Treasury officials like to claim that all of the funds ($245 billion) dispersed under the Capital Purchase Program (CPP) have been repaid with interest – and that U.S. taxpayers have actually reaped a profit of $10 billion.
There is more to this story. When the Fed highlights their TARP profits, they are only counting the positive payers. They are not accounting for the those parties who have not repaid their TARP bailout frunds. And they are allegedly not accounting for the market value of some of the ‘crap’ Mortgage Backed Securities (and other) assets on their books – which they purchased with trillions of dollars.
Furthermore, according to the calculations of one group called Ethisphere, the TARP payback shortfall stands at a tall $148 billion. This averages out to a debt of over $1200 for every American. (Source: Taibblog 9-1-09)
Capital Purchase Program (CPP) is a leg of the TARP bailout, whereby “Treasury bought preferred shares in the nation’s banks” to rescue many of the banks from failure.
Here are some of the big ones:
|
Date |
Financial Institution |
City |
State |
Amount |
| 10/28/2008 | Wells Fargo & Co. | San Francisco | Calif. | $25,000,000,000 |
| 10/28/2008 | State Street Corp. | Boston | Mass. | $2,000,000,000 |
| 10/28/2008 | Bank of America Corp.1 | Charlotte | N.C. | $15,000,000,000 |
| 10/28/2008 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | New York | N.Y. | $25,000,000,000 |
| 10/28/2008 | Citigroup Inc. | New York | N.Y. | $25,000,000,000 |
| 10/28/2008 | Morgan Stanley | New York | N.Y. | $10,000,000,000 |
| 10/28/2008 | Goldman Sachs Group Inc. | New York | N.Y. | $10,000,000,000 |
| 10/28/2008 | Bank of New York Mellon Corp. | New York | N.Y. | $3,000,000,000 |
And here is the full list of the Bank recipients: http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/storysupplement/bankbailout/
Remember that many of the ‘big players’ like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and others received sizeable credit extensions from the Federal Reserve at (near) zero percent interest, and were able to use those funds to purchase Treasury securities paying 3% interest – thereby gaining access to ‘free money’ to rebuild their solvency. And pay back TARP disbursements to the Fed.
So, yes, many of the major players did repay the TARP disbursements – but they did it with the benefit of the ‘free money’ they had access to from other programs. And that ‘free money’ giveaway by the Fed – does dilute the value of the U.S. Dollar.
And that ‘hits’ American families with higher prices for such things as food and energy.
Furthermore, some of the smaller banks actually paid back TARP bailout funds with other funds borrowed from the Small Business Lending Fund. These included (July 14, 2011):
- Eagle Bancorp of Bethesda, MD: $23.235 million
- First California Financial, Westlake Village, CA: $25 million
- Cache Valley Bank, Logan, UT: $4.77 million, plus $263,000 to buy back preferred shares granted to Treasury in lieu of warrants
- Security Business Bancorp, San Diego, CA: $5.8 million, plus $290,000 to buy back preferred shares granted to Treasury in lieu of warrants
- BOH Holdings of Houston, Houston, TX: $10 million, plus $500,000 to buy back preferred shares granted to Treasury in lieu of warrants
- BancIndependent, Sheffield, AL: $21.1 million, plus $1.055 million to buy back preferred shares granted to Treasury in lieu of warrants
- York Traditions Bank, York, PA: $4.871 million, plus $244,000 to buy back preferred shares granted to Treasury in lieu of warrants
- Centric Financial, Harrisburg, PA: $6.056 million, plus $182
The shell games being played by our government on behalf of the banks is a disservice to U.S. citizens.
The Leviticus 25 Plan recapture provisions, on the other hand, provide an honest, straightforward mechanism for recapturing the funds extended, while providing direct benefits to American families..