Wow! Ain’t that a fancy graph effect? I guess that is what $10 billion will get for you. $10 billion, of course, being what the government has made so far on the Troubled Asset Relief Program. You remember that, right? Came on just before Archie Bunker? Ok, not really. It’s TARP, silly! TARP. You know, the “bank bailout.” It really should have been the “Citibank bailout” but nobody wanted Citibank to feel bad, so everybody joined in a got a little bit of that government scratch. Citi really needed it. Wachovia could have used some too, but a willing buyer makes all the difference in the world. Bank of America took some, of course, but they were just playin’.
“Now wait just a minute!” you say, “How do you figure $10 billion to the good when this graph clearly illustrates that there is $100 billion still out there?” Well that, my friends, is the beauty of the reallocation process. Most of what is still outstanding is money that went to AIG and the automakers. What’s that you say? You thought this money was for the banks? Bwahahahahah! Congress authorized the TARP program under a Republican Administration. Everybody knows that Congress does not authorize expenditures during Democratic administrations! You are a hoot!
If Congress is not going to authorize the funding to keep the economy stable, the Executive Branch has to come up with some way to make it happen. To wit: the redirection of the TARP funds. ($410 billion is peanuts compared to what the Federal Reserve has been up to, by the way.) So, without Congressional support, the Administration had to take highly unpopular steps in order to avoid financial calamity. Good thing we’ll never be in that position again!