On 7/12/2010 1:24 PM, Joe from Kokomo wrote:
On 7/12/2010 11:57 AM, Beam Me Up Scotty wrote:

.....And our $787Billion for TARP is where?

From Wikipedia:

The Troubled Asset Relief Program, commonly referred to as TARP
or RCP, is a program of the United States government to purchase
assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its
financial sector which was signed into law by U.S. President
George W. Bush on October 3, 2008.

So, before you wet your pants too much about TARP, I hope you
realize that it was a gift from George W. Bush to all his Big
Business buddies.

On 7/12/2010 1:41 PM, Beam Me Up Scotty wrote:

Where's the cash?

In Obama's pocket?

Hopefully in *YOUR* pocket (see the last paragraph)...and please, from
now on, try and do your own homework.

Definition: The Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP) was created
in October 2008 as part of the $700 billion Bank Bailout bill. TARP
originally gave banks the right to submit a bid price to sell their
toxic mortgage-backed securities to the Treasury Dept. as part of a
reverse auction. Banks would offer to sell each MBS package, and
TARP administrators would select the lowest price offered. However,
Treasury could wind up paying too much, and banks were afraid they
wouldn't get enough, so the plan was shelved.

Instead, Treasury used $105 billion of TARP funds to buy preferred
stock in eight banks: Bank of New York Mellon, Goldman Sachs, J.P.
Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, Citigroup,
Wells Fargo, and State Street. The Capital Repurchase Program
required banks to give the government a 5% dividend that would
increase to 9%, encouraging banks to buy the government out. The
government would make a profit, as bank share prices should be
higher later.

TARP funds were used to buy preferred stock in, or loans to:

* AIG ($40 billion). * Community banks ($92 billion). * Big 3 auto
companies ($24.8 billion). * Citigroup and Bank of America ($45
billion).

An additional $20 billion of TARP was loaned to the Federal Reserve
TALF program. Only half of the $700 billion TARP bill was approved
by Congress in 2008. The rest is unused. (Source: Treasury Dept.)

President Obama wants to tax banks to repay taxpayers for $120-$141
billion it is estimated they will lose from TARP. Obama plans to
levy the tax over 10 years on the banks' riskiest activities, such
as trading, and not on their retail operations, which would get
passed on as higher prices to customers.