According to an article in the Star-Telegram, government officials “overpaid tens of billions of dollars for stocks and other assets in its massive bailout last year of Wall Street banks and financial institutions.”
The article said:
The Congressional Oversight Panel, in a report released Friday, said last year’s overpayments amounted to a taxpayer-financed $78 billion subsidy of the firms. Financially failing insurance giant American International Group, which the Treasury Department deemed to be too big to be allowed to fail, received $40 billion from the Treasury for assets valued at $14.8 billion, the oversight panel found.
That’s a huge oversight. Certainly the financial powerhouses who nickel and dime assistance to homeowners were able to figure out the gaping $78 billion hole in the banker bail out. While millions of Americans face foreclosure and bankruptcy, our government officials erroneously hand out, $40 billion extra dollars to AIG, a bankrupt institution. Is this about to happen again? Many industries that rely on a robust and active credit market (automakers, commercial realtors, airlines etc.) are hoping to get their own bail out. But the real question is when will the American taxpayer be thrown a lifeline to save him/her from foreclosure and financial disaster? The answer is that a bail out for homeowners facing foreclosure and other financial difficulties may be long overdue and still long coming.