Maybe that will cover a small bit of our national debt, a very, very, small bit. But anything will help I suppose.

I don't think they would have given them the money if they knew full well they would repay it. With interest that's great!

the funny thing is, after we bailed out the banks what did they do? jacked up interest rates, have now people are defaulting on their credit card debt because they can't pay the new rates in time, and are stuck making just interest only payments, For example, on the Daily Show, John Stewart even pointed out that 1 such company (Bank of America) had jacked up their interest rates by over 300% on credit card holders. That's insane and shouldn't be allowed to happen. But as expected the government allowed these companies to run free and didn't have enough oversight to stop things like this. Also again bank of America, this was another story on current awhile ago, refuses to pay back 4million or so, due to the paperwork not being properly signed by the government. That's just pure lunacy.

Hilarious. This is incredibly good news, and all the right wing can do is bitch and politicize it while coming up with NO solutions to the problems we still face.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem, and probably need to fuck off.

Funny that people are mad when the govt bails out these institutions, and then they are mad when the money is paid back with interest. (That's money that goes toward paying off the deficit. That means less money for you and I to have to pay in the end.) It's the same as being mad that you gave someone $5 and they turned around and gave you $7. I can hear it now, "I shouldn't have had to pay you $5 in the first place. :( *whimper." These are the same people that - if we hadn't done the bailouts - would be whining that the govt didn't do anything to prevent the 2nd great depression. You can't win with some people.

You have to love the spin from the MSM who are in Obama's pocket.

Claiming they saw a profit is absolutely hilarious. If I paid 5 people $5, and one person gave me $6 in return, that doesn't mean I made a profit. What about the other 4 people who still have to pay me back their money.

Let's say they did make a profit. Where is that money going? Back into the government coffers so they can waste it on another useless program.

Anything for the statists to defend the illegal Federal Reserve and the government's wasteful spending.

I love paying for bailouts then watching the money go right back to the government. Awesome.

Yup, BIG government, making BIG profits from BIG campaign contributors.
So, where's the (feigned) outrage?

Indeed laugh out loud funny watching the hypocrites profit from what they criticized.

This is hope and change?

"A Congressional oversight panel concluded in February that the Treasury paid an average of 34 percent more than the estimated fair value of the assets it received."

That in itself is disconcerting as the government can't act as a good member of a economic market when all of the members aren't necessarily profit-seeking. This dead-weight loss will be felt on the tax-payers. Hopefully such actions will end up beneficial in the long run, otherwise, the government will merely have wasted (again).

Even though it's preliminary, it's still better than expected. I'm just happy to know that the government's hands are steadily creeping back out of the system. I'm also glad it worked and will be using this information against anyone who says the government shouldn't have stepped into the system or were trying to permanently take it over (wack-o's). It's obvious it was needed and evident that it was correct. Now let's just be hopeful for the rest of the banks and auto industry. And also, does anyone know how much the total amount is that we spent bailing out the auto-industry? I'm wondering right now what the net would be if we completely lost that investment (which i'm hoping and almost positive we haven't) after the $4B gain.

Only 1/3?

I personally think there is a bigger problem. Half of these companies needed bailout money because they are crappy companies. We are capitalists only when we are winning and when we are losing.... well we give our gimp car companies and banks all the money they need to keep doing the same shitty job.

This may be working.... it better be with all the money they spent... but it didn't fix the problem. Ford, GM and Chevy are all still making overpriced shit. We will have a worse economic downturn when this money runs out. I hope I'm wrong but you just can't create money from thin air and then expect everything to go along as it was.

We will all be paying for this in the form of tax increases in the future. Also, inflation in the US over the next 10 years will be unreal. We need to stop being so shortsighted and stop rewarding failure. It's OK to tell someone they did a shitty job if it's shitty.

I can't remember, is japan in the same recession that was called the "lost decade" or is this a new recession they're in? maybe we'll only have to call it a "lost year or two"

here's hopin