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You can't say you have a "profit" until all the money is paid back and then have more than you paid out.
Of course you can.
If you do 2 transactions and one of them makes you money, you made a profit on THAT transaction. On the banks TARP made a profit. Overall it's not a profit of course - but then again I never said it was. However all the screams of things like: "THE GOVERNMENT NEVER RECOVER ANY OF THAT $341 BILLION" that were being let loose over the past months is proving to be simply not true (like most of the predictions of the Wingnuts (remember the stupid claims that "the US will be like Zimbabwe"?).
Will we recover ALL of that TARP money?
Probably not - but what was spent was well worth it if kept the economy from falling into the "total collapse" the "Doom and Gloom" crowd were apparently cheering for.
What IS clear is that the final amount that taxpayers are out will end up being a LOT less than predicted.
Amazing that people fall for this shell game. Ponzi. Madoff and the like gave better returns than this...for a while. The TARP will be meaningless when inflation makes the "money" worthless. If you loan a bum 100.00 and he goes to the race track and wins another 50 how does that help when he loses 150.00 on the next race?
Amazing that people fall for this shell game. Ponzi. Madoff and the like gave better returns than this...for a while. The TARP will be meaningless when inflation makes the "money" worthless.
Problem with your comment is - it AIN'T gonna happen.
The Fed is better positioned to deal with potential inflation than at any time in it's history. Interest rates are the absolute lowest they've ever been - meaning the Fed can easily allow interest rates to creep up and take the wind out of any inflation without having to raise them so high as to stop the recovery. And let's not even get into the other options the Fed can do to prevent inflation...
The end result is we will be fine. Things will be a bit "iffy" for a while yet and there are plenty of challenges to overcome, but we'll get through them just as we've gotten through the other crises' of the past year.
Of course, the government’s potential losses extend beyond the Treasury program. The Federal Reserve, for example, still holds a trillion-dollar portfolio of mortgage-backed securities whose market value is unknown.
Well teh banks have never been the real worry;iuts GM;Chrysler and the stimulus that we will owe on for a century.
GM will payback all of it's loan, Chrysler probably so, AIG is a bigger concern, but they'll probably pay it back too - and it will probably all happen within the next 3 years.
The stimulus money will more than pay for itself in the form of increased tax revenues as the economy recovers - especially when you consider what those tax revenues would have been had the economy remained in the toilet for the much longer time it would have without the stimulus.
In truth, the bailout was one of the few smart things GW did (and he was crucified for it by the Wingnuts). This is a case where both he and Obama (and their respective administrations) share some credit.
Ken
Odd how so many folks didn't understand that there was a decent probability that most, if not all, of the initial TARP money would ultimately be paid back.
Funny how folks can't differentiate between loans and gifts.
GM will payback all of it's loan, Chrysler probably so, AIG is a bigger concern, but they'll probably pay it back too - and it will probably all happen within the next 3 years.
The stimulus money will more than pay for itself in the form of increased tax revenues as the economy recovers - especially when you consider what those tax revenues would have been had the economy remained in the toilet for the much longer time it would have without the stimulus.
Ken
I agree with you, except that I'm a bit more pessimistic about the Chrysler payback.
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