Oversight panel warns of $2B in TARP losses

The Hill ^ | 7/10/09 | Silla Brush

[Nachum]

The government could lose out on more than $2.7 billion if federal officials continue to undervalue part of the financial bailout package, a government watchdog panel will say on Friday.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, working with a team of Harvard Business School professors, estimated that taxpayers had lost one-third of the value of the very small number of warrants that had already been sold by the Treasury Department

[Nachum]

The list, ping

[Nachum]

The list, ping

[freekitty]

There will always be a loss if government has its hand in it.

[upchuck]

Warrants were one form of investment required in the bailout package so taxpayers could benefit from banks that returned to health with the aid of government money. The bailout package envisioned that the government would sell the warrants at a profit.

This is what happens when a bunch of political, financial neophytes decide they know better than Mr. Market.

Nobody knows better than Mr. Market.