Mad Money Recap | Nightly Recap for:? Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Jim's Quotes from this segment:
Jim:
How the heck did bailouts get such a bad name in this country?... Nobody likes to help out the Wall Street gangsta banksters... but when all is said and done... and now it's looking more and more like TARP, that "troubled asset relief program," the single-most loathed government program in recent history... may also end up being not just the most effective program, but get this... also one of the most profitable ones. TARP wasn't just necessary to prevent a second Great Depression. It turned out to be a pretty savvy important investment. It wasn't even supposed to make money. It was just supposed to lose a lot of money, but less than we would lose in jobs and money for the country without it.
Think about it... Now that the government has sold its stake in Citigroup common stock, at a profit... it locked in a $12 billion profit there for you... The GM IPO gave us another $13.5 billion... and they still own a big chunk of that one. You know I think that goes higher, the charitable trust owns it. And now we're hearing from the Treasury Department that there's a good chance we might even break even... hey, maybe even turn a profit... on AIG, the most despised bailout of them all.
Right now, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the total lifetime cost of TARP will come to just $25 billion. In my view, that's a small price to pay for preventing the Great Depression part two. Of the $389 billion that was actually dispersed, the Treasury has already gotten back $264 billion in repayments and profits. The money just keeps pouring back in. We now know, for instance, that Huntington Bancshares and First Horizon... they both plan to raise money in order to pay back the government too. That HBAN deal was pretty good today.
So now that the rescue phase is over, and the repayment phase is going better than almost anyone predicted, we've got to find out what is our next move here, and that's why I am so thrilled to have Tim Massad on the show. Tim is in charge of the disposal of these TARP important assets for Treasury, and he has done a remarkable, remarkable job...
[Jim then proceeded to discuss the disposal of stock assets at a profit for the U.S. government, and the plan to dispose of most remaining TARP assets going forward.]
Here's the bottom line...
Jim's comments AFTER the interview:
This program worked, and I don't mind crowing about it, because it made us... and it will make us money. It is a hallelujah moment in a very gloomy time.
Jim's Quotes from this segment:
Jim:
[Jim then proceeded to discuss the disposal of stock assets at a profit for the U.S. government, and the plan to dispose of most remaining TARP assets going forward.]
Here's the bottom line...
Jim's comments AFTER the interview:
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