"Instead of that, why don't you concentrate on breaking Citi into more pieces, so that no one piece is too big to fail?"
"But of the original nine that needed money within weeks of the original TARP infusion--you got $25 billion, someone said you--the Secretary of the Treasury said you were financially healthy, and withi..."
"I think it would be hard to make the case that we can see some date in the immediate future when Citi will not be too big to fail."
"But Standard & Poor's, the rating agency, is giving you a bump. The bump is valuable."
"I understand it's one factor, but can we both stipulate it's a very helpful factor?"
"But it's your view that Citi isn't getting that from its higher rating, it's not getting that benefit of being A rated?"
"You wiped out all of its equity, you caused its debt to have to take a haircut, and that's what helped put it back on firm footing."
"You left the equity intact, all of the debt continued to be repaid at 100 cents on the dollar; a far better deal to have been an investor in GMAC than to have been an investor in GM."
"No matter how many taxpayer dollars we pumped in."
"The difference is, that you're trying to capitalize what is now a much stronger company."
"Well, but if we're talking about time, I mean, I presume the possibility of a quick 363 sale, as happened in the auto industry, could have made this a relatively speedy procedure----"
"I'm not commenting on what the prior Administration did, I'm just observing what they did."