Fire and Knowledge

Remember the bailouts? Well the government just made $12 billion from bailing out Citigroup:

Taxpayers scored a $12 billion bonus as the government washed its hands of one of its biggest bailouts, Citigroup.

The Treasury Department said Monday afternoon it planned to sell 2.4 billion Citi shares in an underwritten offering. Treasury said later in the evening that the offering was priced at $4.35 a share — giving the government a $12 billion profit on its $45 billion Citi bailout.

The government paid the equivalent of $3.25 a share for its stake in the No. 3 U.S. bank by assets. Counting stock sale proceeds, dividend payments and interest on bailout loans, the government got $57 billion in compensation for the Citi bailout, Treasury said.