Goldman Sachs to return bailout funds.

[Occam Bandage]

Six months after accepting a financial lifeline from Washington, a newly profitable Goldman Sachs is pushing to return the billions of taxpayer dollars that it received in an effort to extricate itself from heightened government control.

Goldman, which rode out the final, tumultuous months of 2008 with the help of a federal rescue, reported strong quarterly profits on Monday and said that it would seek to raise money in the capital markets to repay the government.

If successful, Goldman would become the first major bank to return funds received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Such a step would probably enable Goldman — long one of the most lucrative places to work on Wall Street — to free itself from government-imposed restrictions on compensation.

Many analysts welcomed the news as the latest in a series of signs that the financial industry is stabilizing.

(More at link)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/business/15goldman.html

This is a heartening sign.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Ted Williams would be proud. He returned some of his salary after a bad year.

[RB TexLa]

2. Didn't another bank try to do this and the government told them no?

[Occam Bandage]

9. Four banks have done so already.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/business/01bank.html

[RB TexLa]

10. I knew those did. I should have said major or large banks. I think there was one they said no

but it could have been no to the way they wanted to pay the money back.

[marketcrazy1]

3. they want to keep their bonuses

and keep the governments nose out of their books.. I wonder if they have sold any FDIC guarantied bonds? if so will they drop the guaranty or pay for the insurance? --- edited: I just read that they did sell FDIC backed bonds and will sell more as "the spreads are quite attractive" and the program is separate from TARP......

[Occam Bandage]

5. Yep. That's the goal of those restrictions. Sounds like Obama's plan is working. nt

[TorchTheWitch]

7. exactly so

I doubt that they ever needed the money at all.

[ixion]

4. does that include that money from AIG?

probably not. That's a large part of what they're calling "profit"

[RB TexLa]

11. Why would money received from CDS and or derivatives not be considered profit?

[ixion]

13. because without taxpayer dollars, there would have been no payoff

hence no 'profit'

[RB TexLa]

15. But there was. Where it came from doesn't mean it doesn't exist

That's like saying deposits from employees working on projects from the stimulus bill shouldn't be considered in profits.

[SidDithers]

6. Hope they're paying interest on those funds...nt

Sid

[Occam Bandage]

8. The previous four banks who repaid the loans paid 5% interest. nt

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/business/01bank.html

[Donnachaidh]

14. that's laughable considering what they charge their customers

They should be paying double digit interest, just like the rest of the citizenry.

[Occam Bandage]

12. kick.

[depakid]

16. Seeing as how there's not yet been transparency or accountability in the process

there's no real way to know what the deal is here. So color me skeptical.

As anyone who knows this firm's ties to this and previous administrations should be.

And the more I think about it, the more the more I smell a rat.

My bet is that there's more to this story than we're hearing about at the moment....