From the Washington Examiner , 10/23 : "Measuring the effectiveness of TARP's programs has been an ongoing challenge," the GAO report said, adding that "any changes attributed to TARP could well be changes that would have occurred anyway" -- due to policy intervention ... Read more

Most company budgets and some prepared by governments have a place to park unidentified expenses. Those amounts are a hedge against unexpected needs for capital, and are often called “rainy day” funds. Budgeting purists and accountants object to these rogue figures because, in their disciplines ... Read more

Why we should all bow before Elizabeth Warren (even if you’ve never heard of her). By James Scurlock of The Big Money Five years from now, when Tesla Sedans and Facebook and American Idol have miraculously powered America out of its second Great Depression, historians may share a belly laugh a ... Read more

Banks are getting TARP money, but they are not using it to ease credit to consumers and businesses, at least to the extent that taxpayers and some members of Congress believed that they should. According to The Wall Street Journal, “the biggest recipients of taxpayer aid made or refinanced 23% les ... Read more

The latest entry at Crashopedia is a partial transcript of a video interview from yesterday where Congressional TARP Oversight chairwoman Elizabeth Warren reveals the astonishing fact that Secretary Paulson misled her, the public and Congress about what equity and warrants the government got ... Read more

Not to get your Friday off on an irritable start, but did you know that more than $221 million in taxes is overdue from 13 of the 23 largest recipients of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds? That's the word from the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, which held a hearing ... Read more

You may have heard or seen the bill that’s now in the House of Representatives which proposes to place a ¼% transaction tax (a stamp tax) on every trade you do. That means it will cost you ½% round trip to do a trade. The writers of the bill state it will pay off a good amount of TARP and also ... Read more

Yesterday's House Financial Services Committee hearing gave evidence that bank lending is flowing again, but credit is still tight. As is traditional in these affairs, a good deal of time was chewed up by congresspersons zealously jawboning to express vicarious anger on behalf of their constitue ... Read more

FINTAG COMMENT 2 trillion dollars. I am starting to get worried. When Paulson tried to push through his M-LEC and his TARP, we were all shocked at the numbers. But they were only hundreds of billions. Peanuts really. So how did Guiltytax (sorry I have trouble with the man's name) come up with such ... Read more

From CNBC: BofA CEO Lewis: Bank Will Not Need More TARP Funds Bank of America won't need any more bailout money from the government and hopes to pay back the $45 billion it's already received within three years, CEO Ken Lewis told CNBC. ... Lewis also dismissed speculation of a possible government ... Read more