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isolate·

Sounds reasonable, how much tax do I have to pay?

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I dunno, how much tax did you have to pay to bail out AIG & the motor industry? Start there, and work your way down.

TARP made money for the Treasury (and thus the taxpayers) - $441b in for $426b out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program

Maybe it did, but it's still state aid to business. It bailed out otherwise nonviable businesses at your expense, while simultaneously devaluing your currency (any profit therefore notional and even then poor value when compared to the bond markets). The benefits as presented are little more than a smokescreen, and the story is not played out yet.

Sure, it was state aid to business, but it wasn't free money - the treasury received assets and equity in return for the purchase, which it turned a profit on. If you're going to put the cost of TARP up as a case for tax-and-redistribution schemes, you can't neglect to account for the returns.

There was no currency printed for TARP (the Treasury can't print money; that's the Federal Reserve's domain) - it was financed via the sale of T-notes/bills/bonds. The government issued debt to raise the TARP money, and the rate of return on the assets purchased with that debt has exceeded the yield on Treasury securities, resulting in a net real profit.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-10-20/bailout-of...

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