Wednesday, April 22, 2009

TARP Anecdote

I was talking to someone at a bank and he said the form needed to receive TARP funds was 4 pages. The form needed to pay it back, 16.

He also said that all new initiatives were being blocked until the TARP funds are paid back. That is, TARP is considered so harmful, that it is the number one dis-investment priority. Meanwhile, the Treasury is wary of letting banks pay the money back. New lending, necessary for actual economic growth, is being constrained by TARP debt.

The law of unintended consequences at work.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand why Treasury wanted to ~force banks to take TARP in the first place, but what incentive does Treasury have to make it hard for banks to return the money? Is the only reason that the Obama administration wants to keep some grasp on the policies and/or operations of these banks? If so, this is really sad and despicable. Could there be other reasons?

Anonymous said...

the reason for preventing banks to return the money is exactly the same reason for forcing them to take it in the first place ... the reason for forcing all the banks to take TARP (key word "all") is that nono of them displays weakness be taking it, ergo: allowing banks themselves when to pay back reveals which are too weak ... TARP is the bisggest and most expensive smokescreen the world has ever seen AND it is funded by u n me!!! ... hard to believe that we live in a democrazy