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The economy seems to be No. 1 on voters' minds this election season, making this story from Newsweek on TARP pretty timely.
TARP is the money that the federal government gave to banks as the economy came tumbling down in 2008.
TARP is an interesting political issue, one that's really about who is to blame for its distribution.
The program did wonders for banks and now has many of the most-well known ones seeing billions of green again.
Talking to political science professors, political experts and strategists and actual politicians, here are a few topics to fire off:
• Taxpayers in the end, will probably eat about $50 of the $340 billion that originally was assumed they would end up being on the hook for. Playing Monday morning quarterback, what would have really happened if the banks wouldn't have received the money?
• With unemployment still around 10 percent, isn't it difficult for the American public to see how this helped the economy? How did it help the economy?
• Republicans note in their "Pledge to America" that they will never bail out banks again. However, it was under the Bush administration when the legislation was passed. Do voters associate all that was bad with the economy and the spending practices of the federal government, with the Obama administration, because they are running the show today?
The economy seems to be No. 1 on voters' minds this election season, making this story from Newsweek on TARP pretty timely.
TARP is the money that the federal government gave to banks as the economy came tumbling down in 2008.
TARP is an interesting political issue, one that's really about who is to blame for its distribution.
The program did wonders for banks and now has many of the most-well known ones seeing billions of green again.
Talking to political science professors, political experts and strategists and actual politicians, here are a few topics to fire off:
• Taxpayers in the end, will probably eat about $50 of the $340 billion that originally was assumed they would end up being on the hook for. Playing Monday morning quarterback, what would have really happened if the banks wouldn't have received the money?
• With unemployment still around 10 percent, isn't it difficult for the American public to see how this helped the economy? How did it help the economy?
• Republicans note in their "Pledge to America" that they will never bail out banks again. However, it was under the Bush administration when the legislation was passed. Do voters associate all that was bad with the economy and the spending practices of the federal government, with the Obama administration, because they are running the show today?
