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A special inspector general report on compensation for executives at General Motors and Ally Financial blasts the Treasury Department for allowing excessive pay at the companies as taxpayers lost billions of dollars on the auto bailouts. The watchdog group issuing the report monitors the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which was set up to save financial corporations deemed "too big to fail" due to systemic risk to America's financial system. The program was expanded to allow for the bailing out of the auto industry, despite the questionable use of funds specifically designated for financial institutions. A NY Times piece...

President Barack Obama’s former auto industry adviser and two former Treasury Department officials cracked at the last minute before a House oversight committee subcommittee hearing and agreed to stop stonewalling an investigation into alleged union favoritism during the administration’s General Motors bailout. Ron Bloom, Obama’s former auto czar, and former Treasury officials Matt Feldman and Harry Wilson have refused to give interviews to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) about their roles in topping up pensions for union workers while non-union workers lost nearly their entire pensions. The Treasury Department’s actions during the auto bailout...

Neil Barofsky is a lifelong Democrat who was appointed by George Bush to be the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). He has done superlative work over the last two years in uncovering vast waste of taxpayer dollars. He also has started looking into whether the car closings ordered by the Obama administration were influenced not by efficiency or economy but whether dealers were chosen to be saved based on their minority status. His latest report - buried by much of the media - was highly critical of how the Treasury was using suspect methodology...

As many as 100,000 Americans who lost their jobs, or will soon, because of GM and Chrysler dealership closings can thank Barack Obama and his "mandate for shared sacrifice," according to a top Obama official. In a scathing report on the federal auto industry bailout, Special Inspector General Neil M. Barofsky notes that the Obama administration rejected initial automaker plans which would have required relatively minimal dealership closings, insisting instead on far more drastic cuts -- as many as two thousand dealerships between the two corporations. (snip) And Barofsky's report even questions whether the closures would lead to any real...

The full SIGTARP report on AIG and its counterparty payments has been released. It contains all you need to know about the NYFED's bailout of Goldman Sachs. We are currently going through the report, and will post our findings as we have them. Key timeline events: AIG's collateral postings: Total taxpayer subsidies: (FOR SOME REASON THIS GRAPH WON'T SHOW UP SO AT SITE) Historical and current AIG CDS exposure: THIS ONE WON'T SHOW UP EITHER SO SEE AT SITE And the most critical conclusion presented by Neil Barofsky: The SIGTARP blasts the Fed's ongoing desire to keep everything hidden and...

Bailout Watchdog Defends Independence From TreasuryJune 19, 2009 5:28 PM ABCNews' Matthew Jaffe reports: Bailout watchdog Neil Barofsky today emphasized that his office was independent from the Treasury Department and the administration's decision to seek a Justice Department ruling was "unnecessary". Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), sent a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., about the ongoing dispute with Treasury, as both sides await a decision from DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel. "We continue to believe the inquiry to OLC is unnecessary given the very clear intent of...

GOP Lawmaker Rips Treasury for "Gagging" SIGTARP, Sees Parallels with Nixon Era & Calls for InvestigationJune 18, 2009 9:29 PM ABC News' Matt Jaffe reports: The lone sitting Republican member of Congress on the Congressional Oversight Panel tonight dubbed the Treasury Department's challenge of the independence of bailout watchdog Neil Barofsky "outrageous, "unprecedented", and "disturbing", and he called on the Panel to launch an immediate investigation. "It's highly outrageous and highly irregular and we are going to get to the bottom of it," warned Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, in an interview with ABC News. "For Treasury to assert some kind...