TARP cop reports to Congress on $2.98 trillion in bailouts

Posted Apr 2nd 2009 2:30PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis

Did you know that we have a special inspector general overseeing government efforts to bailout portions of the private sector? The answer is "yes" we do and his name is Neil Barofsky. Mr. Barofsky, known as the TARP cop, gave his report recently to the Senate Finance Committee.

Here's what he said. He said that there is a discrepancy of $134.5 billion between his figures and those of the Treasury. (Not to worry. Its only $134.5 billion.)

The $2.98 trillion dollar figure given by Mr. Barofsky reflects spending on TARP and certain programs from the Federal Reserve and the FDIC but doesn't include loans to General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) and Chrysler LLC or the new auto warranty program unveiled on Monday.

This huge amount of $2.98 trillion is just about the same amount that the entire Federal government spent in 2008. Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus said: "Its like having a second United States government dedicated solely to saving the financial system and that is truly surreal."

Mr. Barofsky also said that such huge sums of money "will inevitably attract those seeking to profit criminally." He further added that "we are looking at the potential exposure of hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money lost to fraud."

In a separate report Mr. Barofsky said that his office has initiated an investigation into American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) bonus payments and plans to investigate payments it made to counterparties as well.

What are you ideas on this whole process?

Tags: 2.98 trillion on bailouts, inthenews, Mr. Barofsky, Mr.Barofsky, TARP

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-02-2009 @ 3:23PM

sonnype said...

Its beginning to look as if TARP was another way to transfer tax dollars to the wealthy.Little exlpanation of how this money is being used and where it is going.

4-03-2009 @ 4:06PM

cpayne said...

Summed up by saying, "It's only money... you'll make more".

The wealthy control everything. It only serves correct that the wealthy will be the ones getting more wealth when piles of money are sprayed around carelessly.

Did anyone think for a second that there would be any IOU's signed for any of the TARP funds? I didn't think so either.

This kind of winfall will never happen ever again. There is a shortage of "real" money.