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 Exclusive: Obama budget likely to include (as yet undetermined) fee on banks to help taxpayers recoup cost of bailout -- Romer still sees recovery beginning in spring 
 
 By: & & on January 11, 2010 @ 5:57 AM 
 
 EXCLUSIVE: Top administration officials tell Morning Money that President Obama’s budget, to be unveiled next month, is likely to include a fee on banks designed to recoup some of the cost taxpayers incurred in the bailout, which specified that the U.S. government should be made whole. … Asked yesterday for comment, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he stood by his earlier statements that the president had full confidence in Geithner. Banks and securities firms have told workers their bonuses will contain a bigger percentage of stock to demonstrate that Wall Street is sensitive to public anger over the big paychecks. … Federal involvement is strongest at the very largest banks that were among the last to repay billions of dollars in government loans, such as Citigroup and Bank of America. The Treasury gave the bank a second big helping of $20 billion just six weeks after an initial $25 billion infusion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, partly in recognition of GTS's importance to the financial system, according to government and company officials.” 
 
 
 
 IS CHINA THE NEXT REAL ESTATE BUBBLE?
– The Obama administration will likely include a provision in next month’s budget that imposes fees on banks in an effort to make back some of the taxpayer money lost on the bailout and close the record deficit. Politico has it that a transaction tax is not on the table; while the Wall Street Journal notes that such a tax would require international cooperation. A tax on compensation is considered too easy to skirt. The goal is to structure a fee that newly flush banks can't pass on to still-struggling consumers.