The latest SIGTARP (Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program) Quarterly Report to Congress is out, and as usual, it's full of great information. There isn't anything particularly groundbreaking, there aren't any "Who shot J.R." moments, but it provides plenty of the facts an average person needs to know to start analyzing TARP.

Among other things, the report provides an update on TARP spending ($454 billion expended, $637 billion allocated), highlights SIGTARP's assorted audits, and once again provides a comprehensive breakdown of the various TARP programs. There's also a great chapter on the credit rating agencies and their impact on TARP, which is a topic we've written about before.

Usefully, the report also contains a table summarizing all of SIGTARP's recommendations to Treasury, past and present. The table shows whether Treasury's implemented the recommendations or not, and if Treasury considers the issue open or closed. Sadly, Treasury has yet to implement about half of the recommendations, and many of those issues are closed for debate. And these are not very controversial recommendations, such as one asking Treasury to identify TALF (Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility) borrowers who surrender collateral, which SIGTARP describes as a "basic aspect of transparency."

You can read the full report, along with SIGTARP's other reports, on the SIGTARP website. Hopefully, within the next month or so, we'll see a Congressional hearing on this report. It's just absurd that a federal agency is not following an IG's recommendation.