Treasury Releases Two-Year Retrospective Report on TARP

This story appeared in Bank Digest.

The Treasury Department has announced the release of a “Two-Year Retrospective“ report on the Troubled Asset Release Program (TARP), following the expiration of TARP on Oct. 3, 2010. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the steps that Treasury took under TARP to contain the financial crisis that occurred in late 2008 and early 2009. The program played a critical role in recapitalizing the financial sector and restarting the credit markets, which made it possible for businesses, municipalities and families to borrow again, allowing the economy to begin to recover from the deepest recession since the Great Depression.

Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Spencer Bachus issued a statement countering Democrats' claims that TARP has ended. “The TARP program is alive and actively funding the Democrats' liberal agenda,” Bachus said in the statement, which notes that “While the Democrats will claim TARP ends on October 3rd, in reality the programs created through TARP will continue to operate without authorization for years, paid for by a taxpayer-funded slush fund.”