citi takes gov't money and says screw the public

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/ The Wall Street Journal reports: Executives at the New York company plan to narrow the focus of Citigroup's U.S. branch network to six major metropolitan areas, according to people familiar with the situation. Citigroup also will limit its overall consumer lending in the U.S. primarily to credit cards and "jumbo" mortgages, while catering largely to affluent... [more]

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/ The Wall Street Journal reports: Executives at the New York company plan to narrow the focus of Citigroup's U.S. branch network to six major metropolitan areas, according to people familiar with the situation. Citigroup also will limit its overall consumer lending in the U.S. primarily to credit cards and "jumbo" mortgages, while catering largely to affluent customers But as William K. Black - senior regulator during the S&L crisis, professor of Economics and Law, and an expert on white collar financial crime - says, the banks intentionally made loans to people who are uncreditworthy, because they’ll agree to pay you more, and that’s how you grow rapidly. You can grow really fast if you loan to people who can’t you pay you back. This combination guarantees stratospheric initial profits during the expansion phase of the bubble. But it guarantees a catastrophic subsequent failure when the bubble loses steam. And collectively - if a lot of companies are playing this game - it produces extraordinary losses (more than all other forms of property crime combined), and a crash. In other words, the companies intentionally make loans to people who will not be able to repay them, because - during an expanding bubble phase - they'll make huge sums of money. The top executives of these companies will make massive salaries and bonuses during the bubble (enough to live like kings even even if the companies go belly up after the bubble phase). In other words, Citi made money hand-over-fast during the expansionary phase of the bubble by making unsound loans, then took billions in taxpayer bailouts when the bubble burst, and is now shifting to loaning only to the wealthy - leaving the average American without access to credit. [less]