Feds Secret MBS Purchase Program and TARP 2.0: Looting The Taxpayer Again

12-16-2010 • ZeroHedge.com

About a year ago, after hearing so many pie-in-the-sky perma-bullish pundits and bankers say how banks paid every cent of TARP and government assistance back, I went on the following rant – 10 Ways to say No, the Banks Have Not Paid Back Their Bailout from the Taxpayer! Monday, January 18th, 2010: Yes, some of the banks repaid TARP, with interest and warrants. Okay. The investment big banks (that were still in existence) were offered expedited financial holding company (bank) charters. That is why they didn’t fail, at least in part. So, running down the list, the banks paid back TARP. That’s a +, but…. What was the value for bank charter, to get cheap access to the Fed’s funds? did they pay back this value yet? No! How about the payment of interest on the banks’ excess reserves at the Fed. Have the banks repaid that yet? No! The Fed and the Treasury have purchased hundreds of billions of dollars of Agency debt, Agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and related securities through Treasury purchase programs. Have the banks paid back the capital behind those purchases yet? No! How about the Term Auction Facility? Has the capital behind the benefits of that program been paid back? No! Then there is the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF), has this been paid back? No! Do you remember the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF)? Have the funds behind that been paid back? No! What about the PPIP? No! Hey, there’s the Foreign Exchange Swap programs (the currency swap lines, that saved not only our banks but out banks facing counterparties who were short on dollars), has that been paid back? No! There’s the Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF), have the funds behind that been paid back? No! Most importantly, the opportunity cost of ZIRP, which hurts those who do not speculate (or have not speculated) with near free money! How do you pay that back to grandma and her .017% CDs?