WSJ:
The federal government agreed Sunday to take unprecedented steps to stabilize Citigroup Inc. by moving to guarantee close to $300 billion in troubled assets weighing on the bank's books, according to people familiar with details of the plan.
Treasury has agreed to inject an additional $20 billion in capital into Citigroup under terms of the deal hashed out between the bank, the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Treasury officials will charge a higher interest rate for the capital injection -- 8% for the first few years -- than it has charged to dozens of other banks now borrowing money under the government's the $700 billion rescue package approved by Congress last month.
In addition to the capital, Citigroup will have an extremely unusual arrangement in which the government agrees to backstop a roughly $300 billion pool of its assets, containing mortgage-backed securities among other things. Citigroup must absorb the first $37 billion to $40 billion in losses from these assets. If losses extend beyond that level, Treasury will absorb the next $5 billion in losses, followed by the FDIC taking on the next $10 billion in losses. Any losses on these assets beyond that level would be taken by the Fed.
Just awesome ...
And this is just the beginning.
It is easy to imagine that Citibank's competitors will be next at the trough.
Soooo-ee!
Funny thing about this is ...
Why isn't anyone clamoring for salary cuts at Citibank as part of this package? GM employees make an average of $28 per hour, plus benefits. That is a fraction of what Citibank's six and seven-figure investment bankers make.
Where is the outrage?
It's amazing that we didn't have the money or political will to rebuild New Orleans after hurricane Katrina.
But when Citibank comes calling ...!
Awesome.