Most Wall Street banks that took out TARP loans in late 2008 have long ago paid back the Treasury Dept., with interest. But many smaller banks, including most Wisconsin community banks, which took out TARP loans have still not paid back the money, reports Paul Gores of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The situation provides another sign of a still-unhealthy economy and the Obama administration’s dominant focus on big banks.
According to Gores, federal taxpayers have recovered $251 billion from a TARP program that gave banks $245 million. This is because banks getting the most TARP money, like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, raised money by issuing stock and quickly repayed taxpayer money with the required interest. For that quick return, Beltway cognoscenti have called TARP the “the most successful and least popular American economic policy in the past decade” and hailed Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner as an unsung hero.
But what is happening with TARP money around the country shows that while the program has been a success, the story is a bit more complicated. (more…)
Topics:
Beltway Outsider,
Dept. of the Treasury,
Featured Articles,
Government in My Backyard (GIMBY),
Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)
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TARP,
Tim Geithner,
Timothy Geithner,
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Wisconsin