Neil Barofsky, the soon-to-be-former Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program – the government’s $700 billion fund to bailout the banks – was never well liked at the Treasury Department, even though that is technically where he worked. Timothy Geithner reportedly repeatedly tried to have him fired, or at least have Barofsky’s role downsized. Now it appears the feelings were mutual.
Barofsky was confirmed by the Senate back in December 2008 to be one of two watchdogs who monitored how the Treasury Department doled out the $700 billion fund that Congress approved at the height of the financial crisis to bailout the banks and save the economy. (The other was Elizabeth Warren who for a while ran the Congressional Oversight …show more content…
2) TARP has not ended the foreclosure crisis. Barofsky says the Treasury Department stalled before announcing a program that officials said would help 4 million borrowers who were facing foreclosure. But the program was weak and underfunded. So far the Treasury Department’s key Home Affordable Modification Program has helped fewer than 600,000 borrowers. Another 800,000 borrowers have entered the program, only to have their temporary modifications canceled. Foreclosures continue to mount across the country.
3) TARP was supposed to end Too-Big-To-Fail. Barofsky says Congress approved the bailout fund with the idea they were only willing to do it if they never had to do it again. In other words, we’ll give you a bailout as long as you put in place the necessary reforms so that we won’t have to bailout the mega banks again. Yet, Barofsky says TARP has not only done nothing to solve the problem of Too-Big-To-Fail, it probably has made it worse by enabling the mega banks to stay mega. In fact, Barofsky says the big banks are now 20% larger than they were before the
Barofsky was confirmed by the Senate back in December 2008 to be one of two watchdogs who monitored how the Treasury Department doled out the $700 billion fund that Congress approved at the height of the financial crisis to bailout the banks and save the economy. (The other was Elizabeth Warren who for a while ran the Congressional Oversight …show more content…
2) TARP has not ended the foreclosure crisis. Barofsky says the Treasury Department stalled before announcing a program that officials said would help 4 million borrowers who were facing foreclosure. But the program was weak and underfunded. So far the Treasury Department’s key Home Affordable Modification Program has helped fewer than 600,000 borrowers. Another 800,000 borrowers have entered the program, only to have their temporary modifications canceled. Foreclosures continue to mount across the country.
3) TARP was supposed to end Too-Big-To-Fail. Barofsky says Congress approved the bailout fund with the idea they were only willing to do it if they never had to do it again. In other words, we’ll give you a bailout as long as you put in place the necessary reforms so that we won’t have to bailout the mega banks again. Yet, Barofsky says TARP has not only done nothing to solve the problem of Too-Big-To-Fail, it probably has made it worse by enabling the mega banks to stay mega. In fact, Barofsky says the big banks are now 20% larger than they were before the