KeithHennessey.com

Of the original $700 B of TARP funding, CBO estimates that $439 B of the original $700 B has been spent, $280 B of that will be repaid and $159 B will not be repaid and will be a cost to the taxpayer. When you include the costs of FDIC actions and the bailouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the expected cost to the taxpayer rises to about $553 B.

Many of you are new to this blog since I wrote extensively about autos six weeks ago.  As background, I coordinated the auto loan process for President Bush last fall as the Director of the White House National Economic Council (the position now held by Dr. Lawrence Summers).  I wrote a series of posts on [...]

THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _______________________________________________________________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 1, 2009 BACKGROUND BRIEFING BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ON THE GENERAL MOTORS RESTRUCTURING May 31, 2009 Via Conference Call 7:10 P.M. EDT MS. PSAKI:  Thank you, everyone, for joining the call.  Just a reminder that the call this evening is on background, [...]

The President’s Chrysler announcement last Thursday produced mixed results. The agreement among Chrysler, Fiat, UAW, the Administration, and the large banks appears to increase the probability (from almost zero) that Chrysler will survive for the long run, albeit as a part of Fiat.  This is clearly a good thing. Is it worth the cost to [...]

Here are the four Intro to TARP posts: Banks have two problems TARP I:  Buying bad assets TARP II:  Direct investment TARP III:  The Geithner Plan

Tuesday I began with a simple example, which I am calling Large Bank. Yesterday we looked at TARP I, in which the government would buy troubled/toxic assets from banks. Today I will describe TARP II, the plan we (the Bush Administration) implemented, in which the government made direct equity investments in banks to help fill [...]

Today the 19 largest banks are getting the results of their stress tests from their regulators.  Should these results be made public? This is not a simple question. The big upside is that markets will have more information, and that all market participants will have access to the same information.  This can allow investors, counterparties, [...]

Despite Secretary Geithner’s statement to the contrary, I still think the Administration is running out of room within the $700 B Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).  In my last four posts on TARP funding (1 2 3 4), I have stuck to what I think I can demonstrate analytically.  I am now going to shift [...]

Yesterday on his blog the President’s Budget Director, Peter Orszag, asks himself and then answers the question, “How much does the federal government owe?” This sounds like a technical question of concern only to “those of us wearing the green eyeshades,” but the Director’s suggested answer has dangerous ramifications, and could mislead or at least confuse [...]

Last Friday I raised the question of how much funding is left in the TARP.  This is now a broader discussion involving Secretary Geithner and the Treasury staff, the General Accounting Office, the Wall Street Journal and ABC News.  I’d like to review the progression of this topic over the past six days and see [...]