Monday, November 24, 2008

"Final total panic"

Was perusing a collection of reactions to the Citigroup bailout, and saw this comment from one Bruce Wilder:

This is so completely beyond ridiculous, it is hard to even express it adequately. I really wouldn't be surprised if the sheer cluelessness on display doesn't eventually trigger the final total panic.

Hah--I love that. "Final total panic". I almost wish it would just come already so we could get this financial melodrama overwith. Ladies and gentlemen, we have achieved FTP--repeat...

By the way, the consensus opinion seems to be that this latest bailout was a staggeringly incompetent move, and an outrageous giveaway to Citigroup.

PS: The features of the deal: the taxpayers lend the company $27 billion at 8% interest (which are worse terms for the taxpayers than the terms that Warren Buffet got recently for lending Goldman Sachs money--he lent at 10%); taxpayers buy $2.7 billion worth of stock at a price of $10.61/share (the closing price Friday was three times less, $3.77/share); taxpayers agree to insure up to 250 billion fucking dollars in losses on mortgage-backed assets. So if those assets take heavy losses, the taxpayers are going to get soaked.

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