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Citibank shareholders got diluted, and Citibank paid back for that bailout, with the taxpayers profiting ~12 billion in total. If the money couldn't have been

• jampekka 3y ago
  If the gov wouldn't have bailed out Citibank the shareholders would have been wiped out in the first place. And gov would have gotten it for essentially free if wanted. It was not like they saw that here's a great investment opportunity to make profit for taxpayers.
  • vkou 3y ago
    > If the gov wouldn't have bailed out Citibank the shareholders would have been wiped out in the first place. And also the entire economy would have collapsed, and we'd all be trading ammunition for bottlecaps, instead of merely living through a nasty recession. Which is why they backstopped it. Yes, it would have been cheaper to let Citi fail and nationalize it, but it wouldn't have been cheaper to then have to deal with all the contagion and all the other businesses that would have exploded because of it.