Secret $301 Billion bailout of Citi: Obama admin refuses to reveal info

[MannyGoldstein]

Secret $301 Billion bailout of Citigroup. Treasury refuses to discuss:

The late Bloomberg News reporter Mark Pittman asked the U.S. Treasury in January 2009 to identify $301 billion of securities owned by Citigroup Inc. that the government had agreed to guarantee. He made the request on the grounds that taxpayers ought to know how their money was being used.

More than 20 months later, after saying at least five times that a response was imminent, Treasury officials responded with 560 pages of printed-out e-mails -- none of which Pittman requested. They were so heavily redacted that most of what’s left are everyday messages such as “Did you just try to call me?” and “Monday will be a busy day!”

None of the documents answers Pittman’s request for “records sufficient to show the names of the relevant securities” or the dates and terms of the guarantees. Even so, the U.S. government considers the collection of e-mails a partial response to an official request under the federal Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA. The Justice Department in July cited an increase in such responses as evidence that “more information is being released” under the law.

...

In the 560 pages of e-mails exchanged in the last two months of 2008 and January 2009, Treasury employees and their colleagues at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York discuss with attorneys the department’s $20 billion investment in New York- based Citigroup and the $301 billion in guarantees. Both followed an initial $25 billion investment in Citigroup through the Troubled Asset Relief Program in October 2008.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/63975218/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-25/u-s-treasury-shielding-of-citigroup-with-deletions-make-foia-meaningless.html

So $45 Billion of our money has been loaned to Citi, but only $25 Billion was part of TARP: who wants to bet that the $20 Billion was used to pay back the TARP $25 Billion so that TARP looked like it was getting paid back? And our cash is guaranteeing $301 Billion in Citi's toxic assets, assets which Treasury won't identify - but we're on the hook for them. Marvelous!

Seems to me that when the bankers get in trouble, they're bailed out in days. The rest of us? "Change is hard... change takes time... big hole to dig out of..."

Some may blame the Silly Impractical Left for everything: but I believe that this story brilliantly demonstrates why we're probably not picking up seats in Congress next week.