$68 Billion Returns to Bailout Kitty
The Treasury Department announced today that 10 banks have been approved to repay their TARP funds. We've added them to our list of banks that have dropped out of the bailout (they're the ones at the top of the list). The banks haven't actually paid back the money yet, but that should happen soon, as all have indicated that they'll be doing so. Counting those, 31 banks will have repaid a total of $70 billion.
The refunds provide more flexibility to the Treasury Department in how it uses bailout money. Whereas only about $67 billion remained uncommitted of the $700 billion TARP before the refunds, now about $135 billion remains.
Speaking this afternoon, President Barack Obama said the funds would be available to be spent ("to safeguard against continuing risks to financial stability") while at the same time trumpeting the idea that they are being saved: "as this money is returned, we'll see our national debt lessened by $68 billion - billions of dollars that this generation will not have to borrow and future generations will not have to repay."
As big banks return their TARP money, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to be a drain.
Latest Stories in this Project
- Search the Fed's Documents Detailing Their Lending to Banks During the Crisis
- Behind Administration Spin: Bailout Still $123 Billion in the Red
- The Bailout Yearbook: The Stars and the Slackers
- Identifying Suspicious Short Selling, But Not Who's Behind the Trades
- Treasury's 'Point Man' on AIG Bailout That Benefited Goldman, Owned Goldman Stock
Get Updates
Our Hottest Stories
- Donations to Scott Walker Flagged as Potential Fraud
- In Race For Better Cell Service, Men Who Climb Towers Pay With Their Lives
- Billion Dollar Bait & Switch: States Divert Foreclosure Deal Funds
- Pardon Attorney Torpedoes Plea for Presidential Mercy
- Patient Died at New York VA Hospital After Alarm Was Ignored
- Finding Oscar: Massacre, Memory and Justice in Guatemala
- Introducing the ProPublica Patient Harm Community on Facebook
- Built for a Simpler Era, OSHA Struggles When Tower Climbers Die
- Got Student Loans? Share Your Documents With Us
- Remember Stuxnet? Why the U.S. is Still Vulnerable
- Donations to Scott Walker Flagged as Potential Fraud
- Pardon Attorney Torpedoes Plea for Presidential Mercy
- In Race For Better Cell Service, Men Who Climb Towers Pay With Their Lives
- Air Force Pilots Balk at Flying the World’s Most Expensive Fighter Jet
- Patient Died at New York VA Hospital After Alarm Was Ignored
- Watchdog Group Calls for Probe of Lobbyists Behind Congressional Trip to Taiwan
- Billion Dollar Bait & Switch: States Divert Foreclosure Deal Funds
- Finding Oscar: Massacre, Memory and Justice in Guatemala
- Broadcasters Sue to...Block Transparency
- Happy Graduation! Here's The Best, Most Depressing Journalism on Student Debt
