More than half of the TARP money was used to pay back the TARP loans and still it is difficult to get a loan. Wait a minute….when a government increases liquidity the banks are supposed to loan money (Finance 101) but that does not seem to be happening here. There is a monumental divergence going on and we cannot ignore the fact that this depression we have been in since 2000 is NOT going away soon. Consumers are changing and the businesses need to change their models significantly.
So TARP was yet another band aid solution to placate the rich and manage the stock market at the expense of the middle class. The TARP funds were used to provide banks with a better balance sheet and not used for the general population (as its intention) to help them in their financial turmoil. So the government and the banks failed to execute and the RICH (bank shareholders) who received TARP made the decision where the money should go…into their pocket, secure their companies and to fix their mistakes. It is good to be in the top 3% and be “too big to fail” since you always have the little people to bail you out.
A tidbit I learned on the IRS.GOV site…… 70% of tax filers have income below 57k.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program
Related Quote:
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right. Thomas Paine