Posted on 10/23/2009 5:29:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Congress put American taxpayers on the hook for $700 billion last year when it approved the massive bailout to paper over the imprudent lending decisions of nine Wall Street giants: Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, State Street and the Bank of NY Mellon. The bailout was essential to save the nation from a complete economic meltdown. Or so insisted President George W. Bush, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
One year later, however, a little-noted report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office questions whether the bailout -- known officially as the Troubled Asset Relief Program -- saved anything other than the jobs of greedy Wall Street executives and the political hides of their protectors in government.
"Measuring the effectiveness of TARP's programs has been an ongoing challenge," the GAO report said, adding that "any changes attributed to TARP could well be changes that would have occurred anyway" -- due to policy interventions, the actions of financial regulators or even natural market corrections. In other words, a year after Congress burdened present and future taxpayers with a debt of immense magnitude, government auditors still can't say for sure that TARP accomplished anything toward preventing a financial collapse.
At the height of the bailout hysteria, Paulson appeared on "Face the Nation," saying he hoped the federal government would be able to recoup most of the TARP funds. But today, both the GAO's auditors and TARP Inspector General Neil Barofsky say nobody should hold their breath waiting for that repayment.
(Excerpt) Read more at thewoodwardreport.com ...
At least the TARP did something. Without the TARP, the stock market would still be in the tank. However, the stimulus package has done absolutely nothing. It’s goal was to create jobs, and it hasn’t.
No. And the bad part is, Wall Street is apparently jamming up new regulations.
parsy, who is disgusted with the whole mess
It was obvious a year ago that the intention was not to help the country’s economy but to do precisely what people now realize. The fact that the Fed has refused (and is being sued to reveal) what happened to the $2,000,000,000,000 is glaring proof of that.
i disagree 100% tarp did nothing but enrich bankers so they could ram up the stock market so they can pay themselves bonus tarp was the biggest heist in world history. problem was toxic assests. guess what they still have all the toxic assests plus more. there loan portfolios are shrinking but the toxic ones are a bigger percentage of their assests so there actually worse off than any other time
Does this mean that half of the TARP money has already been returned?
problem was toxic assests. guess what they still have all the toxic assests plus more. there loan portfolios are shrinking but the toxic ones are a bigger percentage of their assests so there actually worse off than any other time
If this were true the money would’ve been used to buy up the toxic assets.
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It's really amazing how unbiased this reporter is in his search for the truth. Marx would be proud.
He tells us that execs are greedy --- in contrast to nurses quitting well-paying jobs to flip condos in Florida and Las Vegas; the multitude of regular "folks" lying on their applications to buy the biggest house they can get "`cause it surely will go up 20% next year; people maxing out their equity lines to get the biggest kitchen just like the Jones'. Nah, only the Wall Street execs are greedy in this country.
Only an imbecile would focus on the jobs of a few people. What was actually saved was the retirement livelihood of millions of Americans.
For some reason, people think that the money is retained by companies. It is not. What was saved was the price of stock in hundreds of American companies, the stock that puts bread on the table of retirees, widows and orphans.
People don't even know how capitalism works. Republicans should've reiterated that it was actually Main Street, not Wall Street, that has been bailed out.
i have to say i work on Wall Street and the vast majority of people there don’t make the sort of money people think they do. AIG was bought down by one trading desk and poor oversight. Wall Street has been hit as hard as any other business in the country and the lost jobs are certainly not confined to the big money makers.
To my mind,the repeal of Glass Steagall permitting banks to own broker dealers or investment banks went a long way towards creating the mess. Yet another law from the great depression ignored.
A snide comment might be inserted that the bailout was only ever about saving a few millionaire’s jobs - in a policy sense perhaps true, but political nonsense. At that time there was a great deal of panic and financial angst throughout the country. Heck, I even saw it here on FR - and you would expect that if any group of people should remain levelheaded and clear thinking in times of trouble it should be conservatives. With the apocalyptic fervor of that time only a short year ago, the public was demanding a solution, any solution. And of course, in true liberal style, if you have a big problem fix it by throwing big wads of cash at it. And $700 billion is a phenomenally big wad of cash. The public perceived a crisis and they felt the psychic need for a crisis level solution - and so our vaunted political “leaders” provided one.
While it’s easy and fun to blame our politicians for the faulty and fraudulent policies they put in place, perhaps it’s sometimes good to remember that they only give us what we (on average) want - and that’s a sobering thought.
Ping
you really think the gov would do the right thing? lolololol
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