TARP losses

The United States is Subsidizing China to purchase Toxic Assets?

The Big Picture is asking the question, Why is US Government Subsidizing Chinese PPIP?

This is in reference to the MSM headline, The China Investment Corp. is set to invest up to $2 billion in mortgage-backed securities:

China Investment Corp. (CIC) plans to invest soon in U.S. taxpayer subsidized investment funds of toxic mortgage-backed securities, which it sees as a safer bet than buying into the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).

As an investment, TARP is down $148 Billion

While the actual inspector general of TARP is having a rough time getting information from the U.S. Treasury, a private think tank, Ethisphere Institute, is tracking on the TARP.

According to the Ethisphere TARP Index, when markets closed on Friday, June 19, 2009, the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) investment was down approximately $148.2 billion

Ethisphere is treating the TARP as an investment and tracking on the losses. Not a bad idea since the American public was sold the idea they would get the money back.