United Liberty
Treasury Department
Federal Government Lacks Courage to Hold Businesses Accountable
Wed, 11/12/2008 - 11:56am | posted by Mitchell E Abeln
The Treasury Department has allocated $250 billion to buy senior preferred shares of dozens of the nation’s largest banks as part of the “Troubled Asset Relief Program,” (TARP). Our government however, has haphazardly invested these relief funds in banks that have shown a propensity for making irresponsible and imprudent business decisions. On top of a lack of disclosure of the criteria for approved banks the government has displayed no consideration for the American public. By printing new money and diluting existing shareholder positions our leaders have proven they care more about saving poorly run businesses than their constituents.
Taxpayers lose $400 billion on Fannie and Freddie bailouts
Sat, 01/02/2010 - 3:32pm | posted by Jason Pye
This isn’t exactly the type of news that taxpayers want to start off the year with, consider how bad 2008 and 2009 went:
Taxpayer losses from supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will top $400 billion, according to Peter Wallison, a former general counsel at the Treasury who is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
“The situation is they are losing gobs of money, up to $400 billion in mortgages,” Wallison said in a Bloomberg Television interview. The Treasury Department recognized last week that losses will be more than $400 billion when it raised its limit on federal support for the two government-sponsored enterprises, he said.
[…]
The Treasury said on Dec. 24 it would provide an unlimited amount of assistance to the companies as needed for the next three years to alleviate market concern that the government lifeline for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest source of money for U.S. home loans, could lapse or be exhausted.
Lax regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led to the mortgage companies taking on too many risky loans, Wallison said.
So while we’re hearing that taxpayers didn’t lose as much money as we thought we did with TARP, they’re still losing money with other bailouts. And to make matters worse, the Obama Administration and Congress are reflating the housing bubble by getting behind bad public policy, such as the $8,000 tax credit for home buyers.
Economically Rough Times Make Strange Bedfellows
Sat, 12/06/2008 - 12:13pm | posted by Michael Orion Powell
The New Yorker has an article this week on committed leftist Naomi Klein. In it, she summarizes correctly the delusions of grandeur that pervade the Treasury Department:
