Troubled Asset Relief Program

The Troubled Asset Relief Program ( TARP ) was a program that the United States government used to buy shares in financial institutions to prevent the financial system from going under. The law signed by US President George W. Bush on October 3, 2008 expired in December 2014. It was the largest of the measures the US government had to take in 2008 to weather the subprime crisis (as a result of its speculative inflated real estate market). Up to US $ 700 billion had been approved for the program, which was then reduced to US $ 475 billion with the Dodd – Frank Act .

It had been feared that the state would have to hold its shares in companies like GM , AIG and Citigroup for many years; in fact, these companies have already bought back their shares from the US Treasury to get out of the TARP. In March 2010, GM repaid more than US $ 2 billion to the United States and Canada, and on April 21, GM had repaid the government loan, including interest, totaling US $ 8.1 billion. The US government was able to sell the Citigroup shares at a profit.

While it was originally feared that the emergency program would cost the US $ 356 billion, the sale of the last stake in Ally Financial and the expiry of the program brought a total of $ 426.4 billion in revenues of $ 441.7 billion. US $ compared. This sum is significantly lower than the cost US taxpayers had to pay during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s: the cost of that crisis during the Reagan / Bush era was 3.2% of GNP, while the Wall Street Journal estimates the (non-relocatable) share of the subprime crisis in GDP at less than 1%.

A similar program to rescue the US financial economy was administered by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) in the 1930s .

literature

James B. Stewart, "Eight Days: the battle to save the American financial system," The New Yorker , Sept. 21, 2009.

Web links

FinancialStability.gov Official Website
Data sets and tools for FinancialStability.gov on Data.gov
Stimulus watch . (updated). Retrieved February 9, 2009.
Matthew Ericson, Elaine He; Amy Schoenfeld: Tracking the $ 700 Billion Bailout . In: New York Times , with ongoing updates. Retrieved January 9, 2009.
Zumbrun, Josh et al .: The Ownership Society , Forbes. October 14, 2008.
Bank Lending Report $ 275B Foreclosure Plan , February 2009.
Nomi Prins: "Obama Banking Too Much on Banks" - Video Report from Democracy Now! , September 15, 2009.

Individual evidence

↑ In an address to the nation on September 24, 2008, President Bush said, “I think companies that make bad decisions should go out of business. Under normal circumstances, I would follow this course. But these are not normal circumstances ... key areas of America's financial system threatens the end ... I understand the disappointment of responsible Americans who their mortgage to pay off in time to cast their tax returns on time and are not inclined now the cost of the excesses of Take over Wall Street . In view of the situation we are in, however, it would be much more expensive for these Americans at a later point in time if we did not pass this law now. ” Message on the start page of the US Embassy Berlin (archive) ( Memento des original from October 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
^ TARP Programs. In: US Department of the Treasury. Retrieved June 18, 2015 .
↑ ^a ^b DEBORAH SOLOMON: Light At the End of the Bailout Tunnel. In: Wall Street Journal. April 12, 2010, accessed December 7, 2010 .
^ AP: GM pays back government loans from US, Canada
↑ US government collects US $ 12 billion with Citi rescue. December 7, 2010, accessed on December 7, 2010 : "The rescue of the major bank Citigroup during the financial crisis has brought the American taxpayer a bottom line profit of twelve billion dollars."
↑ Ryan Tracy, Julie Steinberg, Telis Demos: Bank Bailouts Approach a Final Reckoning. In: The Wall Street Journal. December 19, 2014, accessed June 11, 2015 .

[1] In an address to the nation on September 24, 2008, President Bush said, “I think companies that make bad decisions should go out of business. Under normal circumstances, I would follow this course. But these are not normal circumstances ... key areas of America's financial system threatens the end ... I understand the disappointment of responsible Americans who their mortgage to pay off in time to cast their tax returns on time and are not inclined now the cost of the excesses of Take over Wall Street . In view of the situation we are in, however, it would be much more expensive for these Americans at a later point in time if we did not pass this law now. ” Message on the start page of the US Embassy Berlin (archive) ( Memento des original from October 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

[2] TARP Programs. In: US Department of the Treasury. Retrieved June 18, 2015 .

[lighttunnel-3] DEBORAH SOLOMON: Light At the End of the Bailout Tunnel. In: Wall Street Journal. April 12, 2010, accessed December 7, 2010 .

[4] AP: GM pays back government loans from US, Canada

[5] US government collects US $ 12 billion with Citi rescue. December 7, 2010, accessed on December 7, 2010 : "The rescue of the major bank Citigroup during the financial crisis has brought the American taxpayer a bottom line profit of twelve billion dollars."

[6] Ryan Tracy, Julie Steinberg, Telis Demos: Bank Bailouts Approach a Final Reckoning. In: The Wall Street Journal. December 19, 2014, accessed June 11, 2015 .