Bank Bailout Successful: About To Turn A Profit

The bailout of banks, so hated by conservatives, and begun by George W. Bush against the wishes of his own party and ideological moorings, is about to pay off.

The Treasury Department now estimates that the $245 billion that bought shares in banks is likely to return a profit in the range of $20 billion. An additional $165 billion that went to non-bank institutions, or was used more generally to encourage lending, might yet keep the overall effort from turning a profit. But don’t count on it. Each report on these programs seems to get progressively better.

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The unavoidable fact is that the bailout, aka the TARP (for Troubled Asset Relief Program) has been an astonishing success, and its once-noisy critics are suddenly silent, as well they should be. Combined with a number of actions taken by the Federal Reserve, the bailout —distasteful as it was —kept the economy from falling into depression.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.