Citigroup's Richard Parsons Visits White House Amid Talk Of Increasing Ownership Stakes In Bank

politico.com:

The incoming chairman of Citigroup, Richard Parsons, showed up at the White House Monday, amid talk that the federal government might take a massive ownership stake in the troubled banking behemoth.

Parsons' appointment: to see Valerie Jarrett, one of President Barack Obama's closest West Wing confidants.

Read the whole story: politico.com

Comments

[take10]

Not one dime more!

[PhilipTaylor]

Citigroup loses $60 Billion! AIG Loses $60 Billion!

HOW can this be anything else but BANKRUPTCY?

ZOMBIE Bank/Insurance without question! Taxpayer money to a Bank/Insurance like this?

Get Creative Geithner and open up a Government Internet Cental Bank (ICB) that loans directly to the people at fair rates and fees and let these ZOMBIES follow the DESTINY they set for themselves!

Cancel all the Illegal Insurance Bets against Mortgages these people encouraged and new would go SOUR! We are spiraling down every day paying these BETS!

[Viper]

You have to be one very dumb politician to want to the Government to own banks so you are now in charge of the banks foreclosing and repoing cars, cutting up credit cards.... Thats should make for a bad election. in a country that blames everything on some else but themselves.

The repugs are hoping...

Regards

[Solja]

It's dumb for anyone to think that we don't already own a significant share of these banks already. We own 80% of Citi since the first bailout.

[OtayPanky]

Considering Citi's balance sheet, maybe Obama wants to pull a Seinfeld and make him Secretary of Nothing.

[jerrypl]

Wake up Parsons, we know what you want! You want the taxpayers to take an ownership stake in your institution at inflated asset price valuation with no say on the board of directors or say regarding who stays and who is fired. Citi is too big to exist. It needs to be broken up into smaller easy to fail companies. Let see you open up your books to the public Mr. Parsons!

This comment is pending approval and won't be displayed until it is approved.

Feeding the zombie insolvent predators will only delay any economic recovery because none of those FIRE sector institutions contribute anything of value to the economy. They do not add to real economic growth. Their sole purpose is to inflate asset price values in hopes to create a new bubble. That is the purpose of keeping dead banks and insurance companies and real estate development companies in taxpayer cash.

It is time for everyone to wake up and begin to address the facts and prepare for the depression.

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

[breakingpoint]

Something to ponder

Citi Group's stock per share $2.14

Citi Group ATM fee $3.00

[OtayPanky]

You could easily turn those ATM's into PEZ dispensers...kind of a gift with purchase thing, like they do in the cosmetics business.

[usedtowander]

These guys need to make up their minds. When they were in front of Congress they said they didn't need more money. They defended their profligate spending on outragous compensation packages.

Now that Obama and the Democrats have limited controls to only the top 25 individuals (despite several hundreds of individuals getting bonuses in excess of a million at one bank alone) they come out of the woodwork and want more money.

Obama seems intent upon rewarding their bad behavior. Taking money from poor taxpayers to support the bad behavior and outrageous compensation of a few rich people is just morally wrong.

You can use all the platitudes you want about outcomes and looking ahead - it is not forgiveable to take our money to support these bankers and their planes, beach houses, etc. Unacceptable.

[Viper]

While I hate to support over paid executives in any industry, lets not forget they loaned money to Americans who defaulted... thats one of their crimes.. it was unwise to invest in us and America. Smarter businesses invested instead in China and India and then shipped our jobs there. They were smarter than the banks were.

Regards

[PrinceHal]

Watch out for visits like this one by Parsons.

I think we can be sure there will be more of them.

[TXfemmom]

I am sorry, take the company over, period. No more money when Citi and the other banks won't make the changes needed. Then, try to make the best of a bad situation and clawback all that money paid to execs for salary and bonuses while they were driving it into the ground.

[Viper]

They legally cant loan anymore money or then the bank auditors get them for increasing thei risk factor and of course not being solvent.. we said you were too risky... now be less risky but loan more money in a recession and be more leveraged .. but the bank rules say you have to loan less when the asets you hold are worth less...

Regard

[Solja]

All of which gives us more reason to put them into a receivership, since they are "too big to fail". Someone wrote it better above with, "too big to exist". I agree with that.

[bulfinch]

This fellow has ruined many companies. Bailout.

[themodernleader]

The financial institutions are slowly constricting our government's ability to deal with this terrible depression. As with the boa-constrictor they have their arms around our government. Slowly, gradually they squeeze the life out of everything and devour it for their own strategic, selfish ends. The public and Republic be damned.

[Viper]

Whats crimpling the banks is us not paying our loans... thus devaluing of heir assets caused by that , which by law restricts the amount loans they can make legally.

Regards

[303]

Has Citi been more egregious than other banks in pressing political favors
with the White House, Congress, etc?.

