Paulson started this massive theft of taxpayer money with TARP.
You can thank the current empty suit in the Oval Office for doubling down on a sucker bet (not to him, it’s not his money) that will prove to bury future taxpayers for years to come.

The Cash for Clunkers boondoggle cost $24,000 per car and removed vehicles from the road that low income families could afford to buy.
CIT files bankruptcy which WAS on the hook to the taxpayers for $2.3 billion ± a few cents. Now Bernanke and Geithner can help their buds on the street without shame. They’ll tell folks they’re signing them up for food stamps.

Subprime Mortgages
[snip]
Peek, 62, who joined CIT in 2003 after failing to land the top job at Merrill Lynch & Co., pushed the lender into subprime mortgages and student loans to pump up growth.
[snip]

Sniff–sniff–sniff, does this smell like a Frank, Dodd, Conrad Congress Donkey mess?

If you think the Obama/Biden Economic Recovery Miracle Medicine Show plays to rave reviews,read the important critical columns.

Mother of all carry trades faces an inevitable bust

By Nouriel Roubini
Published: November 1 2009 18:44 | Last updated: November 1 2009 18:44
[snip]
This recovery in risky assets is in part driven by better economic fundamentals. We avoided a near depression and financial sector meltdown with a massive monetary, fiscal stimulus and bank bail-outs. Whether the recovery is V-shaped, as consensus believes, or U-shaped and anaemic as I have argued, asset prices should be moving gradually higher.

But while the US and global economy have begun a modest recovery, asset prices have gone through the roof since March in a major and synchronised rally. While asset prices were falling sharply in 2008, when the dollar was rallying, they have recovered sharply since March while the dollar is tanking. Risky asset prices have risen too much, too soon and too fast compared with macroeconomic fundamentals. [snip]

But one day this bubble will burst, leading to the biggest co-ordinated asset bust ever: if factors lead the dollar to reverse and suddenly appreciate – as was seen in previous reversals, such as the yen-funded carry trade – the leveraged carry trade will have to be suddenly closed as investors cover their dollar shorts. A stampede will occur as closing long leveraged risky asset positions across all asset classes funded by dollar shorts triggers a co-ordinated collapse of all those risky assets – equities, commodities, emerging market asset classes and credit instruments.

Why will these carry trades unravel? First, the dollar cannot fall to zero and at some point it will stabilise; when that happens the cost of borrowing in dollars will suddenly become zero, rather than highly negative, and the riskiness of a reversal of dollar movements would induce many to cover their shorts. Second, the Fed cannot suppress volatility forever – its $1,800bn purchase plan will be over by next spring. Third, if US growth surprises on the upside in the third and fourth quarters, markets may start to expect a Fed tightening to come sooner, not later. Fourth, there could be a flight from risk prompted by fear of a double dip recession or geopolitical risks, such as a military confrontation between the US/Israel and Iran. As in 2008, when such a rise in risk aversion was associated with a sharp appreciation of the dollar, as investors sought the safety of US Treasuries, this renewed risk aversion would trigger a dollar rally at a time when huge short dollar positions will have to be closed. [snip]

Of course your own personal piece of the pie is here: The National Debt Clock.

Here you can see just how well and truly this government has screwed you!

Archived in: Banking, Bill Clinton, Bush 41, Bush 43, Economic Crisis, Obama, US auto industry