Friday, April 17, 2009

Assessing TARP Strategy report from COP

Elizabeth Warren, the chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel (created to oversee the expenditure of TARP funds, and to “review the current state of financial markets and the regulatory system”) was on The Daily Show with John Stewart this week to talk about TARP and the recent report on TARP strategy released by the Panel.

On April 7, six months after the passage of the Emergency Economic Stability Act, the Congressional Oversight Panel released a report titled “Assessing TARP Strategy.” The report, relying on historical responses to past banking crises, reviews methods for evaluating the programs created to assuage the current financial crisis. The Panel identified 4 elements that were critical to historical banking crises programming: Transparency, Assertiveness, Accountability, and Clarity.

The first half of Stewart’s interview with Warren illustrated that some of these elements don’t seem to be a part of the current programs. Warren stumbled her way through questions about how much money has been spent, and what exactly that investment was worth – rather, what it wasn’t worth. She did manage, though, to point out that this general uncertainty was due in large part to Paulson’s “don’t ask, don’t tell,” policy of distribution in relation to the first $350 billion of expenditures. Warren said the Panel is calling for more transparency, more accountability, and more clarity; they want a better articulation of policy and an explanation of what exactly is going on in the current expenditure programs.

Warren also took the opportunity to advocate a need for smart regulation to bring about economic stability and prosperity. She noted that before the great depression our economic history followed a boom and bust cycle every 10-15 years. After the implementation of regulations like the FDIC, SEC, and Glass-Steagall, though, we had a long period with no financial crisis. But those regulations began to unravel, according to Warren, and we ended up where we are today. (Bonus: check out this post on Geithner’s regulatory plan).

So check out the the interview (part 1, part 2), and the report and let me know what you think...

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