Good fugging grief Tweety

[malaise]

Keep Cramer off your show. That loser has no credibility.

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. Neither does Tweety. His show should be canceled!

[AlCzervik]

yup.

cable opinion shows suck.

[AlinPA]

16. Matthews is a loudmouth slobbering fool. nt

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. Yes Indeed!

[FrenchieCat]

2. I was watching this great summit, and seemed like we were beginning a process

to make progress and solve problems...and all of the sudden there's Chris Matthews sullying my television talking about nothing, and talking to someone interested in nothing but his mouth moving.

[malaise]

8. I could not say it better

That summit was a super display of leadership.
Good grief Tweety's guests today are all doom and gloom. What a pity Tweety is unable to seize the moment and have some intelligent people with ideas and not mere volume.

[rusty_parts2001]

3. He's just worried about his stock portfolio.

Tweety probably lost millions in this market.

[SammyWinstonJack]

19. !

:nopity:

[Pirate Smile]

4. "All these Jim Cramers crowing about the free market need to put up or shut up," the official said.

The Politics Of The Citibank Tango

Citibank is teetering on the edge, with its shares trading under $2 as of Friday, and, almost as importantly, with the bank's alleged/perceived/unacknowledged solvency issues becoming part of the political culture.

Today, regulators, Treasury officials and bank executives are working through a plan that would inject the bank with billions in new capital. At the same time, they're asking Wall Street to calm its collective nervous system. The government won't pull Citibank into receivership, but a jittery stock market might force their hand.

A senior administration official said that the goal in issuing an extraordinary statement this morning asserting that Citibank was "well capitalized" was both reassurance and pressure: "We are not rushing towards nationalization at all," the official said. "But capital flight requires capital infusion." The worst thing that could happen, from Treasury's point of view, is that a major sell-off would force the bank into receivership by pulling the price down to a buck or below.

"All these Jim Cramers crowing about the free market need to put up or shut up," the official said.

Citigroup's market capitalization is around $11.25 billion dollars right now, and its shares trading at around $2.15 cents. The government already owns $45 billion worth of Citigroup preferred stock -- about 25% of the bank's overall equity.

The government proposes to convert its preferred stock into common equity, which poses a problem: it'll be very hard for the government to retain less than 40% ownership stakes when the conversions are complete; the conversion price would have to be around $20 dollars per common share, which is a almost ten times as much as a common share is now worth. In theory, the government can set an arbitrary conversion price, but that level of intervention would be precarious. So -- the government wants to talk up the price of Citigroup stocks and it can talk up the price a bit.

A Citigroup official said that the company and the government are working on the specific convertible formula. Because the conversion terms would dilute the existing pool of stock, "The question we're trying to answer is whether this is something that would need shareholder approval," the Citigroup official said. An annual meeting is scheduled for April.

If all of this internal maneuvering smacks of government control over Citigroup, that's because the government essentially has the leverage it needs right now. And this informal arrangement is mutually beneficial. The government gets to restructure the bank without acquiring majority ownership stakes; Citigroup remains private and gets to rebut claims that it is insolvent. They can take more government money if they're worried about the stress tests, but as of today, the government considers Citibank well capitalized.

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/02/the_government-citibank_dance.php

[Connie_Corleone]

5. Why is Tweety listening to this idiot?

Cramer told people to buy Bear Stearns a week before it went belly up. "Bear Stearns is fine! Bear Stearns is not in trouble!"

Case closed.

[Demobrat]

14. He also allowed himself to be used by the interim Wacovia CEO

to pump their stock two weeks before they were sold at fire sale prices.

[TWiley]

6. Cramer has the credibility of a used-shoe salesman

[eleny]

7. Cramer fails to point out how tax cuts *had* t be in the package....

... to satisfy the Republicans. And that those tax cuts sucked the life out of the package.

Now he's got Peter Morici on blaming Dems.

[malaise]

11. Nothing Cramer says matters

Let him scream. Tweety is missing a moment for serious discussions.

[Parker CA]

9. Tweety doesn't look like he has slept in a week. His guests today just yell, yell, yell.

This douche in the bow-tie should have a hammer tied to his shirt collar, complete tool.

[Connie_Corleone]

10. Also, about the stimulus package...

Did these idiots forget that the Democrats had to get 3 Republican Senators to pass the damn bill? The bill was not going to be perfect or big enough. But, it will create jobs, and this idiot Cramer is fussing that NO jobs will be created.

Give me a fucking break!

[Vadem]

12. I know! I'm sitting here cursing, myself! Also Peter Mericci, ....

Econ. Prof at MD U, was on C-Span a couple of times and now he thinks he is loud-mouthed pundit like the rest of them.

Sheesh!:rant:

[eleny]

13. His intro even listed Obama's birthplace as an issue they would discuss today

I want to run screaming.

[rvablue]

17. I saw it. Tweety is so lame. n/t

[spanone]

15. if you're insane enough, you get your own teevee show

[OHdem10]

20. Cramer is smart enough to have made millions and millions on

wall Street.

We cannot just knee-jerk attack people who offer suggestions.
There are many economists who have said the stimulus is too
small. Common Sense tells us the more spent on Infrastructure
the faater we would move out of the problem.

There is some truth to the fact that Geithner is trying to please
the bankers. He cut his teeth in the Wall Street environment. It
is only natural.

Look I am behind Obama 100 %. This does not mean I support him
less when I wonder if things should be bolder.