Pic credit: NY Post

Big deal. And I love that MarketWatch felt compelled to email me this alert - meanwhile, Bernanke is on the Hill saying the recession is kicking our asses, small business is bugging out, we're waiting for that CRE bomb to blow and OMG this Obamacare thing is going to be the final nail in our coffin. But this? This apparently is news. IMHO, $1.1 billion is a drop in the bucket compared to that $23.7 trillion number SIGTARP top cop Barofsky says we're on the hook for in terms of bailout schemes.

MW:

The U.S. government made a 23% return supporting Goldman Sachs during the global financial crisis, the investment bank said Wednesday as it unwound one of the last taxpayer-funded investments it received last year.

Goldman (GS) said it paid $1.1 billion to redeem warrants the U.S. government received when it invested in the firm through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

In June, Goldman repaid a $10 billion preferred-stock investment of $10 billion from TARP. During the eight-month term of the investment, the firm noted that it also paid $318 million in dividends on those securities.

Including the cost of redeeming the warrants, Goldman said it paid $1.418 billion to the government, which works out to an annualized return of 23% for U.S. taxpayers.

"This return is reflective of the government's assistance, which benefited the financial system, our firm and our shareholders," Goldman Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said in a statement. "We are grateful for the government efforts."

The $1.1 billion was the value that the Treasury Department put on the warrants, Goldman noted.

So what?

p.s. Blankfein is lying through his teeth. He never wanted in on this advanced money laundering scheme.

Also, I must point out that the government's paltry 23% is nothing compared to Goldman's 111378% return on TARP for lobbying and campaign contributions for 2007 - 2008. Shhh, slow down, read it again:

111378%!

Goldman offered up $5,690,351 in campaign contributions and $3,280,000 for lobbying efforts and made $10 billion off TARP, which we assume it was able to launder back into the market at the request of Tim Geithner, who completely sanctions Goldman's criminal behavior in the open market. *KAPOW* watch out for that PPT, kids, they'll hose just about anyone these days.

Of course as we already know GS was Obama's #2 campaign contributor, tossing $994,795 at the future POTUS. Compared of course to the measly $230,095 it gave to McCain, coming in below Merrill Lynch (!), Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley. Wow, it's like the FAIL revue over there, eh?

Ignore this. The anti-GS argument rages on.