Thursday, February 5, 2009

Congressional Panel Finds TARP Has Overpaid By 30% So Far

According to a government watchdog group, the federal government has massively overpaid for assets it has so far purchased on its TARP program. The chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the bailout funds (good to know someone is overseeing this trainwreck) has informed the Senate Banking committee on Thursday that in 2008 the Treasury paid $254 billion and received assets worth $176 billion, paying a juicy 30% premium in 2008 alone.

The report noted that the by January 23 the Treasury TARP's fund had spent $294 billion on 300 companies, but the silver lining is that the government has received $271 million in dividends. So in typical government fashion the math works out as follows: $78 billion in capital losses offset by $271 in dividends. Taxpayers everywhere rejoice on losing just 77.729 billion in the past 3 months.

(Via Breitbart)
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Quelle surprise.

SPDWatcher said...

Dividends? How on earth are failing companies paying dividends? This workd truly IS messed up.

Realist Theorist said...

This Congressional Oversight Panel's report is more political spin than real news.

When the government gave AIG money, did people think that private investors were standing by willing to give AIG the same amount of money on the same terms?

Of course not! Therefore, the money was a subsidy. In it's details, this report tries to explain that the money was not a 100% subsidy.

BTW, even if AIG pays back the government in full, the money is still a subsidy.

For more check this out.