Business

Bailout helped but at a great cost
by Magdalena Rosova

The bailout of $700 billion dollars that American government released for the financial industry took a main part in rescuing the economy over the past year. On the other hand, the bailout caused anger and distrust among people because of the way the program was handled. Nail Barafosky, the special inspector general who is in charge of oversight the bailout fund, appeared in a quarterly report released last Wednesday. In the report Barofsky said the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) cost taxpayers a lot and it also effected the public's perception of the government. Barofsky added that many aspects of the program can be viewed as a big success, but he warns that the ac! tions of the Treasury also damaged the credibility of both, the program and the government itself, and spread cynicism, anger and distrust among people. The TARP program began under the government of President George W. Bush and continued under President Barack Obama. According to Barofsky the main reason why public feel bad about the program is because of the Treasury's decision not to require banks to report how they used money from the bailout. The program was also criticized by Congress. Liberals say the program should be more focused on small businesses and homeowners and not big financial firms. But conservatives argue that the program has proved to be unnecessary for the financial sector and therefore should be removed quickly. Barofsky's report described various activities carried out under the TARP – some help the biggest institution on Wall Street, some are designed to encourage the struggling auto industry and others help homeowners who face foreclos! ure. Barofsky said many recipients of the bailout attempted to! avoid a ccountability to the taxpayers.

related story (sgx15681): http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/21/news/economy/sigtarp_bailout...

by Magdalena Rosova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

posted by Blog TechSource @ 7:07 PM