It looks like the cost of avoiding another Great Depression will be about $51 billion — a lot less than originally thought. Turn off the TV, sit in a quiet corner and think about that for a minute.
The Troubled Asset Relief Program cost taxpayers a lot of money, but it was a cheap price for avoiding bread lines and 25 percent unemployment. It’s a price every taxpayer should be thankful for, but many are too angry to be thankful.
It’s a classic disconnect.
Bailing out banks is proving to be a money-maker for U.S. taxpayers. Whether or not you agree with the politics of the bailout, there’s no denying the Troubled Asset Relief Program has paid off for the U.S. Treasury.
Most of the money has been repaid, although a handful of banks have yet to pay us back for keeping them alive.
“Of the $205 billion the Treasury doled out to 707 banks, $137 billion has been repaid. From the 61 banks that have fully repaid, the Treasury has earned a tidy $13 billion profit,” Forbes.com reports.
Fox Business News’ stocks editor Elizabeth MacDonald has a not-so-comforting take on General Motors’ television campaign touting the pay back of taxpayer loans.
Read her blog post here.
The government bailout of automakers GM and Chrysler likely will take years to unwind and cost taxpayers mroe money, MacDonald says.
Curious about what you, the taxpayers, now own after government bailouts of AIG and Bear Stearns?
Read this by Elizabeth MacDonald, stocks editor for Fox Business Network.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has made a lot of headlines during the administration’s first year.
Today was no exception.
In an interview today he said it was “deeply unfair” that many Americans are still suffering while some companies are stronger than even after being bailed out by taxpapers. He understands why many Americans are hacked off.
Well, duh! Of course we’re hacked off.