Your $700 Billion at Play

An AP story this morning carries the judgement of a gummint inspector on the TARP program. You may know it better as the Big Boy Bailout.

Watchdog Neil Barofsky says the TARP program sorta worked but, "Treasury's actions in this regard have contributed to damage the credibility of the program and of the government itself, and the anger, cynicism and distrust created must be chalked up as one of the substantial, albeit unnecessary, costs of TARP."

Hold that thought as you continue:

Then he noted the "decision not to require banks to report how they used their rescue money and (the Fed's) 'less-than-accurate' statements describing the financial condition of nine large banks that benefited from large infusions of aid."

I don't quarrel with either Barofsky or the AP report, though they're really telling us nothing new in the first cited paragraph which says, "We're all well and truly pissed" or in the second which says "Because when dealing with the feds you can have them stupid or you can have them crooked. Take your pick."

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Deeper in the story there are some enticing hints on how much of your TARP money is being used for kennel fees, Dom Perignon, tux rental and so forth.