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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: patron_anejo_por_favor who wrote (260835)	7/14/2010 4:13:33 PM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Respond to of 306849

Mortgage applications hit 14 year low: marketwatch.com

To: patron_anejo_por_favor who wrote (260835)	7/14/2010 4:53:11 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Actually we're not "making money on the bailouts", if you include FNM and FRE. Not yet but I bet we will. Nor with GM if you include Ditech. What does Ditech have to do with GM? Geithner has been very cagey (i.e, lying) about this, and it's total crap. They got some of the TARP paid back, mostly from the companies that needed it the least to begin with. BFD, that's not where the problems are gonna be. Furthermore some of the banks "paying it back" are doing so despite very large levels of crap on their balance sheet (that due to the FASB caving on Mark-to-Market, they no longer have to account for in any timely way). The easy money to pay back got paid back, don't expect that to continue. And Fannie/Freddie may well never pay their federal obligations back. FNM/FRE loans may prove to be less toxic as housing conditions improve. However, these are the facts re. TARP as of the end of May, 2010: TARP’s turning point: More money has been paid back than is owed The Troubled Asset Relief Program has reached a significant milestone: The amount of TARP funds paid back to the federal government has surpassed the amount that remains outstanding. Through the end of May, $194 billion in TARP funds had been repaid, compared with $190 billion in TARP funds still owed to the government. The completion of the Treasury Department’s sale of 1.5 billion shares of Citigroup, which provided $6.2 billion in gross proceeds to taxpayers, was the deal that put repayments ahead of outstanding TARP funds. Taxpayers also have received $23 billion from dividends, interest and other income through TARP, the program that was created in 2008 to bail out the financial system, but also has been used to prop up corporations like General Motors and Chrysler. The Treasury estimates TARP will end up costing taxpayers $105 billion, compared with last August’s estimate of $341 billion. “TARP repayments have continued to exceed expectations, substantially reducing the projected cost of this program to taxpayers,” said Herb Allison, Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial stability. “At the beginning of TARP, the financial services industry pledged to repay every dime, nickel and penny of the TARP program in full,” said Steve Bartlett, CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable. “Today, approximately 18 months later, we are making good on the pledge.” The Treasury Department expects a positive return on TARP’s Capital Purchase Program, which provided capital to viable banks of all sizes. But some of the 707 institutions that received this funding are having trouble paying it back. Nearly 100 banks didn’t make quarterly dividend payments that were due last quarter, and 25 of these had missed four payments or more. bizjournals.com