Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on TwitterBe a Facebook FanTumble us!

07 Dec 2010 23:14

tags

Biz: Did we really profit off Citi, or are we still in the danger zone?

  • So assuming that the banking sector doesn’t suffer another crisis in the next two years, taxpayers might be okay after all. Indeed, even if there is some loss on these guarantees, the assets would have to be pretty rotten to eat up the government’s entire $12 billion profit on the equity sale.
  • The Atlantic associate editor Daniel Indiviglio • Offering some more context on the Citi bailout numbers. While the U.S. no longer owns any shares in Citi, we do have other stakes in the company – most notably, we’re still backing a lot of their debt right now due to a program called the “Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program,” which isn’t as easy to acronym as TARP. But by the end of 2012 at the latest, we’ll be off the hook for that. Still, though, the fact that we might make any money off of TARP is impressive. “Citi was viewed by many as the big bank with the most serious problems,” Indiviglio notes, suggesting that the profit would prove that their bailout in 2008 was warranted by panic and general FUD, not “too big to fail”-type concerns.  source

04 Aug 2010 09:55

tags

Biz: AOL has another big loss, caused by a “goodwill charge” this time

  • $1.06
    billion
    the size of AOL’s quarterly loss, caused partly by declining advertising and partly due to a “goodwill charge”
  • $1.4
    billion
    the size of that “goodwill charge,” partly due to selling Bebo for pennies on the dollar source

27 Apr 2010 10:45

tags

Biz: Ford kicking butt, taking names, selling Tauruses this quarter

  • $2.1B the size of Ford’s profit
    in the current quarter; that makes a whole year of profit for them
  • 2005 the last time the bailout-free company
    had four straight quarters of big profits
  • 96% the increase in sales the company’s revamped Ford Taurus has seen this quarter source

16 Apr 2010 10:55

tags

Biz: Bank of America bounces back into the win column

  • $3.2
    billion
    the company’s profit in the current quarter, helped by a good quarter for controversial acquisition Merrill Lynch
  • $2.2
    billion
    the company’s loss throughout all of 2009 – the credit crisis and Merrill Lynch buyout were blamed source

04 Feb 2010 10:55

tags

Biz: Toyota made a profit last quarter, one to be eaten up by the recalls

  • $900
    million
    the size of Toyota’s profit in the final three months of last year
  • $2
    billion
    the expected cost of all the recalls for faulty gas pedals source

08 Aug 2009 11:43

tags

Biz: Tesla Motors is looking kinda profitable these days

After spending years as a company where its ambitions meant big losses, Tesla Motors finally turned a $1 million profit. Modest, but a good start. source

07 Aug 2009 10:02

tags

Biz, U.S.: More proof the economy’s improving: Even AIG made a profit

  • $1.8 billion amount the company made last quarter after seeing the light at the end of the tunnel source
 

17 Jul 2009 14:39

tags

Biz: Another bank with big profits: Citigroup can credit fortunate math

  • $4.3 billion size of Citi’s second-quarter profit – no profit was expected for the company at all source

02 May 2009 10:48

tags

Biz, U.S.: Warren Buffett hasn’t seen the economic revcovery yet

  • There’s no signs of any real bounce at all in anything to do with housing, retailing, all that sort of thing. You never know for sure, even if there’s a leveling off, which way the next move will be.
  • Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett • On the housing market’s lack of improvement since the recession took hold. Berkshire Hathaway, by the way, has suffered pretty heavily, too in the wake of the economic meltdown. • source

17 Apr 2009 10:03

tags

Biz: Citi is back to making profits, but is it sustainable?

  • $1.6 billion Citi’s profits this quarter after over a year of losses and getting bailed out three times by the federal government source