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Monday, August 31, 2009

How about a shred of good news?

Posted By Max Brantley on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 6:10 AM

Nearly a year after the federal rescue of the nation’s biggest banks, taxpayers have begun seeing profits from the hundreds of billions of dollars in aid that many critics thought might never be seen again.

The profits, collected from eight of the biggest banks that have fully repaid their obligations to the government, come to about $4 billion, or the equivalent of about 15 percent annually, according to calculations compiled for The New York Times.

These early returns are by no means a full accounting of the huge financial rescue undertaken by the federal government last year to stabilize teetering banks and other companies.

The government still faces potentially huge long-term losses from its bailouts of the insurance giant American International Group, the mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the automakers General Motors and Chrysler. The Treasury Department could also take a hit from its guarantees on billions of dollars of toxic mortgages.

But the mere hint of bailout profits for the nearly year-old Troubled Asset Relief Program has been received as a welcome surprise. It has also spurred hopes that the government could soon get out of the banking business.

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Monday, August 31, 2009

How about a shred of good news?

Posted By Max Brantley on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 6:10 AM

From the ArkTimes store

Comments (4)

More by Max Brantley

The open line includes news on police action at Hot Springs demonstrations; troubles for Sen. Jake Files, and an appropriate sendoff for Frnak Broyles, the fomrer Razorback coach and athletic director.

They are assembling for and against white supremacist symbols in Hot Springs today. Photographs by Brian Chilson of the Arkansas Times.

And you thought the Civil War was over. Supercharged by a neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville and Donald Trump's signal of sympathy, the Rebel remnants of America and assorted white supremacists, bigots and garden variety nuts have taken up arms in defense of symbols of the Lost Cause.

Readers also liked…

Over to you.

President Obama today announced commutations of the sentences of 111 federal prisoners, including one from Arkansas.

State Auditor Andrea Lea, who began her tenure in statewide office with a degree of competence unseen in some other Republican counterparts (think Treasurer Dennis Milligan particularly), is becoming more deeply mired in a political scandal.

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Everything that Donald Trump does — make that everything that he says — is calculated to thrill his lustiest disciples. But he is discovering that what was brilliant for a politician is a miscalculation for a president, because it deepens the chasm between him and most Americans.

Watching the Charlottesville spectacle from halfway across the country, I confess that my first instinct was to raillery. Vanilla ISIS, somebody called this mob of would-be Nazis. A parade of love-deprived nerds marching bravely out of their parents' basements carrying tiki torches from Home Depot.