TARP Inspector General Debunks His Own False $23 Trillion Bailout Estimate
TARP Inspector General Debunks His Own False $23 Trillion Bailout Estimate
Yesterday, TARP Inspector General Neil Barosky released a report which crudely tallied up the cost of every economic rescue program proposed during the current crisis — including those that have been discontinued or never even began — to state that the total scope of all financial rescue programs comes to about $23.7 trillion. Cable news hosts ran wild with the report, using it to claim that taxpayers will “ultimately” wind up paying $23 trillion in “bailouts.”
The number continued to be cited on cable last night and this morning, with Fox News even claiming that $23 trillion will be the final cost of TARP alone. But Barofsky himself appeared on CNN to explain that the actual outstanding amount for the financial rescues is closer to $3 trillion, including loans that have yet to be repaid. Watch a compilation:
Barofsky’s report clearly states that “these numbers may have some overlap, and have not been evaluated to provide an estimate of likely net costs to the taxpayer”:
[S]ome of the programs have been discontinued or even, in some cases, not utilized. As such, these total potential support figures do not represent a current total, but the sum total of all support programs announced since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007.
But this doesn’t go far enough in explaining how unlikely we are to ever come close to spending so much money. As Floyd Norris explained in the New York Times, Barofsky’s estimate “assumes that every home mortgage backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac goes into default, and all the homes turn out to be worthless. It assumes that every bank in America fails, with not a single asset worth even a penny. And it assumes that all of the assets held by money market mutual funds, including Treasury bills, turn out to be worthless.” If this doomsday economic scenario were ever to occur, the American currency would be rendered worthless.
Media Matters pointed out that both USA Today and the CBS Evening News used the same misleading number. And as Norris put it, publishing such a meaningless number makes Barofsky seem like nothing more than “an irresponsible headline hunter.”
Cross-posted on The Wonk Room.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
This is a perfect example of how misinformation gets around the media faster than the blink of an eye.
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:04 pmThe correction? Not so much.
Well, those multi-million dollar CEO bonuses do add up!
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:09 pmWell judghing on how Goldman Sachs is doing with the market crash and bailout, we can just have Goldman Notes for their $10 trillion company or something in a while.
Any good economist/financial expert on TV is laughed at.
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:10 pmWhat could anyone expect ?
As if any Chimpy appointee can be trusted or is even semi-competent…………
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:15 pmLies, lies, & more lies– and the ignorant Repubs eat it up. Tell the truth?? — not so much an attraction. Repubs want to be misinformed. They love lies & distortions. Truth/facts — something they simply cannot handle. Truth is their enemy; lies & smears their bread & butter. Proving that Repubs are a dishonest, lying, smearing, to-hell-with-facts simpleton group of idiots– truth & facts are completely foreign to them. Sorry — sometimes I feel witty & humorous– but this one just didn’t do it. I know I ranted. But I needed to.
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:24 pmPat, you’re in over your head.
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:24 pmMinus 5 says:
Pat, you’re in over your head.
You’re and idiot, what’s your point?
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:25 pmOT, Howard Dean is organizing a petition. Please take a moment to sign:
http://www.standwithdrdean.com/
PEACE
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:31 pmMinus 5 says:
——————————————————————————–
Pat, you’re in over your head.
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:24 pm
And yours is shit-filled …………
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:31 pmHi Minus 5…
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:33 pmWhat’s up?
Looks like Minus 5 is living up to his name…
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:36 pmApparently the GOP’s attempts to demonize Nanci Pelosi haven’t helped them in the past two elections, so now they’re going to go after, uh… Pat Garofolo.
Will this strategy pay off in the midterm elections? Only time will tell.
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:37 pmhttp://washingtonindependent.com/51798/key-birther-lawyer-was-disbarred-in-2004
Key Birther Lawyer Was Disbarred … In 2004
By David Weigel 7/20/09 11:02 AM
One of the more amusing quirks of the “birther” movement is the quality of the legal minds in whom Obama birth certificate obsessives are placing their trust — and their occasional donations. Phil Berg, the original “birther” lawyer, has been forced to pay out sanctions for legal malpractice. Orly Taitz, famously, got her law degree from an online correspondence school. And it turns out that Charles Lincoln, who has been assisting Taitz — he provided judges with amended complaints in Keyes et al v. Obama et al last week and he showed up at the last hearing on the case— has been disbarred in California, as well as Florida and Texas.