We know Clinton's Robert Rubin went to Citi, and also
Bush's Nick Calio. Is this just typical revolving door?
Parsons at the White House today suggests that maybe Citi counts too much on political favors/patronage-- rather than smart, sustainable financial practices--
to "protect" themselves--in the Tony Soprano sense of that word.

[Solja]

It means they are begging for more taxpayer dollars to bail them out of the sh..ithole they are in.

[leftLibertarian]

Just let Citi go bankrupt and let 'm fend for themselves.

[303]

Right on! Citi cannot be saved --by government bailouts or government ownership. Like AIG, Citi is another Black Hole for tax payers.

Best for Feds to provide bridge loan to Private Investors who pick apart what's salvageable, and trash the rest. Citi execs grossly mismanaged risks and ran it into the ground--and Citi shareholders allowed it all to happen, so deserve NO more Handouts from TAXPAYERS.

There is no where near enough money to bail out everyone who is hurting, underwater and losing asset values. Everyone's home, 401k and other investments are way down. Folks/banks who took big risks and didn't set aside for rainy day contingencies need to bite the bullet--take your losses and regroup under another banner--a smaller house, a smaller bank, a smaller hedge fund. Downscaling is essential to deleveraging.

We're not going to fix anything by piecemeal, line by line code changes.
Time to salvage what we can (before we all get drowned by the Default tsumanis!) , and
reboot healthy banks with a new operating system.

[Viper]

Pls note AIG , now nationalized still requires the same amount of money to keep paying claims that if they dont all the banks in the U.S. become insolvent....

The cost is the same except when its government owned it will Be Obama doing the foreclosing and etc.. and he and the DEMS will not be very popular for long. Thye will be the new bad guys running the banks and trying to collect.

Regards

[dadw5boys]

I agree Citi should habd the Federal Government back all the cash and all the DEBT the Government FORCED them to assume.

The file suit against the U.S. Government and the SEC for not doing their jobs when they allowed so much BAD PAPER to be sold into the Banking system.

The SEC for not doing it's job and the Treasury for not doing it's job.

Then sue the Regulaors like the FDIC for not enforcing laws on the Under Writers !

Then sue Bush for preventing the Staes from using Comsumer Protection Laws .

Citi only invests they write no mortages.

[Viper]

My Gosh, some one wants to balme more than the banks whopse crime is they invested in US instead of IRAQ or China (like most American corps did, and then sent our jobs here). Dont get me wrong, they over paid themselves as all US execs have been doing since trickle down...

But these bad guys are the ones stuck with our bad debts.. they paid out cash.. we bought big screens and houses and are not now paying them back.

Regards

[Solja]

Lock up Bush. You missed the mark on that one.

[truthyguy]

Any of these banks and financial institutions who don't get rid of the execs who got them into their troubles or don't account for what they are doing with the TARP funds or who will not cap executive salaries at a reasonable amount - any of them should be taken over by the government and liquidated or restructured, depending on their viability.

[PhilipTaylor]

THE HEMORRHAGING CONTINUES FROM THE SURE CASINO BETS of HEDGE FUNDS/WS Banks!

There are two sides to this CLEVER and DESTRUCTIVE Ponzi/Pyramid/Casino Scheme:

1. The Housing Hyper-Inflation Projected Forward, FEE Laiden, and Executive Income Skimming PONZI Scheme that created $Trillions of FEE loaded Derivatives. Motivated by Mortgages that were sure to FAIL!

2. Insurance Scheme using Newly Created Instruments that allowed Hedge Funds and Banks to Lay Down Repeated and Massive Bets that the Mortgages and Derivative would FAIL! Motivated by Mortgages sure to FAIL!

#2 is also reason AIG is continuing downward dispite $100+ Billion Bailouts.

#2 is still driving down Banks everyday. Illegal BETS should be declared NULL/VOID as a NATIONAL EMERGENCY to SAVE AMERICA!

12 Years have been lost from GREED/INCOMPTETENCE of Republican Bush Era and WS Banks/Hedge Funds!

Stop this hemmoraging caused by Hedge FUNDS/WS BANKSTERS Casino Bets!

False Premise Contracts, like marked cards, are NULL/VOID and can be stopped Lawfully!

We must honor Contract Law principles: RECISSION and DAMAGES!

"Misrepresentation is a contract law concept. It means a false statement of fact made by one party to another party, which has the effect of inducing that party into the contract. For example, false statements or promises made by a seller of goods.loans regarding the quality/nature of the product that the seller has may constitute misrepresentation. A finding of misrepresentation allows for a remedy of RECISSION and sometimes DAMAGES depending on the type of misrepresentation.

[sc92705]

You hit the nail on the head, man.

I know what you're saying but 99% of america (and maybe obama as well) don't know what you're saying.