WE'RE GETTING A LITTLE OF IT BACK

In addition to helping to restore the economy, the money we've poured into the financial system is actually turning a profit and a nice one at that in one case.

Citigroup Rescue Earns Three Times as Much as S&P 500 (Update2)
By Michael J. Moore and Jeff Kearns

June 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. taxpayers have reaped a 7.4 percent return on the $45 billion used to rescue Citigroup Inc., almost three times as much as if the money had been invested in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

The government’s $45 billion investment in Bank of America Corp. has been less lucrative. The Charlotte, North Carolina- based company has paid $1.1 billion in dividends on the Treasury’s preferred shares, CEO Kenneth Lewis said yesterday in testimony before the House Oversight Committee in Washington yesterday. That means taxpayers have received 2.5 percent on their $45 billion bailout of the bank through the Troubled Asset Relief Program as of the end of the first quarter.