TARP Worked!

I imagine the prevailing belief is that the TARP bailout resulted in $700 billion lost. But recent reports have shown a dramatically different picture: The taxpayers have gotten almost all their money back!

Columbus Business First reports,

Few political issues have been so widely misunderstood by the public: While the government did bail out banks, the vast majority of that money has been returned with interest or significant capital gains to the public portfolio. The Treasury will make money on the banks, and it’s possible it could make a little on the help it gave to General Motors, the automaking stiff the administration saved from oblivion.

The article further notes,

The infusion of taxpayer capital stabilized the financial system by shoring up the most damaged banks’ balance sheets. The outcome for Citigroup may have been different without TARP, and Bank of America was drowning in toxic assets after its acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

With all the sentiment against further infusions of cash into the economy out there, this is something to keep in mind.