TARP Transparency, Stimulating Recession and Union Arrogance
Congress cites a lack of financial transparency in a report sharply critical of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout.
The economies of Germany and France emerge from recession.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) blasts union leaders for claiming to have influence over Obama administration executive appointments.
Listen to LibertyWeek, the entertaining and insightful CEI podcast.
1. BUSINESS
Congress cites a lack of financial transparency in a report sharply critical of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Regulatory Studies Fellow Ryan Young on the program’s larger problems:
“TARP’s biggest problem is that it makes the price of risk lower than its actual cost. Say an investment firm puts a lot of money into a risky investment, like securitized mortgages. If it goes bad, the firm pays a very low price; the government bails it out. But that low price does not reflect the cost of the defaulted mortgages, which hasn’t changed a penny. Someone still has to pay for defaulted mortgages. Under TARP, that would be taxpayers. We are all paying the cost of the bad decisions of a few.”
2. INTERNATIONAL
The economies of Germany and France emerge from recession.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Attorney Hans Bader on what the U.S. can learn from their experience:
“France’s conservative President adopted a much smaller $31 billion stimulus package [than the U.S.], which, unlike Obama’s, was focused on productive investment, not welfare or social services. $14.5 billion of France’s stimulus package was earmarked for injection ‘into private sector enterprises.’ Billions more were for investments in infrastructure, construction projects, and railways. In the U.S., Obama pushed through a much more costly, welfare-filled $800 billion stimulus package through fear-mongering. Obama claimed his stimulus package was needed to prevent ‘disaster’ and ‘irreversible decline.’”
3. POLITICS
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) blasts union leaders for claiming to have influence over Obama administration executive appointments.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Editorial Director Ivan Osorio on the union’s self-aggrandizing claim:
“Obama critics have accused his administration of being too cozy with organized labor, but it’s not often that a union says the same thing. This should put the onus on the administration to show some daylight between itself and Big Labor, but I won’t be holding my breath.”
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.