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The Bailouts Were NOT Paid Back & Didn’t Make a Profit | Better Markets

The U.S. government created innumerable bailout programs that spent, lent, guaranteed, pledged, or otherwise used trillions and trillions of dollars to prevent a complete collapse of the financial system in 2007-2009 and to respond to the economic crisis it caused, the effects of which continue to this day.  The much ballyhooed $700 billion TARP program was but one of the countless emergency measures adopted to bail out Wall Street. 

The financial industry, its allies and purchased mouthpieces (plus way too many politicians who know better) attempt to minimize and understate the depth and cost of the crisis.  Indeed, some talk misleadingly as if TARP was the only government rescue program and some even claim that TARP will make money.  That is not accurate.  The TARP alone is currently projected to cost about $60 billion. 

However, even if all the money TARP lent was paid back, that doesn’t mean it would have “made” money.  The meritless claim that has been made is that if TARP (or any one of the other bailout programs) takes in one penny more than it lent (or the other programs spent, pledged, guaranteed, or  otherwise used), then it made money.  That is simply misleading spin and propaganda.  The only proper way to evaluate any of these programs is what any return was or should have been on a risk adjusted basis.

via The Bailouts Were NOT Paid Back & Didn't Make a Profit | Better Markets.

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