Should the government have earned more from TARP?
Under the unpopular bank bailout program, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, better known as TARP, the government invested money in struggling banks, and eventually got something in return. But the program’s end got Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for our partner The New York Times, thinking about whether the big banks got a better deal than the government did, when everything was said and done.
Louise adds up the numbers and looks at the stakes the government took in big business over the last few years. Taxpayers took a 92 percent stake in AIG, a 61 percent stake in GM and a much smaller stake in the big banks. Did we miss out on a big windfall now that the banking business is booming again?
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