Citi Still Owes Us Big

CJR's Ryan Chittum nets a nice collection of rebuttals to this meme that the Government's shares in Citigroup have made money (and therefore Citigroup's bailout was a good deal for taxpayers).

Here's a sample:

...while the [Washington] Post asserts that the government’s Citi sale would be “a validation of the rescue plan adopted by government officials during the height of the financial panic,” it actually does no such thing. Instead, it shows yet again how government deployed its resources to benefit banks and bankers over taxpayers. That money could (not to mention should) have recapitalized Citi while giving taxpayers the bulk of the company’s shares. Instead it recapitalized Citi in exchange for a sliver of them.

The American Prospect's Dean Baker points out that not only could the government's investment into Citi bought the company outright (at its market price of the time) but the government's subsequent dealing and conversion of its preferred stock to common stock was a de facto giveaway of $90 billion dollars.

Who do we see about that?