Now the real cost of TARP

[ArlJim78]

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/tarp-taxpayer-commitment-2.9-trillion-2009-03-31.html

"At $2.9 trillion, the total risk to taxpayers of the financial bailout package Congress passed last year dwarfs the original $700 billion cost of the program, a watchdog office said on Tuesday."

"The special inspector general appointed to oversee the bailout package, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), said that the $700 billion does not include the additional financing and associated programs run by the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Once it is all added together, the $700 billion sum balloons to $2.9 trillion in taxpayer commitments."

"$2.9 trillion is just short of what the entire federal government spent in fiscal year 2008," said Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). "It’s like having a second United States government budget, dedicated solely to saving the financial system. And that is truly surreal."

"Neil Barofsky, the inspector general, said the money under his oversight covers 11 programs."

"History teaches us that an outlay of so much money in such a short period of time will inevitably attract those seeking to profit criminally," Barofsky testified in prepared remarks." Nooooo, you don't say.:rolleyes:


Keep in mind that there is nothing to see here, keep moving along people, don't ask any questions. after all, there are smart people working on all this. we're in the best of hands.

[robert99]

We estimate the total US bailouts to date equals $11.6Tr = $11,600B.

This compares to:

New Deal $500B
WW2 $3,600B
Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe $115.3B
Race to the Moon $237B
War on terror $597B.

USA's biggest enemy of all time is not Germany, Russia nor Jihadists but Wall St.

[ArlJim78]

robert, while i agree 100% that our biggest enemy is domestic, i place the majority of the blame upon capital hill (both parties), wall street merely gets an assist.

[Lefty]

No wall st isn't the problem. Govt interference is the problem.

[JustRalph]

No wall st isn't the problem. Govt interference is the problem.


oh no Lefty......... they both are enemies to middle america

[Tom]

Pennsylvania Avenue is where the real crooks live.

[ArlJim78]

when i think about it, its the Fed (Greenspan/Bernanke) on top, followed by the Capital Hill corruption club known as congress.

[ArlJim78]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/04/gao-says-geithn.html

nothing to worry about, only a $100 billion discrepancy between treasury and the GAO. probably a rounding error.
__________________________________________________ _
GAO Says Geithner Wrong: Only $32.6B in Uncommitted TARP

April 01, 2009 10:22 AM

On "This Week" (http://abcnews.go.com/thisweek) Sunday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told me that there was about $135 billion of uncommitted funds left in the TARP (http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/03/geithner-on-tar.html), the government's financial rescue package.

But the Government Accountability Office, a non-partisan federal agency, reports (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09504.pdf)that figure is closer to $32 billion, which is what ABC News and other independent analysts (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123828522318566241.html) thought.

The Treasury Department continues to insist GAO and others are double-counting commitments and underestimating potential paybacks.

An official Treasury response to come .

[highnote]

nothing to worry about, only a $100 billion discrepancy between treasury and the GAO. probably a rounding error.

that's only what -- less than 10%. Hell, I can't even get my checkbook to balance within 10% every month. LOL :eek:

Maybe the measure of the wealth of a country is how much money gov't can waste before anyone gives a shit.

[ddog]

robert, while i agree 100% that our biggest enemy is domestic, i place the majority of the blame upon capital hill (both parties), wall street merely gets an assist.



arj

IN all seriousness, Wall Street paid whichever guys/gals were in a position to help them get their "deals" greased.

Anything that could be done and pass the smell test or be done in the dead of night or given the ol boy wink and nod was done.

Capital Hill is nothing without the funders and I don't mean the taxpayers, i mean the contributors to keep the slime in office there.

And, Wall Street and the others don't give a hoot who that is, they play them both.

The biggest scam is the phony board appointments that are handed out with vested options and foolish salaries to the "revolving door class" up there.

They buy them off before during and after they are on the Hill.

It's just become a cesspool , a stinking pile of dung.

Everyone knows it , but like was said, "you gotta get up and dance while the music is playing."


On this whole TARP stuff, i will say that in a year or two the whole concept of outrage at Tarp will be so far from anyone's mind , it will seem as a fairy tale.


The amount of defaults and amount of private debt that needs to be rolled at the same time as every country/gvt is needing to borrow vast sums will be a different paradigm than many think.

many are now holding back on enforcing repayment provisions because they can't take the write offs, much less force a bk event.

THe zombie banks that many warned of are already here in many places despite the tarp and all the fed lending stuff.


The shift has come , this time is not like ALL the others.

[ArlJim78]

a stinking cesspool is a good way to describe it.