Top 15 US Government Bailouts

15. Lockheed (1971) $1.4 billion
In August 1971, Congress passed the Emergency Loan Guarantee Act, which could provide funds to any major business enterprise in crisis. Lockheed was the first recipient. Its failure would have meant significant job loss in California, a loss to the GNP and an impact on national defense.

14. Penn Central Railroad (1970) $3.2 billion
In May 1970, Penn Central Railroad, then on the verge of bankruptcy, appealed to the Federal Reserve for aid on the grounds that it provided crucial national defense transportation services. The Nixon administration and the Federal Reserve supported providing financial assistance to Penn Central, but Congress refused to adopt the measure. Penn Central declared bankruptcy on June 21, 1970, which freed the corporation from its commercial paper obligations. To counteract the devastating ripple effects to the money market, the Federal Reserve Board told commercial banks it would provide the reserves needed to allow them to meet the credit needs of their customers.

13. Chrysler (1980) $4.0 billion
In 1979 Chrysler suffered a loss of $1.1 billion. That year the corporation requested aid from the government. In 1980 the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act was passed, which provided $1.5 billion in loans to rescue Chrysler from insolvency. In addition, the government's aid was to be matched by U.S. and foreign banks.

12. Franklin National Bank (1974) $7.8 billion
In the first five months of 1974 the bank lost $63.6 million. The Federal Reserve stepped in with a loan of $1.75 billion.

11. New York City (1975) $9.4 billion
During the 1970s, New York City became over-extended and entered a period of financial crisis. In 1975 President Ford signed the New York City Seasonal Financing Act, which released $2.3 billion in loans to the city.

10. Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company (1984) $9.5 billion
Then the nation's eighth largest bank, Continental Illinois had suffered significant losses after purchasing $1 billion in energy loans from the failed Penn Square Bank of Oklahoma. The FDIC and Federal Reserve devised a plan to rescue the bank that included replacing the bank's top executives.

9. Airline Industry (2001) $18.6 billion
The terrorist attacks of September 11 crippled an already financially troubled industry. To bail out the airlines, President Bush signed into law the Air Transportation Safety and Stabilization Act, which compensated airlines for the mandatory grounding of aircraft after the attacks. The act released $5 billion in compensation and an additional $10 billion in loan guarantees or other federal credit instruments.

8. Auto Industry (2008) $25 billion
In late September 2008, Congress approved a more than $630 billion spending bill, which included a measure for $25 billion in loans to the auto industry. These low-interest loans are intended to aid the industry in its push to build more fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly vehicles. The Detroit 3 -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- will be the primary beneficiaries.

7. Bear Stearns (2008) $30 billion
JP Morgan Chase and the federal government bailed out Bear Stearns when the financial giant neared collapse. JP Morgan purchased Bear Stearns for $236 million; the Federal Reserve provided a $30 billion credit line to ensure the sale could move forward.

6.Bank of America (2009) $142.2 billion
Bank of America has received $45 billion through the TARP, which includes $10 billion originally meant for Merrill Lynch. (That $45 billion is also included in the TARP total.) In addition, the government has made guarantees to limit losses from a $118 billion pool of troubled assets. In addition to the Treasury's $7.5 billion commitment, the FDIC has committed $2.5 billion and the Federal Reserve up to $87.2 billion.

5. American International Group (2008) $180 billion
On four separate occasions, the government has offered aid to AIG to keep it from collapsing, rising from an initial $85 billion credit line from the Federal Reserve to a combined $180 billion effort between the Treasury ($70 billion) and Fed ($110 billion). ($40 billion of the Treasury’s commitment is also included in the TARP total.)

4. Citigroup (2008) $280 billion
Citigroup received a $25 billion investment through the TARP in October and another $20 billion in November. (That $45 billion is also included in the TARP total.) Additional aid has come in the form of government guarantees to limit losses from a $301 billion pool of toxic assets. In addition to the Treasury's $5 billion commitment, the FDIC has committed $10 billion and the Federal Reserve up to about $220 billion.

3. Savings & Loan (1989) $293.3 billion
After the widespread failure of savings and loan institutions, President George H. W. Bush signed and Congress enacted the Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act in 1989.

2. Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac (2008) $400 billion
On Sep. 7, 2008, Fannie and Freddie were essentially nationalized: placed under the conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Under the terms of the rescue, the Treasury has invested billions to cover the companies' losses. Initially, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson put a ceiling of $100 billion for investments in each company. In February, Tim Geithner raised it to $200 billion. The money was authorized by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

1. Troubled Asset Relief Program (2008) $700 billion
In October 2008, Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which authorized the Treasury Department to spend $700 billion to combat the financial crisis. Treasury has been doling out the money via an alphabet soup of different programs. Here’s our running tally of companies getting TARP funds.


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Total= $2,104,400,000,000

Over half of this being in 2008. Was this money put to good use, what do you think?


ref:
www.investopedia.com...
www.propublica.org...
en.wikipedia.org...

Welfare checks is the biggest human bailout.It is really discrimination to give some people checks and not all.

Originally posted by brindle
Welfare checks is the biggest human bailout.It is really discrimination to give some people checks and not all.

Are you sure about that? For 2011

US government pensions are at 793.2 billion.

Health Care 882.0 billion

Education 129.8 billion

Defense 903.2 billion

Welfare 482.0 billion, which includes, Family and children, Unemployment, Unemployment trust, Workers compensation, Housing, Social exclusion n.e.c., R&D Social protection and Social protection n.e.c.

www.usgovernmentspending.com...

I don't agree with the idea of "bailouts", unless they are done openly with full disclosure to the public and the group/corporation getting a bailout has to pay it back with INTEREST with a time limit of when that loan has to be paid back, just like the rest of us who end up getting loans.

Harm None
Peace

reply to post by brindle


citigroup alone ate up 280 billion in 2008.

I might be wrong, but I don't believe that the welfare programs ate up more than the big bank bailout did in that year...

9. Airline Industry (2001) $18.6 billion
The terrorist attacks of September 11 crippled an already financially troubled industry. To bail out the airlines, President Bush signed into law the Air Transportation Safety and Stabilization Act, which compensated airlines for the mandatory grounding of aircraft after the attacks. The act released $5 billion in compensation and an additional $10 billion in loan guarantees or other federal credit instruments.

I don't know all the details behind this one, but it might possibly be the only legitimate or semi-legitimate one in the list. The other 14 were, as another poster said, 'welfare cheques'. Compensating airlines for grounding their planes on 9/11 does make sense, as that wasn't the airlines' fault.

reply to post by Blundo


You are omitting the largest bailout in US history and that is the bailout of the poor in society. Since inception, $9 trillion has been spent on poverty programs and poverty has not been reduced and by most measures the quality of life of the poor and most certainly the communities in which they live has degraded substantially.

In the case of the bailouts you list, most of those entities have repaid back the money given them, if not outright, then through the payment of taxes, mostly on the corporate level. In addition, the taxes received by the government payed by the employees of those companies over time has been significant. When you factor in the taxes paid by suppliers, inclusive of employees, such as in the case of Lockheed, the bailout was a decent investment.

Contrast that to the spending on welfare, where nothing but a deepening of poverty and a distingration of the families receiving it has occurred and clearly those programs have failed. In many cases, the devaluing of work have led to a "bailout" of the unproductive in society. Certainly in many cases it has been a necessary safety net for those who ultimately would not be able to maintain a reasonable existance absent support, but there is no question that the vast majority of welfare spending has been a bailout of the unproductive.

Were any of these bialouts necessary? No, but clearly from a pure investment perspective over time they have been reasonable investments. Bailing out those who make conscious, poor decisions by contrast has shown itself to be a disaster.

Counties and governments are always bailing out these massive companies. The Koreans bailed out the conglomerates in the 90's.

reply to post by dolphinfan
hate to tell ya this, but the welfare has also been a bailout to corporate america also!! since well, there are, I know you will disagree, but that doesn't change the truth...alot of working people out there that are having their incomes subisdized by these programs.....
so, if the programs weren't there, one of two things would have had to have happen, either those workers would have had to have been paid more to consume their necessities, along with a few non-essentials, or the companies would have had to bring down the price for their goods, to accomodate the fact that the people didn't have the money to buy them!!!

and, well, hope you aren't including social security into that mix, since that has been a plus for the gov't's budget sheet for much longer than it has been a negative (it only became a negative in the last year or so!)