The $78 billion rip-off: Treasury overpaid for bank assets (TARP)

Posted Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 7:53 pm
From this:
The Bush administration received assets that were worth $78 billion less than the amount it invested as part of the massive infusion of capital into the country's banks, congressional investigators have found.

The investigators concluded that the Treasury under the federal bailout had invested $254 billion into companies but the preferred stock it got in return had a market value at the time of only $176 billion, or 69 percent of what the government paid, according to a congressional oversight panel report scheduled to be released today.

Elizabeth Warren, the chairwoman of the panel, said former Treasury secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had promised that the government would buy the assets at their market value and that it was alarming that he didn't do so. "At various points, Treasury has articulated policy objectives which could result in a program involved paying substantially more for investments than they appear to have been worth at the time of the transaction," she said in written testimony submitted to the Senate Banking Committee yesterday. "The American people want to know what's going on and they deserve answers...
Earlier today, she hinted (link) the possibility that Paulson should be criminally charged with something at some point.
Tags: 
mortgage mess
treasury department
hank paulson
elizabeth warren

Comments

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Sun, 02/08/2009 - 17:24

i love you betterdeadthanFred. just call me American, unlike you.

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Sat, 02/07/2009 - 12:39

This info was on jerry Doyle about 3 months ago but happy to see this info here, michael savage also had some other info about this BS, robbery and theft of your money for the world oligarchs by bush and now obama by the way is this telling you how total corruption is working against you? got to tell you something just in case no one has told you this fact the system is about to mass murder your world meaning the former usa and replace you by the billions with easy to control population and all you see and all you know is a total falsehoods. But the sad fact is, like the jew of 1940 in Nazi germany you will get on the train and go right into the camps without a word. this BS Is massive stealing of your money for the rich and its you and your kids who are being sold into mass Enslavement by our enemies inside our so called government. Buy Guns and work as one to remove the enemies of the USA See it for what it is.

eh (not verified)

Sat, 02/07/2009 - 17:37

I think that was the whole idea: to recapitalize banks by paying above market prices for their shitty "assets". And you really don't have to look further than the huge bailout of AIG -- Goldman Sachs, which Paulson used to head, has significant exposure to AIG -- to see what TARP is really all about. And it's not about paying fair prices for "assets".

BetterdeadthanFred (not verified)

Sat, 02/07/2009 - 23:06

Yikes! You still here Fred? Like a bad rash.....you linger on