Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke told us when the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was launched that they were not concerned about the health of our banking system. In fact, this was not the case. They were concerned about specific institutions and the overall health of the system. The U.S. financial system was much weaker than we were led to believe as I indicated at the time.
Now the TARP Special Inspector Neil Barofsky is telling the American people what many of us knew all along. Listen to what he says in the video below with MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan. His contention that these false premises undermined the credibility of TARP and subsequent government economic policy rings true. Even today, we don’t know what the banks are doing with their TARP funds. If they are loaning it out, why is the unemployment rate 9.8%?
By the way, I love D-Rat. This is a guy who likes to talk – god bless him. Sometimes he goes on way too much, but I like his approach.