TARP Inspector General Reports

This article summarizes the outlays and insurance-like guarantees made by the Federal Government to prop up the economy. The total? $23.7 TRILLION.

TARP has come to include 12 separate programs that include a total of as much as $3 trillion

The special inspector general counted approximately 50 initiatives or programs launched since 2007 to fight the economic collapse.

The Federal Reserve, he found, has increased its balance sheet from $900 billion to more than $2 trillion, and Barofsky estimated that the total amount of support to the economy by the fed is at least $6.8 trillion, because it is exposed to significant losses if many of the assets guaranteed by the Fed deteriorate in value.

The FDIC, Barofsky writes, has contributed $2 trillion in “new gross potential support.”

The Federal Housing Finance Agency – “under whose auspices fall the Government Sponsored Enterprises such as Fannie Mae [and] Freddie Mac,” – has effectively provided more than $6 trillion in gross potential support.

Treasury itself, Barofsky concludes, has contributed nearly $4 trillion of potential support to the economy beyond the TARP program itself.

There are a lot of people who saw the misuse of these funds before they were approved. Elections have consequences, all right, and the Tyranny of the Majority (and the endless mistrust in government) is alive and well.