Tarp | featured news

Economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers write that “the debate in Washington about economic policy is phony. It’s manufactured. And it’s entirely political.” ... Turns out that there’s wide agreement that the stimulus created jobs, TARP was necessary, market factors drive gas prices, tax cuts reduce revenue, tax increases and spending cuts will have to be part of a deficit solution and more.

Small banks still owe $11 billion of taxpayer money under TARP, and the government is threatening to unload its stakes in them at big discounts to new investors. Nearly four years after Washington bailed out Wall Street, small banks have yet to repay $11 billion of taxpayer money.

The Troubled Asset Relief Program calmed markets and underpinned the US economy during the financial crisis. But despite the US Treasury saying last week that Tarp would make a profit, the latest report suggests otherwise. The report said it was a "misconception that Tarp will make a profit".

Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program since December 2008, announced his resignation Monday and plans to step down from the job on March 30.

The Obama administration has begun monitoring the high-level board meetings of nearly 20 banks that received emergency taxpayer assistance but repeatedly failed to pay the required dividends, according to Treasury Department officials and documents. And it may soon install new directors on some of their boards.

The U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program, which risked $700 billion of government funds to bail out troubled banks and automakers, will cost taxpayers a mere $25 billion, according to an estimate released on Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Treasury updated its projections for the cost of the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program, saying that for the first time the amount of funds that has been returned to taxpayers exceeds $250 billion.

The former chief executive of Park Avenue Bank pleaded guilty to charges that he attempted to defraud the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

A grand jury has indicted the chief executive of what was once among the nation's largest independent home-loan providers on 16 counts of bank, securities and wire fraud.

A report to be released Thursday questions the Bush administration’s decision to rescue “a company that apparently posed no systemic risk to the financial system.”