7 Facts You May Not Know About the TARP Capital Purchase Program

I was reading an article by Fortune magazine about the TARP funds and one fact caught my eye. Did you know that the TARP application is only 2 pages? I mean, is it 2 separate pages with fields on the front and page of each page? Then I found the official TARP form, and all was clear. It is 2 pages with 20 fields to fill out, half of which are things like company name, signatures and contact information.

This got me to research a little more and here are 7 interesting facts about the beloved TARP.

Application for banks to receive tax payers money (TARP funds) is only 2 pages while we mail 30+ (at least) page packages each year to pay taxes. No banks provided specific answers to where the TARP money was spent when Associated Press asked 21 banks that got at least $1 billion in TARP money. Some banks just say “I don’t know” (according to wikipedia) Ken Lewis (CEO of Bank of America) wanted to back out of the Merrill Lynch deal and was told by Bernanke and Paulson that BofA had to close the deal. Those two even told Lewis that renegotiating a better price for BofA is not an option (according to Fortune magazine) NY Times is keeping tabs on who is getting TARP funds, while the government doesn’t have a list publicly. (The government does sent out notices, but not when funds are committed. They just let the public know in batches.) Before the Obama administration ever took office, $379.8 billion of the whole TARP fund has already been committed. (see NY Times link) I thought any funds over the first 350 billion was supposed to be voted and approved by congress before the treasury department can use it, but for some reason I never heard of news on that. (I could’ve missed it, so could someone point me to mentions of it?) Last week, Eizabeth Waren of the Congressional Oversight Panel said that the government paid $254 billion for assets that were worth only $176 billion in 2008. So much for making money on these things.

Maybe we should just sit back and relax because it’s not like we can do anything about it anyway. I wonder if they can at least streamline the unemployment application because at least more people can benefit from that. A 2-pager would be nice.