I'm just glad that this is one of the very few threads where there seems to be some intelligent people, not a bunch of 19 year olds pretending how smart they are.
I'm just glad that this is one of the very few threads where there seems to be some intelligent people, not a bunch of 19 year olds pretending how smart they are.
I haven't read the entire thread, so this may already have been touched on. Besides the many other disturbing aspects of the TARP, what I find most troubling is that the legislation was based entirely on a lie regarding how the funds would be used. The $700 billion was supposed to be spent buying up illiquid "troubled" assets that were weighing down the balance sheets of banks, brokerages, and other financial institutions. Paulson and the Bush White House assured us this would prevent the looming financial armageddon.
To date not one dime has been spent to buy these assets. The latest accounting I've seen:
$250 billion - Capital Purchase Program (money given to banks in exchange for preferred shares)
$70 billion - given to AIG
$40 billion - Targeted Investment Program (basically money given to Citi and Bank of America)
$5 billion - Asset Guarantee Program (more money given to Citi)
$100 billion - TALF (leverage money given to private investors to buy "troubled" assets)
$31 billion - GM and Chrysler
$165 billion - Financial Stability Plan (not including TALF money)
That comes to $661 billion committed so far. Notice there isn't a category for "troubled assets purchased by the Treasury".
Jakob Ingebrigtsen has a 1989 Ferrari 348 GTB and he's just put in paperwork to upgrade it
Is there a rule against attaching a helium balloon to yourself while running a road race?
Strava thinks the London Marathon times improved 12 minutes last year thanks to supershoes
How rare is it to run a sub 5 minute mile AND bench press 225?
Mark Coogan says that if you could only do 3 workouts as a 1500m runner you should do these
Am I living in the twilight zone? The Boston Marathon weather was terrible!
Move over Mark Coogan, Rojo and John Kellogg share their 3 favorite mile workouts