It looks like the U.S. taxpayer is going to own up to 40% of the common stock of Citigroup - as early as today. We taxpayers didn't sign up for this but we're going to get it.
Reportedly some private money is either coming in to the deal or converting preferred to common along with Uncle Sam. That is wonderful but there's a limit to how many deals the Feds can orchestrate with private investor participation, so let's hope that this is the last one.
Contrast that to the grand plans contained in Obama's budget outline yesterday. U.S. voters did sign up for that, even though the scope of the plan and the exact depth of the deficit required could not have been know at election time. Holy crap. It's going to cost $2 trillion to reduce health care costs.
"In an era where taxpayers and markets are confronting bad numbers in the trillions, the price tags on some of his initiatives do not seem quite so breathtaking, and, in any case, good economic policy demands that the fiscal floodgates remain open for a while."
His timing here is either perfect or perfectly crazy.
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