World-News

Christina Rexrode, The Charlotte Observer: "TARP has struggled to clarify its purpose and organize its logistics, according to the three government groups in charge of overseeing the program. They say the Treasury Department, which administers TARP, is tight-lipped on some important matters, such as how officials decide which banks qualify for it. They complain that TARP doesn't have the staffing to make sure banks are complying with the rules attached to the money. There's even disagreement about how much money is actually left."

http://www.truthout.org/041009S

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Rise of the TARP state

National Review
by Rich Lowry

04/10/09

How many legislators thought that in supporting TARP they were giving the federal government the power to bail out the auto industry, let alone fire a CEO and effectively run companies? When word came down in October that GMAC, the financial arm of General Motors, was considering becoming a bank holding company to get TARP funds, it seemed a violation of the spirit of the law. But GMAC needn’t have bothered. Through TARP, government funds went directly to GM and Chrysler, even after Congress declined to authorize them. As he was using the leverage created by TARP to fire GM’s CEO, Pres. Barack Obama guaranteed warranties for GM and Chrysler cars. He set up special warranty accounts — funded, naturally, with TARP dollars. TARP is an endlessly flexible slush fund that has given the federal government warrant to intervene in the private sector however it pleases. A lawlessness has inhered in TARP since Bush Treasury secretary Henry Paulson sold it to Congress under essentially false pretenses. The Obama administration continues in the same tradition...

http://tinyurl.com/c4k9ue


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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