The Media Continue to Ignore Welfare for Citi Shareholders

[Wetzelbill]

This is from Dean Baker's blog on economic reporting, I highly recommend it. -WB

The Media Continue to Ignore Welfare for Citi Shareholders

The NYT piece on bailout III for Citigroup looks like it was written by Citi's lobbyists. The piece never once points out that the government has handed tens of billions to Citigroup for almost nothing. Let me say that about six more times: the NYT article on the latest Citi bailout never once points out that the government has handed tens of billions to Citigroup for almost nothing. The NYT article on the latest Citi bailout never once points out that the government has handed tens of billions to Citigroup for almost nothing. The NYT article on the latest Citi bailout never once points out that the government has handed tens of billions to Citigroup for almost nothing.I suppose tens of billions for Citi doesn't deserve as much attention as $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts or $25 million for the Smithsonian.

The article even includes a bizarre statement to discourage those who oppose welfare for the super-rich: "Nationalizing Citigroup outright would be a huge challenge, given the company’s size and international sweep. In countries like Mexico, for instance, a state-controlled bank might run afoul of local ownership regulations."

This could almost be a line in a comedy routine -- Mexico is going to keep the United States from putting a bankrupt bank in receivership. It's too bad that the NYT didn't identify anyone who made such a statement, we all could ridicule this person until they faded from public life.

It's time that the media stopped covering up for Wall Street. The issue is not "nationalization," the issue is a bankruptcy type receivership for insolvent banks. It is absurd to pretend that this is prevented by trade agreements or anything other than the power of the shareholders and executives who run these banks.

--Dean Baker

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press_archive?month=02&year=2009&base_name=the_media_continue_to_ignore_w

[exboyfil]

1. We have already loaned them 4 times their current market

capitalization. Even with our money we could have bought them four times. Don't even get started with AIG - we could have bought them over 100 times.

We are out of our freaking minds.

[Wetzelbill]

2. I didn't realize it was that much

Wow, that is just crazy.