Citigroup Still Fighting Against The People Who Bailed Them Out

The big financial news on Tuesday was that Citigroup has turned themselves around after their stock price went from ninety-seven cents to a buck and a quarter due to better earnings this quarter. So what if it used to be at $60.00? So what if the country bailed them out to the tune of $20 billion? For the here and now, the megalithic bank is profitable, three cheers for the bank!

For the executives at Citigroup, it makes it easier to forget about the taxpayer's assistance so that you can turn around and knife them in the back over EFCA:

The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein reports that “embattled financial giant Citigroup Inc., which has received at least $50 billion in federal bailout funds, hosted a private conference call on Wednesday to build opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.” On Tuesday, Citigroup downgraded its rating of Wal-Mart from buy to hold, citing fears that EFCA could pass. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said earlier this week that “fierce resistance from Republicans and business groups could force him to delay action” on the measure.

Republicans are putting up fierce resistance? Is Citigroup's stock advice about WalMart is supposed to scare the rest of us into forgetting about the unions and Democrats in general that want this bill to pass?

Hello Harry Reid!!! Republicans lost the election by a ridiculous margin. Citigroup indebtted to us. We owe them nothing! Nothing damnit!

Elections have consequences and now is the time to prove it. Unions are what have made this country strong and given workers the rights they have today. If it were up to Citigroup, we'd have labor conditions that mirrored the Gilded Age, where workers toiled for 60 hours a week with no breaks. There is no reason on Earth why we should give into what they are plotting and on top of that, there is no reason they should be plotting anything to begin with, since they are using our money.

Now grow a spine Senator Reid and get this bill through the Senate!

Citi Field No More?

The joke surrounding the new ballpark in Queens is that Citi-Field should be renamed City Field. With all of the taxpayer money going to Citigroup, there has been plenty of criticism surrounding their $400 million dollar deal with the Mets to name the new stadium for the next twenty years. Now it appears that Citigroup is finally getting the joke, and changing their tune.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Citigroup Inc., eager to quell the controversy over how lenders are using government bailout money, is exploring the possibility of backing out of a nearly $400 million marketing deal with the New York Mets, say people familiar with the matter.

Officials at Citigroup have made no final decision about whether to try to void the 20-year agreement, which includes naming the Mets' new baseball stadium after the bank, say these people.

In a statement Monday, Citigroup said that "no TARP capital will be used" for the stadium -- referring to government funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Yes, it isn't a change in company policy but the confusing words have more meaning than what they lend to believe. Pat Kiernan calls them ridiculous for the statement because one dollar is just as good as the next. Of course reading between the lines shows that the beleaguered banking behemoth is ready to cave to popular sentiment on this issue. Now if they can start serving the interests of the shareholders taxpayers in everything that they do, that would be real progress.

U.S. Gov't To Back $306 Billion Citigroup Mistakes

Late this evening (or morning now) the deal reached between the government and Citigroup became official. Rumors had been swirling all weekend, but now we find out just how far our government is willing to go to save the banks built too big to fail.

From Bloomberg News:

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government agreed to protect $306 billion of loans and securities on Citigroup Inc.‘s books against losses, as it seeks to shore up investor confidence in the bank.

Citigroup will, as a fee for the guarantee, provide preferred shares to the Treasury and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the regulators said in a statement. The government will also inject $20 billion into the bank from the Treasury’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Of course conservatives are trying to drag out a fight to save millions of autoworkers jobs for $25 billion, but hardly a peep is heard for $306 billion in guarantees for loans and securities. Oh and a mere $20 billion of straight cash that virtually doubles the current market value of Citigroup, pegged at $20.5 billion at the end of last week. I hope this helps them save some of those 52,000 layoffs from going through, but I doubt it goes to doing good for the workers who have been punished for the executives' greed. People like Charles Prince should go to jail for their recklessness and stripped of the wealth made from the risky deals that brought misery to us all.