“Citigroup” on The Daily Caller

One year ago, General Motors, once the largest and richest company in the country if not the world, entered into an emergency bankruptcy that cost billions of dollars, eliminated thousands of jobs, closed hundreds of dealerships, ended several product lines, left stockholders and debt holders with huge losses and gave the U.S. Treasury a majority share of the company. Now, some commentators are claiming that the auto rescue has been a success. (more)

Greece suffers from unsustainable public-sector debt, low productivity, and an overall uncompetitive economy. In 2009, the government’s fiscal deficit was 13.6 percent of Greece’s gross domestic product (GDP) and its outstanding debt stood at 115 percent of its GDP. Lenders were losing confidence in Greece’s ability to repay them. Before the loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU announced on May 2, they were demanding an almost 10 percentage points premium over lending rates to Germany, which worsened Greece’s deficit. Even with the large corrective measures Greece has agreed to undertake, its debt is projected to increase to 149 percent of GDP in 2012 before beginning to shrink in 2014. (more)

Democrats are planning to stake a big part of their midterm election pitch on “cracking down on Wall Street.” (more)

Will AIG pay back its bailout? It depends on whom you listen to. During Wednesday’s hearing at the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the government folks and AIG’s chief executive spent most of their time discussing why the AIG bailout was warranted and how things are getting better. They suggested that AIG may be able to pay off some debts, thanks to the sale of two foreign life insurance subsidiaries, by the end of the year. The managing director of insurance ratings at Standard & Poor’s suggested that the agency may lower the already-low rating of AIG if its operating performance does not improve. The managing director of property and casualty insurance research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods noted that the company recently downgraded common shares of AIG to underperform and established a price target of $6 — despite yesterday’s closing market price of $34 for AIG. If that weren’t bad enough, 20 percent of Prudential UK shareholders announced that they plan to vote against the $35.5 billion takeover of AIG’s life insurance subsidiary. (more)

Investor confidence down: The Wall Street Journal reports that confidence among institutional investors has suffered its largest one-month drop since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, with uncertainty over of the U.K. election, the “flash crash” in the U.S. and high levels of market volatility combining to make investors more risk averse. The State Street Investor Confidence Index for May reports global investor confidence fell 11.2 points to 88.2, or about 10 percent. Declines in investing sentiment in North America were a key contributor, with institutional investor confidence falling among European investors, too. Investing patterns by institutional investors in Asia, by contrast, showed confidence was robust, rising about 7 percent. But these Asian investors were selective, favoring commodity-producing countries and avoiding Europe and the U.S. (more)

Financial reform marches on: House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat, will lead the conference to resolve the differences between the Senate and House financial reform bills, which Democrats want to finish and send to President Obama before the July 4 recess. The conference is expected to include a dozen senators, including seven Democrats and five Republicans. Senator Chris Dodd, Connecticut Democrat, who drafted and owned the Senate bill, will be on the conference, as well as Senator Lincoln, Arkansas Democrat. Republican Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, who opposed the Senate bill, will reportedly be on the panel, and the Senate is expected to name its full conference committee members on Monday evening. House Speaker Pelosi, California Democrat, will name the members of the panel from the House, but may wait until the second week in June to do so, aides said. Frank has said the conference may take about a month, and has indicated that he would like the proceedings televised on C-SPAN. (more)

Senators ought to know they shouldn’t make promises they can’t keep. (more)

Regulators have now set their sights on Morgan Stanley as the Wall Street bank is reportedly being investigated by federal prosecutors over whether or not it misled investors about mortgage-related deals it helped design and sometimes took a bearish stance against. (more)

End of the financial reform stalemate. Republicans announced that they had achieved resolution of bailout loopholes on the financial regulatory reform bill Wednesday afternoon. “Now that bipartisan negotiations have ended, it is my hope that the majority’s avowed interest in improving this legislation on the Senate floor is genuine and the partisan gamesmanship is over,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, in a statement. After failing to move forward on Monday and Tuesday on the financial reform bill by the exact same vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, scheduled another vote on Wednesday which was promptly defeated as well. The count Wednesday was 56-42 with Senator Nelson, Nebraska Democrat, and Reid voting against the measure. Reid’s “no” vote allows him to bring it up again. A vote later Wednesday, after Democrats threatened to hold an all-night session, succeeded in getting Republicans to drop their filibuster. (more)

In his recent speech on Wall Street, President Obama tried to delegitimize any criticism of his proposed financial regulations and taxes. He said, “What’s not legitimate is to suggest that somehow the legislation being proposed is going to encourage future taxpayer bailouts, as some have claimed. That makes for a good sound bite, but it’s not factually accurate. It is not true. In fact…a vote for reform is a vote to put a stop to taxpayer-funded bailouts. That’s the truth. End of story.” (more)

Financial reform: the first vote – Reuters reports that Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) broke with party ranks on Monday and voted against opening Senate debate on a financial reform bill. Nelson’s action means that the Democrats lack the votes to go forward and that the bill will be blocked, at least for now. Democrats must pickup at least two Republicans to prevail and clear the way for consideration of the bill. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Monday morning the Republicans had the 41 votes they needed to stop Democrats from beginning debate on the Senate floor on a bill to overhaul financial regulation, but he suggested it was unclear how long the GOP unity would last.“I believe that 41 Republicans – for right now – are going to stand together. I wish we’d stand together, period.” Republicans know that there is a significant political price to pay for opposing financial reform; even if the opposition may be well intentioned. According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll out Monday, 65% of adults surveyed nationwide said they support regulatory reform, while 31 percent oppose it. Sixty-nine percent said in the poll that they support “increasing federal oversight of the way banks and other financial companies make consumer loans, such as mortgages and auto loans, and issue credit cards.” (more)

The federal government took its first step towards unloading its remaining stake in Citigroup, unveiling plans Monday to sell up to 1.5 billion shares in the banking giant. (more)

After nearly two years of being drenched in red ink, Citigroup provided the strongest signs yet that the much-troubled bank is beginning to recover as it reported a $4.4 billion profit in the first quarter. (more)

A source close to the Bloomberg administration confirms the Times’ report that Deputy Mayor for Operations Ed Skyler is departing his post. (more)

The Treasury Department announced plans Monday to sell its 27% stake in Citigroup (C: 4.31, 0, 0%) “over the course of 2010” in a deal that will likely amount to a windfall for taxpayers. (more)

WASHINGTON – The administration’s pay czar said Tuesday that the top 25 earners at five companies still receiving extraordinary aid from the government’s bailout fund will be paid an average 15 percent less in 2010 than in 2009 under his restrictions. (more)

Investors had a funny way of commemorating the first anniversary of the market’s bottom on Tuesday. They rewarded some of the stocks responsible for most of the problems in the first place. (more)

WASHINGTON — There is no U.S. government guarantee to protect the largest financial firms, a Treasury Department official said Thursday, as a congressional watchdog criticized the $45 billion in government aid provided to Citigroup Inc. (more)

Citigroup is in talks to sell its private equity, real estate and hedge fund investment arms, which together manage about $20bn of assets, as the bank presses ahead with plans to sell $900bn of non-core assets to repay debt. (more)

NEW YORK (AP) — Citigroup says it lost $7.58 billion during the final three months of 2009 as consumers still struggled to repay loans and the bank repaid its government bailout money. (more)