Now who here thinks credit cards are just too big to fail or that the U.S. taxpayer should be supplementing companies who charge rates and fees which are akin to loan sharking?
Yet, without even a whimper, American Express just hauled in $3.39 Billion of taxpayer dollars in exchange for preferred shares.
American Express joins more than 190 regional banks, commercial lenders, insurers and card issuers seeking at least $75 billion from the second phase of the Treasury’s bailout program for financial firms. Rival Capital One Financial Corp. has preliminary approval for $3.6 billion from the U.S. and Discover Financial Services asked for $1.2 billion.
Note who is in there, one of the worse credit card companies of all time, Capital One and they are approved for $3.6 billion!
American Express Co. won Federal Reserve approval to convert to a commercial bank, gaining access to funds as credit losses build and sales of asset-backed bonds plummet.
The Fed waived a 30-day waiting period on the application ``in light of the unusual and exigent circumstances affecting the financial markets,'' according to a statement released today in Washington. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues unanimously voted for the action.
So American express is already to line up to the discount window and who wants to bet bail out money is sure to follow?
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