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Bank of America paid off its debt to the government of $45 billion to get out from underneath its bailout from last year, just as they said they wanted to do. The way they did it was to sell 1.286 billion common equivalent securities, raising $19.29 billion to help buy back preferred shares it had issued to the Treasury Department. Bank of America also paid $190 million in accrued dividends on the preferred securities.

So, they’re now no longer beholden to the government and can pursue better candidates for their open CEO position. And that seems to have spurred Citigroup to do the same, as they’re planning on selling $20 billion in equities to help get themselves out of debt to the government, which they are to the same $45 billion tune.

Just to add something to spice things up, the stock price of Bank of America decreased 2 cents on the day, and Citigroup’s price fell 5 cents after they announced they were going to try to pay off their loan.

Now, I’ll admit I’m not a stock market expert, but I do know a little something about math. In essence, both banks are creating new shares of stock to allow more buyers into the company, just to pay off a loan. They both lost big money last quarter, and they’re replacing one type of debt with another. Well, maybe one can’t say issuing new stocks is creating new debt, but doesn’t that water down the price of the existing shares in each bank if they’re offering such great amounts? If you’re a present stockholder and you own .01% of all the shares in the company, which would actually be a lot for an organization as large as both of these banks, didn’t your power, so to speak, just decrease drastically if all those new shares are bought by someone else other than you?

Would any of you be interested in buying shares into either one of these banks that are consistently losing money? I don’t get it; this seems reckless and absurd, although I’m glad to say that if this kind of “thinking” is what they believe they need to get out of trouble, I’m glad they’re no longer owned by the U.S. Government. And can someone else please tell me what this incestuous relationship is, love-hate or whatever, between B of A & Citi?