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Geithner forces Citi to cancel jet order

19 points| condor | 17 years ago |ft.com | reply

28 comments

order
[+] pragmatic|17 years ago|reply
Anybody else see a problem with 1) the government propping up companies that should be reorganized by bankruptcy 2) taking over these zombie corporations like head crabs 3) and then interfering in all kinds of business decisions?

Air travel post 9-11 is ridiculous in this country. How Citi spends Citi's money is between Citi and Citi's shareholders. Except when the government intervenes.

Now we have a giant mess. Now every interference can be made in the "public interest." Why do employees get free coffee? Why do employees get gym memberships. What about education reimbursement?

What is in the "public interest" now?

[+] jfornear|17 years ago|reply
I agree 100%, but supposedly the sky would have fallen if these companies would have gone bankrupt? (I have yet to be convinced of this)
[+] ckinnan|17 years ago|reply
It is far more offensive that Citi is still using tax dollars to pay its shareholder dividend.
[+] Dilpil|17 years ago|reply
This is why the terms should have been decided before, rather than after these loans were given.
[+] aaronblohowiak|17 years ago|reply
Can you please provide some documentation for that? I'd be really interested in learning more!
[+] dockd|17 years ago|reply
Why must the shareholder get stuck holding the bag? It's not like they get special inside knowledge or treatment. We're punishing the people who bought Citi's story instead of the ones who ran it into the ground?
[+] gcheong|17 years ago|reply
"That money should be used to lend to consumers to get the economy moving again"

Maybe the problem was they didn't write that on the back of the check when they made the deposit.

[+] gills|17 years ago|reply
Maybe the problem is that Americans are already bursting at the seams from too much debt and no matter how far you stuff that firehose down the pig's throat it just can't hold any more.

So no matter how much CONgress wants the banks to lend, it just doesn't help.

[+] Gibbon|17 years ago|reply
Looks like they were going to buy a Dassault Falcon. I wonder how these kinds of decisions will affect Aerospatiale/Dassault? It's not like they make a lot of them.. last year they made eight Falcons per month. They've already fired all their temps and cut back on subcontractors hours.

It just goes to show, you can't win for losing. One more notch in the economic death spiral.

[+] cabalamat|17 years ago|reply
While they're at it, make them fly economy class.
[+] DanielBMarkham|17 years ago|reply
As a taxpayer, I'm glad they canceled the order -- if it made business sense to do so. If it was just to look good (and they end up spending more money without the jet) then double bad on them.

As a pilot? A Falcon 6X? 5950 nautical mile range? 3 engines? Complete glass cockpit with lots of standby gear? Have you seen that cabin size? The possible configurations? Anybody like to have a private ride you could pick up in DC and get off in, say, Milan?

What were we talking about again?

[+] gojomo|17 years ago|reply
Don't jet companies deserve 'stimulus' too?
[+] amobilebiz|17 years ago|reply
While the theory of your comment makes complete sense to me, I do have a problem with French (and no offense to the French people here) companies getting my tax dollars. Last I checked (and I could be wrong) Aerospatiale-Dassault was a French company. If U.S. companies are going to be buying corporate jets with my tax dollars I would much rather they buy them from U.S. companies.