Senate Banking Committee hearing, Pulling Back the TARP: Oversight of the Financial Rescue Program, February 5, 2009. Witness Testimony:

• Gene L. Dodaro, Acting Comptroller General, United States Government Accountability Office
• Neil M. Barofsky, Special Inspector General, Troubled Asset Relief Program
• Professor Elizabeth Warren, Chair, Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program: “As part of our continuing mission to get answers about TARP, the Congressional Oversight Panel examined whether Treasury’s injections of cash into financial institutions have resulted in a fair deal for taxpayers. The findings are in our February report, which will formally be submitted to Congress tomorrow. Despite the assurances of then‐Secretary Paulson, who said that the transactions were at par—that is, for every $100 injected into the banks the taxpayer received stocks and warrants from the banks worth about $100—the valuation study concludes that Treasury paid substantially more for the assets it purchased under the TARP than their then‐current market value. Extrapolating the results of the ten transactions analyzed to all 4 purchases made in 2008 under TARP, Treasury paid $254 billion, for which it received assets worth approximately $176 billion, a shortfall of $78 billion.”
• Related postings on financial system