CIT Group Bankruptcy….Surprise?

- - - -  

I’ve read stories here on the Gather site and on my Yahoo AP site about the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by the CIT Group.

I don’t think the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by CIT Group was a surprise to anyone.  Our government invested over $2.33 billion in the “troubled” company through the “Troubled Asset Relief Program” (taxpayer money) and will probably lose most of it. The government declined to loan more to the CIT Group earlier this year saving the tax payer from a loss of a few more billion (good for them).

The Chapter 11 filing will allow the company to reorganize and continue to provide loans to small businesses and the middle market customer (the average American business man, folks). 

The bankruptcy filing shows $71 billion in finance and leasing assets against a total debt of $64.9 billion.  That leaves $6.1 billion to pay off debtors and reorganize.  Who’s going to get paid first?  I’ll be willing to bet that it’s not going to be our government (you, the tax payer).

We are approaching our major holiday shopping season and the CIT Group is one of the main lenders for a lot of these small businesses.  They rely on lenders like CIT Group to cover a lot of their costs from paying for orders (ordered from foreign based companies) to funding their payroll accounts. 

When I hear stories that our recession is ending things like this make me wonder. 

God bless America again, please!