warrants that will be fucking us.

[Stinky The Clown]

Banks Reclaiming TARP Stock Warrants Are Getting Quite A Bargain - At Our Expense
By Susie Madrak Sunday May 24, 2009 1:30pm

Keep in mind that the very same politicians who are supporting this sort of thing are also telling us, in very grave tones, how worried they are about the deficit and why it's impossible to do things like provide universal health care or more money for education. One could reasonably retort that it's simply a matter of different priorities. Just remember: Although we elect the legislators, it's the corporate lobbyists who keep those high-priced perks coming!

May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Banks negotiating to reclaim stock warrants they granted in return for Troubled Asset Relief Program money may shortchange taxpayers by almost $10 billion if Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s first sale sets the pace, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

While 17 financial institutions have repaid TARP funds, two have come to terms with the U.S. on the value of the rights to buy stock that taxpayers received for the risk of recapitalizing the industry. The first was Old National Bancorp in Evansville, Indiana, which gave the Treasury Department $1.2 million last week for warrants that may have been worth $5.81 million, according to the data.

If Geithner makes the same deal for all companies in the rescue program, lenders may walk away with 80 percent of the profits taxpayers might have claimed.

“For once we’d like to get a fair value when we come into contact with the banking system,” said Representative Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat and chairman of the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of House Science and Technology Committee. “We don’t want a ruthless bargain.”

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/banks-reclaiming-tarp-stock-warrants

Did we actually have this negotiated into the bailout of the Too Bigs To Fails?




I gotta question: WHO IS ON ***OUR*** SIDE????????

[Horse with no Name]

1. You know what Stinky?

I can probably count the fingers of those who are on "our" side.
Kucinich, Dean...and I would have to think long and hard for others.
I believe we are on our own.:(

[patrice]

6. Feingold, Sanders . . .

[patrice]

7. Boxer?

[RB TexLa]

2. Isn't the "profit" of the jobs saved enough?

[patrice]

8. Whose jobs? What kind of jobs? Where? What we need is a *NEW* "industrial" base and

trade policy reform.

[RB TexLa]

9. So you're fine with everyone working for a financial institution being out of work?

I agree we need trade reform, it needs to be opened more. Thankfully the President agrees with me.

[HamdenRice]

10. It wasn't just financial sector jobs that were saved

A lot of people without econ background may disagree, but there was widespread, well grounded fear of a completely economic meltdown with instant 20% unemployment a la Great Crash II and Great Depression II.

The intervention in the commercial paper market alone has saved hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs all across the economy.

[RB TexLa]

11. I know. I was just addressing what I felt were the posters concerns that the jobs are just people

who steal customers money and lazy foreigners who have stolen jobs from Americans.


I think 20% is actually low if the wires had not been stopped that day.

[patrice]

12. I'm not fine with that and I think they should do as IT professionals were expected to do - Retrain

or become Entrepreneurs in some other area, or live in a one income family if they're married, or . . . .

It's called Capitalism, isn't it? When the market for what you do changes, you adapt, if that standard doesn't apply to them then what we have is Socialism for Wall Street.

[Birthmark]

3. No one is on our side.

I mean, there are some in the circles of the elite that vaguely root for us in the same way that any parasite roots for its host to survive. But that's as good as it gets these days.

[Voltaire]

4. Anyone know where the Guillotine Shop is?

I would like to buy a few large ones, and invite some bankers over for tea. . .

[HamdenRice]

5. At least the article acknowledges that taxpayers didn't give banks "free money" as many here believe

That said, I agree with the OP that Geithner is up to no good. There are mechanisms in TARP 1 to ensure that the taxpayer gets paid back with interest.

Warrants are an additional upside, and the feds should hold on to them. Bank stock prices are rising, and if this trend continues and the fed holds those warrants for later, the taxpayer could make a very nice windfall.