US bank bailout was ‘critical’: Congress watchdog

[katty]

("provided critical support.." to billionaires)

more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/16/us-bank-bailout-was-critical-congress-watchdog/

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US government's multi-billion-dollar bank bailout helped avert a second Great Depression and cost taxpayers much less than expected, but was far from perfect, a congressional watchdog said Wednesday.

The Congressional Oversight Panel said the controversial $700 billion dollar bailout, launched in 2008, provided "critical" support for financial markets at a key time and will cost $25 billion -- a fraction of the original estimate.

The Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP), which was signed into law by then president George W. Bush and taken up by Barack Obama, "provided critical support to markets at a moment of profound uncertainty," it said in its final report.

[yourout]

1. Critical to what?......Hedge Fund bank accounts?

[villager]

2. Critical to the actual owners of Congress

n/t

[Ship of Fools]

3. oh my--how quickly we forget (or rewrite) our recent past

[vicarofrevelwood]

4. US bank bailout was

Bull Shit! Still Another way to funnel money from the Middle and Poor to the elite!

[midnight]

7. Yep. The Great transfer of wealth...

[txlibdem]

5. I've been critical of the bank bailout since day one

The key criticism: we still don't know exactly who got exactly how much of that $700 Billion. When Paulson was told to respond to that question he flatly refused. Who in hell is in control of our government?

[Tace]

6. Where To Begin?

For starters, it didn't avert anything. It simply delayed things, giving banksters even more time to ravish The People. To quote George W. Bush, "This sucker's going down."

Second, $700 billion? Maybe for the formal TARP program, but what about the $11 TRILLION distributed to central banks, commercial banks, insurance companies and others all over the world?

This is such bullshit that just about every letter of the Congressional Oversight Panel's statement is false, based upon spurious assumptions and bogus reasoning.

Sorry, but my trust in these criminals has been utterly destroyed.

[FlyByNight]

8. Sure it was "critical"

Those bailed out are the donor class and they give to congressional campaigns.

[fasttense]

9. It was critical to the resurrection and continued survival of the GOP. n/t