US Treasury extends bailout program to 2010

Posted Dec 9th 2009 5:30PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Management, Money and Finance Today, Personal Finance, Politics, Headline News, Housing, Small Business, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis

US Treasury Geithner wants to protect his turf. He sent a letter to Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Harry Reid extending the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) until October 3, 2010, keeping $550 billion in bailout funds.

His letter states that: "The extension is necessary to assist American families and stabilize financial markets because it will, among other things, enable us to continue to implement programs that address housing markets and the needs of small businesses and to maintain the capacity to respond to unseen needs."

Geithner expects to receive $175 billion in repayments by the end of 2010 and "substantial additional repayments thereafter."

He estimates that the cost to the taxpayer will be $200 billion dollars.

He will focus on capital for small banks and small businesses.

By doing this, he has preempted Congress from grabbing the money for their own projects.

We have 17 million unemployed. Should some of the TARP money be used for job creation?

Tags: tarp, timothy geithner, TimothyGeithner, us treasury, UsTreasury

Print this

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

12-09-2009 @ 6:47PM

william lindblad said...

In this case, Tim made a bold, but wise move. He has the money. Now the big "if" is, can he make this capital work for the country? Things to be considered - bank lending is down about 14%, and while I am sure that this a conservative estimate, the stats did not mention from when. (As in time frame.) We have 500+ banks on the shaky list. There is almost a certainty that credit card default will be on the rise and the mortgage problems remain, although at a lighter pace. Budget deficits are at all levels of government - and all over the world. Stimulus packages are still in use in other lands.
Do you really think that this is over?