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Banks returning TARP money

Bill Sullivan — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:16:39 +0000

On June 9, the federal government announced that it would allow 10 of the nation’s largest financial institutions to repay $68 billion in bailout money they had received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The move frees them from federal restrictions including limits on executive pay, dividend increases, and spending on corporate jets, conferences and retreats.

Here’s a list of the institutions who returned the money:

1. Goldman Sachs
2. J.P. Morgan Chase
3. Morgan Stanley
4. U.S. Bancorp
5. BB&T Corp.
6. American Express Co.
7. Capital One Financial Corp.
8. Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
9. State Street Corp.
10. Northern Trust Corp.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Top companies 2009

Bill Sullivan — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:29:17 +0000

While it may seem that the sky is falling and that there is no place to hide, not every segment of the American economy is in full meltdown phase.

Fortune has put together its list of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in 2009. Some are familiar, others are a bit more obscure, but all seem to be in position to weather the year’s expected economic storms.

Here’s the Top 10:

1. NetApp

2. Edward Jones

3. Boston Consulting Group

4. Google

5. Wegmans Food Markets

6. Cisco Systems

7. Genentech

8. Methodist Hospital System

9. Goldman Sachs

10. Nugget Market

What makes these such good places to work in a faltering economy? Visit Fortune to get more details and see the rest of the list.

Worst Jim Cramer predictions

Bill Sullivan — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:28:25 +0000

As 2007 gave way to 2008, bombastic Wall Street analyst Jim Cramer peered into his crystal ball and offered some predictions for the financial markets in 2008.

Co-founder of TheStreet.com and star of Mad Money on CNBC, Cramer is never shy with an opinion. That doesn’t mean he is always right. Of the 10 prognostications he offered for the current year, a few have proved to be somewhat off the mark.

For instance:

1. Goldman Sachs makes more money than every other brokerage firm in New York combined and finishes the year at $300 a share. (On Sept. 21, Goldman and Morgan Stanley, the last major American investment banks, asked the Federal Reserve to change their status to bank holding companies. By early November, Goldman’s stock had slumped to about $70 per share.)

2. Oil goes much higher, maybe as much as $125 a barrel. (Yes and no. In July, oil peaked at about $147 per barrel. The subsequent economic downturn cut that price in half.)

6. (Google) stock roars to $1,000. I like Google enough to put this one at 7 to 1. If you use an $800 target, make it 5 to 2. (Google stock dropped nearly $400 a share between Jan. 2 and Nov. 11, struggling to stay above the $300 mark.)

7. European companies, eyeing the weak dollar, snap up New York real estate, and offer to buy Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan. ( Bank of America bought a failing Merrill Lynch, while JPMorgan snatched up Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual at fire sale prices.)

9. The New York Times…stock drops to $10. To save the world’s greatest newspaper, the company accepts a buyout offer from Mayor Michael Bloomberg at $20 a share. (No sale just yet, but Times stock dipped below $9 a share in the first part of November. Then again, picking against a newspaper these days isn’t much of a gamble.)

Biggest Corporate Bailouts

Cyndi Hughes — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:36:15 +0000

The Treasury Department’s bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac thas an estimated price tag of that could be as high as $200 billion, expected to be the biggest such takeover in history. BusinessWeek assembled a list of some of the biggest corporate and national bailouts in history, going back to J. P. Morgan (right). Here’s the list, from most recent to oldest:

AIG, Sept. 17, 2008: $85 billion guaranteed by the Federal Reserve.

Bear Stearns, Mar. 16, 2008: $29 billion guaranteed by the Federal Reserve

MBIA, Dec. 10, 2007: $1 billion from private equity fund Warburg Pincus

UBS, Dec. 10, 2007: $11.5 billion from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, along with an unnamed Middle Eastern investor

E*Trade Financial, Nov. 29, 2007: $2.55 billion from Citadel Investment Group

Citigroup, Nov. 26, 2007: $7.5 billion from Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund

Countrywide Financial, Aug. 22, 2007: $2 billion from Bank of America

Goldman Sachs Hedge Fund, Aug. 13, 2007: $3 billion from Goldman Sachs and investors including C.V. Starr & Co. and Eli Broad

U.S. Domestic Airlines, September 2001: $15 billion from the U.S. government

Russia, 1998: $17 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund

Long Term Capital Management, 1998: $3.6 billion from various Wall Street firms

Apple, August 1997: $150 million from rival Microsoft

Mexico, 1995: $50 billion in loans ($20 billion from the U.S. and more than $30 billion from the International Monetary Fund, Europe, private banks, and other trading partners)

Salomon Brothers, 1987: $700 million from Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway

Various U.S. Savings and Loans, 1986-1995: $124 billion from the FDIC

Continental Illinois, 1984: $1 billion in capital from the FDIC, which also guaranteed the bank’s $30 billion in uninsured deposits and assumed $3.5 billion of the company’s debt

Chrysler, January 1980: $1.5 billion in loans from the U.S. government

City of New York, 1975: $150 million from the New York City Teachers’ Union plus refinancing $3 billion of its debt

Lockheed Aircraft, 1971: $250 million in loan guarantees from Congress

New York City Trusts, 1907: $50 million ($30 million from John Pierpont Morgan, along with other bankers and $25 million from the U.S. Treasury)

For more details on each bailout, see Business Week’s “Corporate Bailouts Through History” slideshow.

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