Report: Wife Scratched Tiger Woods' Face, Chased His SUV; Update: Police Unable To Interview Couple Today
Senate Report: Bush Missed Chance To Catch Bin Laden
Bloomberg Spent $102 Million On Campaign
Two Doors Fall Off AirTrain At JFK
Dogs Rescued From Puppy Mills And Shelters Arrive In L.I.
Feel better, American taxpayers: Citigroup, which received $45 billion in bailout money, has reported a first quarter profit of $1.6 billion. However, Dealbook reports, "The earnings were helped by an accounting change that allowed the bank to post a one-time gain of $2.5 billion... Under the rule, companies are allowed to record any declines in the market value of their debt as an unrealized gain." ( You may remember that besides a $20 billion infusion from the government in November, it was only in February when the U.S. increased its stake in Citi to about 36%.) Some analysts are still worried about the financial firm's ability to retain top executives as well as their credit-default swaps. Citi's stock is up in pre-market trading.
Citigroup Reports 1st Quarter Profit
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebookComments (7) [rss]
Post a comment (Comment Policy)
Tips
Newsmap
Contribute
Latest Tip:
if you can download firefox at work and then use adblock.
[more]
JP Morgan did well too. I think this may be the turning point in the recession. That's not to say that many more people won't be laid off of course. Retail is doing better than expected as well. I think because 92% of us have jobs and have decent paying jobs, we're spending a little more. Now with the tax refunds coming in, i think 2Q will see better profits as well. That's just my non professional opinion tho :)
While overall I share your optimism, there are still several elephants in the room. It's still not clear what's going to happen to domestic automakers. The moratorium on foreclosures has ended and there is a coming rise in foreclosures. I'd imagine this will act as a continued brake on housing prices (which may not necessarily be a bad thing, I suppose).
In my mind, it seems as if a lot of people's buying/spending philosophy has been fundamentally altered. Since the economy of the 2000s was based a lot on spending money you didn't have and buying things you didn't really need, it's unclear how the economy will truly recover if people limit themselves going forward.
Since the economy of the 2000s was based a lot on spending money you didn't have and buying things you didn't really need,
I wish things would go back to the frugal ways of the 1990s and 1980s. Yeah, I'm being sarcastic.
"Some analysts are still worried about the financial firm's ability to retain top executives."
Where do these top executives think they are going to go?
it's probably from all that shake shack vending going on at Citi Field
Actually if you bypass all the accounting bullshit tricks, this scum bums actually have a loss of .9 billion.
"The earnings were helped by an accounting change that allowed the bank to post a one-time gain of $2.5 billion... Under the rule, companies are allowed to record any declines in the market value of their debt as an unrealized gain."
This is the key part of this story. What a shock that another bank posted a profit after we allowed them to book bad assets at an imaginary higher value.