Stevenson Jacobs
AP Business Writer
via Breitbart.com
3/29/2010
NEW YORK (AP) – Bank bailouts are turning out to be great business for the government. Unfortunately for taxpayers, other federal rescues will almost certainly wind up in the red.
The Treasury Department said Monday it will begin selling its stake in Citigroup Inc. at a potential profit of about $7.5 billion—not a bad haul for an 18-month investment.
The move is a major step in the government’s effort to unravel investments it made in banks under the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program at the height of the financial crisis.
Yet a year and a half after Congress passed the big bailout, other parts of it—particularly troubled automakers General Motors and Chrysler and insurer American International Group—show no signs of being profitable.
Despite the returns from Citi and other banks, analysts and even the Treasury Department predict the bailout will wind up costing taxpayers at least $100 billion. The bailouts of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were not included in TARP, will add billions more.
The article continues at Breitbart.com
Graphic shows status of TARP by major industry as for March Source: AP - Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
