From THE HILL:
The portion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that went to banks has now turned a profit for the federal government, the Treasury Department announced Wednesday.
After receiving $7.4 billion in TARP repayments Wednesday, the Treasury has now received $251 billion from banks participating in various bailout programs, which is good for a $6 billion profit from the $245 billion originally handed out to banks. The department now estimates that bank investments under TARP will ultimately net taxpayers roughly $20 billion in profit.
Furthermore, the Treasury estimates that all the TARP programs combined — including money doled out to banks, insurance company American International Group (AIG) and domestic auto companies — will result in “little to no cost to taxpayers.”
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EDITOR: With all the hue and cry by conservatives over the TARP bill, we now see not only did it along with the Reconstruction Act save the nation from another Great Depression, but that the near trillion dollar TARP did not end up costing barely anything. Apart from the AIG debacle, it would have been very profitable which is exactly what Warren Buffett had predicted at the time.
