Some profit was made on some assets that were huge banks that used our government’s money mostly to buy other huge banks.  Of course, this is a partial payback rather than a total payoff by those banks, so really it could be construed as “getting our government’s money back earlier than planned” rather than “Oooh, profit!”

The rich banks are getting richer, the foolish banks aren’t looking as stupid, the little banks that didn’t cause this mess are getting squeezed, and small businesses nationwide are having more difficulty getting loans.  Success!

Well, actually it says that they’re going to make a profit…  except for all that money lent to AIG.  And Fannie Mae.  And except for the government’s responsibility for all those toxic assets.  So far Kramer is only right if you make huge exceptions.

So not all the loans went bust all the time.  Hurray!
I don’t think anyone was so pessimistic as to claim that every last dime was going to be lost (unless we were under McCain, in which case I’m sure we’d be hearing a stirring defense of why the banks shouldn’t have to give the money back).  It is comforting to see some banks willing to pay back the loans with interest rather than just pocketing the cash and insist the check is in the mail.

That said, yeah.  This hardly equates to “turning a profit”, as we haven’t been able to secure our original investment yet.

Yeah, the real losses will be Bank of America and AIG.