I can’t wait until local and regional banks discover a market that wants to do business with an institution that can hang a banner in the window that says:

NO TARP MONEY USED HERE! NO STRINGS ATTACHED TO YOUR LOAN!

(Sort of like the “Dolphin Free” label on tuna, and the “No BGH” label on milk)

BobMbx on March 26, 2009 at 9:34 PM

I’ve already seen that here…

They are now being tarred and feathered if they run an ad campaign as abusing the funds, nevermind the idea that the government will start putting them under the bonus microscope.

They will bail out on the government.

From the White House through the halls of Congress, Washington is losing its zeal for an all-out fight over hefty executive bonuses, now that it wants the financial companies it blames for the collapse of the U.S. economy to help clean up the mess.

Battered wife syndrome:

[beat] [beat] [beat]

“Ah c’mon baby. You know I didn’t mean it…”

Disgusting with individuals. Disgusting with Congress.

A TARP just covers up the problem…

right2bright on March 26, 2009 at 5:11 PM

Best statement on this topic as TARP has indeed become a cover-up for democrats seizing control of the banks, a cover-up for what led to this disaster of TOXIC assetts, and finally a cover-up for the socialization of America.

The Bush administration did the initial strong arming I believe.

WashJeff on March 26, 2009 at 5:18 PM

A statement like that needs demands a link to back it up. Got one?

Suddenly, TARP money looks … bad; Update: Congress gets a clue

Come on folks, you’re not looking past the smell, or through the smoke screen. You’re selling our congressional dim-wits to short. Credit them to being smarter than they really sound, or look.

Originally, TARP funds was a silver lining to the thieves on Wall Street, and of course to cover democrats butts that created the mess.

TARP funding so far has been around 350Bil. The toxic asset or government owned bad bank will take about two trillion or more of Wall Streets defunct mortgage assets. So if our benevolent government plays tooth fairy, then why would any troubled Wall Street financial firm want TARP funds? In the end, it will be us taxpayers who will bear the full brunt of irresponsible congressional social engineering, and greedy investors!

I predict getaloaf won’t be here next week – big G20 meeting in Britain, right?

You had better believe Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs are paying the government back as soon as they can.

rockmom on March 26, 2009 at 8:16 PM

WF could just hand over what they got in the Wachovia snatch to the Treasury and call it even.

NO TARP MONEY USED HERE! NO STRINGS ATTACHED TO YOUR LOAN!

(Sort of like the “Dolphin Free” label on tuna, and the “No BGH” label on milk)

Term Limits.
It took FDR to get it for the President. I hope this is what it takes to get it for Congress. Then we don’t have incompetence like Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. Everyone is a citzen and know they have to go home and live with the laws they pass. But it has to be national!

petunia on March 26, 2009 at 6:46 PM

Amen!

You had better believe Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs are paying the government back as soon as they can.

USBank CEO, Richard Davis said, “The problems with the U.S. Treasury Department’s program are that its goals and rules have changed since its inception last fall, it’s poorly defined and it’s caused collateral damage to healthy banks.

Davis said he would be “darned” if Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank would suffer collateral damage from the government’s “sloppy attempt at nationalizing the [banking] industry.”

This TARP thing is going to unravel sooner rather than later…and then we will see which banks gleefully accepted funds, and which banks were strongarmed into taking funding.

Hint: OneUnited Bank asked for $50 million in bailout money. Asked for it. Now, which leading member of Congress has close ties to OneUnited?

Second hint: She’s the one who tried to get Geithner over the coals, but actually made Geithner look good.

… meanwhile somewhere in the esteemed halls of congress some dimwit Pelosi lacky is feverishly working on a bill to make the payback of TARP funds illegal or something …

gatorboy on March 26, 2009 at 5:06 PM

It will probably be done by the same mysterious, invisible, staffer-without-a-name entity that changed Dodd’s amendment re AIG bonus rules without his knowledge.

I’m pretty sure it’s actually a rogue teleprompter that got passed over for a promotion to HDTVompter.

So, I buy a condo “estimated” at $100k for $7k, sell it for $50k, and pocket the “profit”. If I do this fast enough, they won’t be able to change the rules on me… How can I lose? (grin)

My guess is this kind of program will only be open to “Friends Of Barry”…
acat on March 26, 2009 at 6:03 PM

If the investor makes money, the Fed makes money too (and conversely, before the Fed loses any the investor is out all of their cash). It would be great if true market prices could get re-instated across the board by private investors while the Fed gets to bring in some cash home. What’s the problem? The banks are going to take a hair cut, but they have already had to make so many steep write downs thanks to mark to market, that might already be all accounted for.

Wait, isn’t this the way it should be?

One of the chief concerns about the bailouts was that everybody was just taking free money with no consequences. Whether or not you agree with the AIG bonus tax, making recipients think twice about whether to accept funds will the effect of companies that don’t *really* need the money not accepting it. Which is exactly what we want, right?

tneloms on March 26, 2009 at 6:18 PM

Exactly. With all the hysteria here about “giving away” money only a few have realized that these were loans and not grants. The banks should be highly motivated to get off the public teet. Sort of how living on welfare shouldn’t be fun–there should be an incentive to get back on your feet.

TARP was a fugly mess, both parties didn’t know what there were doing, but then again the whole crisis was a fugly mess that definitely did need some dealing with. If these banks really do pay back the money and get back to business, I’d consider that a huge success.

Republicans are now placed in the unenviable position of saying I didn’t know what I was voting for, I was misled. There are precious few, only 15 Republicans, who voted against TARP (see below) and even fewer who articulated a free market conservative position in doing so. Heck I would have settled for a politician simply saying they were not going to vote for TARP because they didn’t think it would work. Alas we are stuck with the same group of lousy hacks who got us into this mess.

NAYs —25
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cochran (R-MS)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feingold (D-WI)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Johnson (D-SD)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sanders (I-VT)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)
Wyden (D-OR)

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00213

Term Limits.

It took FDR to get it for the President. I hope this is what it takes to get it for Congress. Then we don’t have incompetence like Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. Everyone is a citzen and know they have to go home and live with the laws they pass. But it has to be national!

Hah. It has only just begun.

calguyintexas on March 26, 2009 at 5:46 PM

Thank you, but:

Esthier on March 26, 2009 at 5:19 PM

Made some good points…too many banks came in like the scavengers some are, and tried to get a free ride.
The free ride though was dependent on some major banks that were coerced by the feds…the feds knew if the majors didn’t buy into it, it would not have worked.

These Weimar (Frankenstein hating) Republicans (Paul Ryan has admitted his problem and is absolved) are part of the problem.

Then today Republicans release an alternative budget to the press WITHOUT ANY NUMBERS OR SPECIFIC BUDGET CUTTING PROPOSALS. Even Gibbsey got to club that baby seal. : (

Heads must roll, this is incompetence taken to a new level.

This level of incompetence does not happen in a vacuum, could Steele be on Soros’ payroll, too?