Was Paulson Right?
filed in Daily Buzz News on Aug.31, 2009
The Baseline Scenario submits:
By James Kwak
The New York Times has a story about how the government is making a profit on its TARP investments: “The profits, collected from eight of the biggest banks that have fully repaid their obligations to the government, come to about $4 billion, or the equivalent of about 15 percent annually.” The article has plenty of appropriate caveats – the total bailout went well beyond TARP, the Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC) investments and asset guarantees are still out there, we still have a ton of money sunk into AIG (AIG) – but the fact remains that some of the investments are getting paid back, with interest and with a modest bonus from the warrants issued to Treasury.