Treasury Reports CPP dividend for First Quarter

According to Reuters the U.S. Treasury is reporting that investments made through the Capital Purchase Program have earned $2.52 billion in dividends. This program seeks to assist in strengthening the financial sector. Secretary Geithner said, in a letter to lawmakers, that he would publish dividend data on a monthly basis so the people could evaluate the results of the program.

Treasury Releases Letters to Congress

Secretary Geithner today released the two letters he sent to congress regarding transparency and communications.
Read them here:
Letters: part 1, part 2

Banks Complain About 5 Percent Interest Rate

According to Scrath Pad bank CEO’s are protesting the requirement that they pay a 5 percent interest rate on their TARP funds.  They must have though they could borrow th emoney for free becasue it was lent through the Treasury. The Bankers Association should know better. If they want banks to have zero percent loan maybe they should also advocate for students who currently pay 6 percent or 8.5 percent on a PLUS loan on their debt for the current academic year to also pay zero percent on their academic loans. They are claiming that the 5 percent amounts to an exit fee because it was predicated on the thought that banks would need money for years.

They suddenly want to get out of a legal binding contract, and none of us could get out of our loan contracts just because we did nto like it. They are complaining about changes in the rules being retroactive. Well, so how it feels when something changes retroactively and applies to everything.

Plans, Staffing and Calls for Resignation

The American people are getting impatient and are frustrated abouot the state of the economy. The target of their frustration is Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. According to the New York Times Secretary Geithner has yet to produce a plan to deal with systemic risk. This charge is untrue becauause his plan for controlling systemic risk is posted at FinancialStability.gov where anyone in the media or general public can access and evaluate it.


Some of the extra challenges that Mr. Geithner faces are do to not having a full staff at Treasury. He is, according to The New York Times, working with a "skeleton crew" of unofficial senior advisors. This is the case even though Mr. Obama has nominated people for three senior positions the Senate Finance Committee has not held hearings on any of them.

A group of people from across the aisle including Sen. Jim DeMint have called on Mr. Geithner to resign. However, Mr. Obama says he will not accept the Treasury Secretary's resignation should he tender it. This is a good thing because the most importnat thing at this time tis to get the Treasury Department properly staffed.