The Treasury Department announced last week that it had finally turned a profit on the money it had disbursed to banks as part of the TARP program. Out of the $245 billion the federal government has pumped into troubled banks since 2008, $251 billion - counting dividends and interest - has now been repaid.
And the money hasn't all been paid back yet. When all is said and done, Treasury expects to earn a total profit of around $20 billion on the banking side of the TARP program.
Sounds good, huh? But there's some pretty significant fine print here: TARP encompassed a lot more than banks. There were also bailouts of AIG, the big automakers, and other players in the financial meltdown. All told, there's still an additional $160 billion in taxpayer money still out there. Even if the banking side of the program turns a profit, we're still likely to lose money on the entire deal.
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