Thursday, July 30, 2009

Charging an Insult to the Boston Globe

Click-clack!

"Taxpayers got a “good deal’’ from AmEx.... “The taxpayers have received a good return on their investment. The process we designed to value the warrants and protect the taxpayers worked well.
’’

Related:
Government Can't Add When it Comes to Goldman Sachs

Wall Street Wants to Sell You Shit -- and Calls it Gold

"American Express pays back last TARP funds" by Peter Eichenbaum, Bloomberg News | July 30, 2009

NEW YORK - American Express Co., the biggest US credit card company by purchases, bought back the last of the government’s stake by paying $340 million for warrants held by the Treasury’s bailout program.

Payments by American Express to the Troubled Asset Relief Program, including dividends on preferred shares, equal a 26 percent annualized return for taxpayers....

Lawmakers are pressing the Treasury to extract higher prices from companies that want to buy back warrants and repay the US aid. Legislators have said payments from the earliest buybacks were too low and didn’t compensate taxpayers for risks taken by providing rescue funds for banks when the financial system was teetering near collapse last year.

Translation: YOU GOT TOOK, American taxpayers!

And IT PAINS ME to SAY SO because I AM in TEARS FOR YOU!

For YOU, not me; they have already taken everything away from me except my limited freedom of movement (for now).

Taxpayers got a “good deal’’ from AmEx, said Linus Wilson, a finance professor at the University of Louisiana. “It seems that congressional pressure and the threat of auctions has significantly stiffened the negotiation stance of the US Treasury.’’

Goldman Sachs Group said July 22 it redeemed US warrants for $1.1 billion, the full value determined by the Treasury, after repaying the government’s $10 billion capital injection last month.

Since when is 98% a FULL 100, hanh, LIARS?!!!!!!!!!

"The firm is paying about 98 percent of the warrants’ value.... Goldman Sachs agreed to pay the full amount sought by Treasury for its warrants."

Yeah, but us fumb ducks out here made $$$, right.

Taking into account the dividends that Goldman paid the government, the Treasury earned an annualized 23 percent return on its funds, according to estimates from the bank and the Treasury.

“The taxpayers have received a good return on their investment,’’ Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said. “The process we designed to value the warrants and protect the taxpayers worked well.’’

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