United States:
“It was Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, then head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who insisted that the nationalized insurance company AIG pay its debts at 100 cents on dollar — which meant that tens of billions in US taxpayer money flowed through AIG into the coffers of big US and European banks.
“AIG paid $12.9 billion of taxpayer money to Goldman Sachs — and now, Goldman is set to pay out around $22 billion in bonuses …
“So far, the U.S. government has loaned or guaranteed up to $13 trillion to financial institutions and other businesses — a figure nearly the size of the entire annual economic output of the U.S.”
— January 19 US Socialistworker.com article, “Laughing all the way to the bank”.
Britain:
“[In November, 2009] it was revealed that the Bank of England had advanced £61.6 billion of our money to two banks, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and HBOS, last autumn.
“Bank governor Mervyn King explained to a committee of MPs that it had been necessary to send out a convoy of dumper-trucks filled with £50 notes to refill the coffers of the two busted banks so as to ‘prevent a loss of confidence spreading through the financial system as a whole’.”
— November 26 Belfast Telegraph article by Eamonn McCann.
After bail-out, profits soar
“Profit at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. nearly doubled to US$8.4 billion during the first nine months of 2009 from the previous year's level, and analysts expect its full year profits to top US$10 billion.
“Goldman set aside US$16.71 billion from January through September for compensation, which includes salaries, bonuses and associated costs such as benefits and payroll taxes. That puts it on pace to meet the record US$20.2 billion in compensation costs it had for all of 2007.”
— January 21 eTaiwannews.com article.
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