Monday, November 24, 2008

Citi bailout

Is there any way to view this bailout of CitiGroup as anything other than a complete give away? We're giving $20 billion to a company that is only worth $20 billion in exchange for some stock and significant government guarantees of CitiGroup's shitty portfolio. Oh and, no accountability for Citi management!

The Kleptocrats are doing their best to give away as much of the Treasury to their friends as they can before they leave office. They're reverse Robin Hoods, stealing from the country to reward their crony friends before January 20th. Of course Republican economic policies have long been based on the idea of consolidating wealth amongst the richest and crushing the earnings of the middle and working classes but this is a shockingly flagrant theft. They usually at least pretend to care about public perception.

Mark Thoma has a good run down of various reactions over at the Economists View.

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