Fred (fmoseley) wrote: > It is ridiculous what the government is doing > now giving money to banks one way or the other, > and then begging them to please lend this money > to businesses and households.
Honest question (not challenging what Fred says here): Where is the evidence that the government is just handing out money to the banks? When I go here (http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/eesa/transactions.shtml), I just see that Treasury is purchasing at par value a lot of preferred stock with warrants (call options) from different banks. Isn't the par value skewed in favor of the banks, i.e. below market value were these assets traded in markets? I don't know. Who knows? That's what my question is about. Typically, newly issued preferred stock gets traded at par value. Nothing strange about that. Preferred stock, a hybrid between common stock and debt, determines its dividends as a percentage of par value of preferred stock. And, unlike common-stock dividends, preferred-stock dividends are almost as stable and safe as debt coupon payments. Treasury is sticking them with 5%-on-par-value dividends and a myriad legal constraints. The legal fineprint is here (http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/eesa/docs/application-guidelines.pdf). So, again, is anybody scrutinizing these numbers or we are just going by what we suspect is going on? Not that I'm not inclined to suspect this way myself, but if Treasury is handing out money to these banks by overpaying for their preferred stock (with warrants), why aren't all other banks up in arms? _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
