Paging futureage1

[caliber66]

Chelsea Clinton's fiancé works for Goldman Sachs.

 

I GUESS WE ALL KNOW WHAT "TOO BIG TO FAIL" REALLY MEANS NOW, HUH???

[mountain bed]

 

I had to bump this - I didn't want it falling off of the front page.

[MattZ]

WSJ NEWS ALERT: Bank of America to Repay $45 Billion in TARP‏

[bjorn_skurj]

Thank God, because I just read it costs $1 million per yer PER TROOP for us to be in Afghanistan. Holy living fuck. At that rate, cannot we just bribe everybody in that country to cut the shit?

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Thank God, because I just read it costs $1 million per yer PER TROOP for us to be in Afghanistan. Holy living fuck. At that rate, cannot we just bribe everybody in that country to cut the shit?

 

 

I was thinking we should take the money and buy booze, blow and hookers and send them over to the Taliban. Followed by Rap cd's, blue jeans, Kentucky Fried Chicken and HD tvs.

 

That ought to keep them occupied.

[Good Old Neon]

Thank God, because I just read it costs $1 million per yer PER TROOP for us to be in Afghanistan. Holy living fuck. At that rate, cannot we just bribe everybody in that country to cut the shit?

 

No fucking around, I think this might be the best proposal I've come across yet.

[Panther]

perpetual war , they don't want nobody to cut the shit.

 

how many taliban members are there in that country a hundread

[MattZ]

fyi - from this morning's wsj:

 

Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. won agreements to begin extracting themselves from the U.S. government's grip by paying back a total of $45 billion in aid, marking a major milestone in the year-long effort to rescue the American financial system.

 

...

 

The government could earn a profit of about $14 billion on its investments in Citigroup once the New York company completes a stock offering and other moves that are part of its deal with regulators. The Treasury Department said last week that it expects $19 billion in total profit from its infusions and other investments in financial institutions, reversing the agency's initial projection of a $76 billion net loss.

[futureage1]

fyi - from this morning's wsj:

 

Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. won agreements to begin extracting themselves from the U.S. government's grip by paying back a total of $45 billion in aid, marking a major milestone in the year-long effort to rescue the American financial system.

 

...

 

The government could earn a profit of about $14 billion on its investments in Citigroup once the New York company completes a stock offering and other moves that are part of its deal with regulators. The Treasury Department said last week that it expects $19 billion in total profit from its infusions and other investments in financial institutions, reversing the agency's initial projection of a $76 billion net loss.

 

You're right the bankers and the govt. love us. Want to buy a bridge?

 

U.S. gave up billions in tax money in deal for Citigroup's bailout repayment

Deal made to recover bailout Firms exempted from rule when U.S. sells its stake

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/15/AR2009121504534.html?hpid=topnews

 

The federal government quietly agreed to forgo billions of dollars in potential tax payments from Citigroup as part of the deal announced this week to wean the company from the massive taxpayer bailout that helped it survive the financial crisis.

 

The Internal Revenue Service on Friday issued an exception to long-standing tax rules for the benefit of Citigroup and a few other companies partially owned by the government. As a result, Citigroup will be allowed to retain billions of dollars worth of tax breaks that otherwise would decline in value when the government sells its stake to private investors.

 

While the Obama administration has said taxpayers are likely to profit from the sale of the Citigroup shares, accounting experts said the lost tax revenue could easily outstrip those profits.

 

The IRS, an arm of the Treasury Department, has changed a number of rules during the financial crisis to reduce the tax burden on financial firms. The rule changed Friday also was altered last fall by the Bush administration to encourage mergers, letting Wells Fargo cut billions of dollars from its tax bill by buying the ailing Wachovia.

 

"The government is consciously forfeiting future tax revenues. It's another form of assistance, maybe not as obvious as direct assistance but certainly another form," said Robert Willens, an expert on tax accounting who runs a firm of the same name. "I've been doing taxes for almost 40 years, and I've never seen anything like this, where the IRS and Treasury acted unilaterally on so many fronts."

Treasury officials said the most recent change was part of a broader decision initially made last year to shelter companies that accepted federal aid under the Troubled Assets Relief Program from the normal consequences of such an investment. Officials also said the ruling benefited taxpayers because it made shares in Citigroup more valuable and asserted that without the ruling, Citigroup could not have repaid the government at this time

 

At the end of the third quarter, Citigroup said that the value of its past losses was about $38 billion, allowing it to avoid taxes on its next $38 billion in profits. Under normal IRS rules, a change in control would sharply reduce the amount of profits that Citigroup could shelter from taxes in any given year, making it much more difficult for Citigroup to realize the entire benefit before the tax breaks expired.

 

Visit reality much? That's 38 Billion in another underhanded bailout. Your mastery and defense of the status quo really is unimpressive.

[Sir Stewart]

[MattZ]

Well, I get the prize for posting the news story that brought back futureage1.