Schaden-TARP

BooMan on the TARP bailout:
Almost alone among progressives, I supported the original TARP bailout and told people that it was working in its primary purpose which was to prevent an epic depression-like collapse of the American and global economies. A lot of people made some pretty dire predictions, but they're not talking so loudly these days. Without the bailouts, you certainly would not be seeing this:

If the economy produces jobs over the next eight months at the same pace as it did over the past four months, the nation will have created more jobs in 2010 alone than it did over the entire eight years of George W. Bush's presidency.

The time to address the systemic risk inherent in the economy was not during the moment of greatest anxiety, but now, with calmer heads. We just needed to be patient. There is good momentum on the Wall Street reform bill, and it may be strengthened even more before passage.

However, I don't expect anyone to like what happened with the bailout. Propping up megabanks that acted irresponsibly and cost people their jobs and life savings is not a fun thing to do. That's why the Republicans who voted for the bailout are gun-shy about taking credit for the result. And it's also why progressives are still in denial that the wretched thing worked.

You can give me all the "yes, but" arguments you want about how things could have been better or fairer, or tell me how much risk remains in the system, but the bottom line is that 'yes.' Yes, the bailout worked. The Masters of the Universe tried to destroy everything, and they did not succeed. Some Republicans will admit as much:

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), who's retiring at the end of the year and is therefore unencumbered by the need to defend himself from the GOP base, has nothing to run away from. "It was extremely effective," Gregg told me. "Not only was it effective and stabilized the financial industry, it also returned to the taxpayers almost $20 billion in interest and dividends that they would have otherwise not have."

I've said that the problem is not that TARP worked, it was necessary and it worked at saving us from imminent disaster.  My problem is that virtually nothing has been done to prevent the need for another TARP bailout.  And judging from what's going on in Europe, the Gulf of Mexico, and Wall Street...and most importantly what's going on in Washington, we're going to need another TARP.

And soon.