TARP

The Service Employees International Union has Goldman Sachs in its sights.   Why not  Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Congress? The union will lead a protest Monday in front of the building that houses Goldman's Washington offices (one wonders why they aren't protesting in front of the New York office given that the DC office doesn't house many Goldman workers, but that's another matter). read more

Can one midsize company be too big to fail?    If it's CIT Group, maybe. On the heels of AIG, GM and taxpayer billions dumped into banks one thing is clear: America is sick of bailouts.   It's also clear there is little public support for any taxpayer-funded bailout of struggling CIT Group.    But a closer look reveals that the once little-known lender may be more important to the ... read more

Try starting your work day like this (looks like he did it on purpose, doesn't it?) Courtesy: Failblog Stories I'm reading this Wednesday: On again, off again Chrysler / Fiat deal is on again Michigan workers try to reinvent themselves Stocks set to rise on positive economic data out of China Home Depot also helps the market by raising its ... read more

The government just announced it is "allowing" 10 banks to repay $68 billion in TARP funds.   It was also noted that the banks involved have paid approximately $4.5 billion in dividends on the preferred shares to date.  This will no doubt be spun in Washington as "the taxpayer is being repaid" to the tune of $72.5 billion bucks and we should all be happy. In 2007 there were about 139 million ... read more

The top story in the Wall Street Journal tonight is that the Treasury plans to extend TARP funding to certain life insurance companies whose capital has been hit hard. From the Journal: The Treasury Department plans to extend the Troubled Asset Relief Program to certain eligible life insurers, according to people familiar with the matter. Several life insurers have been burdened lately by ... read more

Despite being widely hated, ridiculed and otherwise smacked down by the public, the $700 billion dollar TARP program may turn out to be the best investment the taxpayer made all year. The folks over at Bianco Research (run by Jim Bianco, one of the smartest and most respected bond analysts in America) published a note today called "Tracking the Trust Cost of the TARP."  This is their ... read more