Commentary: The Case of the Misunderstood Bailout

Currently, it's hard to find a federal program more unpopular than the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the bank "bailout" passed in the waning days of the Bush administration. Poll after poll shows that the public does not support the bailout, and politicians, especially ones up for reelection, have picked up on this trend and frequently denounce the program. And yet, by many objective measures, the bailout could be considered a success: it helped avert financial calamity, it will cost a fraction of its original estimates, and TARP’s bank provisions will likely end up earning a profit for the government. While TARP could have done better, the public perception that TARP failed is not consistent with most data.

read in full

Checking-in With TARP

This news is a bit old, but I thought it was interesting enough to warrant a late post. On June 10, Treasury released its May TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) report, providing an update for the bailout program. The big, "milestone" news from the report is that TARP repayments have now exceeded the remaining balance. According to the report, through May, TARP recipients paid back $194 billion, which is more than half of the total funds TARP has paid out ($384 billion, which includes everything, from the bank warrants to the AIG payments to the auto bailouts). In other words, TARP recipients have paid back $194 billion, meaning that the returned funds now outweigh the remaining balance.

read in full

Treasury Begins to Sell Citigroup Stock

As discussed in a recent Watcher article, Treasury is starting to divest itself of Citigroup assets. The news came out on Monday, with Citi's stock price at $4.86, but at the close on Tuesday, the price had plunged to below $4.40 a share.

read in full

CBO Monthly Budget Review, March 2010

Dad?

Chalk up another set of economic data under the category of "information most informed people knew a long time ago, but that will really upset the Teabaggers," because the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its Monthly Budget Review (MBR) for March, and, oh boy, are there some ugly numbers in there to cherry pick. With that said, there are some bright spots too.

read in full

The End of TARP to Be Met with Controversy

The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) began with a single, basic idea: prevent imminent economic collapse. With that premise, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson convinced Congress and President Bush to authorize $700 billion of emergency spending to undertake actions to avert such disaster. Now, with economic catastrophe averted but with the nation's economy still struggling, a new report turns policymakers' focus to the end of TARP.

read in full

More Benefits for the TARP'd

Well, this is galling.

The Internal Revenue Service on Friday issued an exception to long-standing tax rules for the benefit of Citigroup and a few other companies partially owned by the government. As a result, Citigroup will be allowed to retain billions of dollars worth of tax breaks that otherwise would decline in value when the government sells its stake to private investors.

read in full

COP Evaluates TARP, Gives it a Passing Grade

This being December, with school winding down and entering finals period, children everywhere are beginning the biannual tradition of dreading the arrival of their report card. Surprisingly, the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) oversight group chaired by Prof. Elizabeth Warren, decided to get in on the action themselves this year with their December report. Titled "Taking Stock," the latest installment of COP's monthly report looks back over the life of the program, and examines whether TARP has been effective or not. Reading the report, it looks like COP reluctantly gives the program a passing grade, but isn't entirely happy with TARP's progress so far.

read in full

House Moves to Give More Access for GAO, SIGTARP, and the Public

While the attention of many transparency advocates has been focused on the first round of recipient reporting under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the Recovery Act), the House has been working on two financial transparency measures dealing with the Federal Reserve and use of the Wall Street bailout funds.

read in full

Credit Rating Agency Regulation Bill Approved by House Panel

A bill to strengthen regulation of credit rating agencies (HR 3890) took a step toward passage yesterday as the House Financial Services committee voted 49-14 to approve the Accountability and Transparency in Rating Agencies Act.

read in full

SIGTARP Quarterly Report Highlights Lack of Treasury Action

Fail

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.

read in full

Pages