When is enough, enough!!

I was surprised that the Treasury Department bailed out Citigroup by lending $25 billion dollars. "Even so, taxpayers are now on the hook for nearly $250 billion of potential losses in the $306 billion portfolio, including commercial real estate loans, leveraged loans, and other assets representing 15 percent of Citigroup's $2.05 trillion balance sheet."  

Just in case anyone was wondering were our "taxpayer" dollars for the $700 billion bailout has gone, I have provided a link.  Now they are stating that the first bailout might not have been enough, and now we might need an additional $1 trillion bailout.

I have been against the bailout from day one because The Federal Government is sending a wrong message to Corporate America. They are basically stating that a company can grow as much as it wants, go global, trade on the NYSE or NASD, and don't worry about what will happen if you go out-of-business, the Treasury department will be there to bail you out. Why should taxpayer's be held accountable for mismanagement? Management is only concerned about making a profit and keeping there millions of dollars in pay, bonuses and stock options. I say, let the companies continue business as usual, and let the markets work themselves out.

The main purpose of the Treasury is for Monetary Policy and to help banks from failing. But has the United States become so greedy that we are willing to overlook risk analysis?

I understand that the Treasury has helped AIG and Citigroup, but why not help Fannie Mae, Washington Mutual, Freddie Mac or Lehman? Was the SEC auditing every major corporation's financial statements line by line? Why would Henry Paulson, with his extensive knowledge deny the beginning failure of the subprime lending market since early 2007?

And now that the bailout has been passed, many CFO's have doubts.  I think the market and economy will definitely start to improve in late 2009 into mid 2010.