Remember when Congress, especially Republicans, fought like hell to stop TARP? If you recall our financial was locked up tighter than a Catholic girl at a convent on Christmas morning. The idea was to give taxpayers equity in the banking system. In return the banks were given a boatload of money. The result was supposed to allow for a return to lending between the banks, lending to regular folks like you and me, and help for all the idiots out there that bought McMansions with a five year interest only ARM that jumped to a fat ten percent rate.
If you follow the stock market at all the banks are showing signs of life. The stock prices for big banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America have rebounded significantly since the market bottom in March. The taxpayers of this country stood to make a tidy profit. But as the government begins to redeem the warrants it received for TARP, it seems that it's getting less than fair market value. In the handful of deals that have gone through so far the taxpayers are getting about 66 percent of what we should.
Guess who's crying foul? No, not the Republicans. Shockingly enough House Democrats are scolding the Treasury Department for not getting the going rate for its warrants. It seems the GOP doesn't seem too worried about the taxpayers getting the shaft. Instead of getting what was promised when we bailed out the banks, we're getting screwed.
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