A free market doesn’t have TARP funds at all. It doesn’t have government bailouts.
Had the free market been allowed to work, none of these big banks would exist today and we wouldn’t have this problem. The market verdict on all of them was that they were failed institutions. The government propped up these failed institutions.
And TARP just scratches the surface. The Fed’s balance sheet has expanded to $4 trillion absorbing bad loans off the books of these banks.
Central banks, bailouts, fractional reserve banking, unprosecuted fraud - none of these things are compatible with free markets.
If you are not outraged by what the Federal Reserve has done, then either you don’t really believe in free markets, or you are ignorant of the details. The latter condition can be cured by education.
True, and a free market doesn't provide judges and courts to enforce contracts, money is not coined and regulated from some online vendomat, lots of things governments do that free markets need and can't do. Same the other way around too (like creating jobs and wealth). We need to agree that markets need governments and that our debate is not whether governments serve and support markets but how.