The Coalition of the Swilling

Well, since they're being rescued by the government, can I stop paying my Citi bill?

Also, does this mean they'll have to stop sponsoring the Mets new stadium, or are we taxpayers going to pay for that too?

This bail-out stuff is getting harder and harder to take. If I ever hear another complaint about the cost of the war or how we're destroying our children's or grandchildren's future by not 'fixing' Social Security, I'll scream.

I feel a bad case of, like, "Stablize THIS, mofo!" coming on.

And yes, Bill.

The amount these people have been paid to create such disasters is appalling. The thing is that if they never get paid again in their entire lives, they'll still live quite well for generations of their families.

But the rest of us that follow the rules and work to create honest livings for our loved ones and ourselves will be paying for these morons.

The government now has a 7.8% stake in Citi with the ability to approve compensation levels, this is the new model going forward. How long before the government seeks representation on the Board? Citi doesn't have to make payments on the preferred for three years. Did someone say permanent stake!?

If you will remember, part of the "attraction" of that mega bailout was that the taxpayer stood a good chance of profiting from the transaction because they were going to be purchasing toxic loans at cents on the dollar and then sell them later on. They again demurred on this approach with Citi and took the equity kicker. Since the government will never sell these equity stakes the taxpayer stands no chance whatsoever in recouping any of this bailout.

Forget that stupid stadium deal, that giant sucking sound you hear is the death of any vibrant form of capitalism. That light at the end of the tunnel is the Euro-socialist express coming to a station near you.

/the rant key is now back in the "off" position

"/the rant key is now back in the "off" position"

Damn! And just when you were doing so well...

Sometimes I think that this is just a giant Monopoly game to these clowns. "According to the rules the bank cannot be out of money, therefore we can just keep playing."

To my mind it's more like the War, with everyone squealing, "We can't fire the CEOs, that will destabilize the industry!" Ya know, maybe we SHOULD destabilize the damned industry. The only stability we have right now is the stability of a plummeting plane. Right about now, shmaybe we could use NEW PILOTS instead of a better in-flight movie.

This is fucking ridiculous and continuing to spiral out of control with no end in sight. As has been rightly pointed out elsewhere, Uncle Sam has already given more money to most of these banks than would've been required to buy them even at their peak market cap and then liquidate them throughout the market. It is all classically what bankruptcy is FOR--orderly redisposition of assets and liabilities--yet instead the taxpayer has to get put further and further on the hook for other peoples' bad decisions, with no future plan and no reason to think that money will go anywhere other than down an endless hole.

The really sad thing is that the estimated cost of the bailout now exceeds the adjusted-for-inflation cost of World War II (for the U.S.).