Yet More Shenanigans

By John Santelli

So we all know that more than $200 billion was paid out to 500 collapsing banks under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). It wasn’t the best deal for taxpayers, but it was that or financial Armageddon. Now as things are starting to turn for the better some of the big banks are starting to make early repayments of the funds they borrowed, and that my friend is a scandal. Or at least it should be, but it seems that people are numb to the financial shenanigans

The treasury quietly let it be known on 9.Jun 2009 that 10 big banks were to be permitted to pay back $68bn. This is a disgusting capitulation on the part of the government that tells us that none of the ethical woes that plague our system are really fixed.

The taxpayer is due $2 billion interest per annum on this $68bn, so why should we give up this benefit now that things are looking better. After all it was our financial futures that Hank Paulson was gambling with back in September when he dreamed up TARP and presented congress with a three page plan written on the back of napkin.

With this early repayment the banks now escape the control of the government and are free to start hiring with abandon, and to dream up new bonus packages tied to the creation of dangerous and profitable financial products. At the same time we still have no idea how these banks will unload their troubled mortgage investments, so we remain in a credit crisis.

The ten banks exiting TARP are:

• JP Morgan Chase
• Northern Trust
• The State Street Corporation
• U.S. Bancorp
• Goldman Sachs
• Morgan Stanley
• American Express
• Bank of New York Mellon
• BB& T Corporation

John Santelli writes about the troubled assets relief program at http://troubled-asset-relief-program.net

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