From the May 2004 issue of the California Bar Journal, which reported on the matter:
In 2000, Lincoln was convicted in Texas on a federal charge of falsely representing his Social Security number, a felony. As a result, he gave up his license to practice in the state.
Originally charged with five felonies, the case resulted from Lincoln applying for a checking account using a false Social Security number.
In a second matter, he was disbarred from U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas after a federal judge requested an investigation of Lincoln because two of his clients had a falsified receipt. The receipt purported to be from the federal court clerk and represented funds the clients had given Lincoln. The clients believed Lincoln was depositing their money in an escrow account related to their case.
Two days before a hearing by the federal court’s admissions committee, Lincoln went to his clients’ home, instructed them not to tell the judge that he gave them the receipt, which he asked them not to produce, and he gave the clients a cashier’s check for $6,000. He did not appear at the hearing.
In a previous lawsuit, the same judge determined that Lincoln was involved in discovery abuse and filed duplicative motions. The judge issued sanctions and dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice.
At the July 12 hearing on the Keyes complaint, Lincoln identified himself as a “law clerk.” The eyewitness report of that hearing is worth reading, since it contradicts with Taitz’s original, hilarious report of a judge who took her seriously. Actually, Judge David Carter spent a lot of time trying to get Taitz to stop wasting the court’s time with antics such as reading her complaint into the record.
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:39 pmOn trillion dollars visualized:
http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/one-trillion-dollars-video/
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:47 pmLANGX I, thanks for that info, although it’s hardly surprising. What self-respecting lawyer would want his/her name attached to these ridiculous court filings?
There are Birthers and then there are AfterBirthers.
PEACE
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:48 pmspencers mom says:
There are Birthers and then there are AfterBirthers.
MOM!!! Now I won’t be able to get that image out of my head. THANKS A LOT!!! :)
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:59 pmFacts make Republic Fascist Party Members heads explode…best not to show them facts…it gets real messy, real fast.
July 22nd, 2009 at 5:05 pmHas anyone else noticed how people arbitrarily increase numbers, and not just in this story? Take the stimulus alone.
$754 billion. Then someone says nearly $800 billion. Then someone says almost a trillion. And just yesterday I head a nut say “well over a trillion”.
They have done the same thing with their infamous list of “scientists” who deny global warming. For months they say it’s 702. Then it’s over seven hundred. Then it’s almost eight hundred. And now it’s over eight hundred although the only list provided has the same seven hundred and two names.
July 22nd, 2009 at 5:18 pmIt is because of inaccurate reporting like this that President Obama’s approval ratings on the economy are slipping. The American public is being fed a lot of very inaccurate numbers that are reported in the conservative MSM and when the numbers are proven to be bogus…surprise….surprise… that never makes it to the news, leaving Americans with believing a lie.
July 22nd, 2009 at 6:17 pmas Norris put it, publishing such a meaningless number makes Barofsky seem like nothing more than “an irresponsible headline hunter.”
mission accomplished…
that’s getting trite, isn’t it…
so who appointed this guy? … regardless, any inspector general would, or should know, how the media works…
July 22nd, 2009 at 6:34 pmtoday’s media being especially ferocious…
aaahhhhh… correct, mcmetal…
from the wiki (oh, TP mispelled the guy’s name, btw):
Barofsky was nominated for the job of overseeing the TARP by Bush on November 14, 2008[3] and was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 8, 2008, after confirmation was delayed by an anonymous Republican Senator.[4]
too too many embedded bushies…
…and who would that “Republican Senator” be?
July 22nd, 2009 at 6:54 pmReichwhiners really suck at math. First they commission a finding that’s worthless. Then they realize it won’t fly in the face of the IG’s testimony. And now the pathetic creeps are going to use his refutation as “proof” the real number is even worse than the original, false, 23 billion claim.
By the end of the week the “librul media” will be reporting it’s “over $40 billion”.
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:01 pmHowzabout debt-free loans until they’re paid up?
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:10 pm