What?!!!

by Larry Levin

Although today was another slow day, a piece of news caught my attention: The US rescue of the financial sector may reach $23.7 TRILLION. And that's when I said WHAT?!!? As in, WTF did he just say!?? This was reported by Bloomberg, CNBC, and other places.

Neil Barofsky is the special inspector general for the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and he said today that YOU, the taxpayer, may be on the hook for as much as $23.7 trillion to bolster the economy and bail out financial companies. He said the Treasury's original $700 billion "bank-investment" program represents a small fraction of all federal support handed out and guaranteed to the government's favorite friends in the financial system, including $6.8 trillion in aid offered by the Federal Reserve.

Helicopter-Ben will not be the only person speaking in front of Congress tomorrow. Mr. Barofsky will be giving testimony on this subject in a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in which he is expected to say, "TARP has evolved into a program of unprecedented scope, scale and complexity."

Meanwhile, Barofsky's office has opened 35 criminal and civil investigations into issues including suspected accounting fraud, securities fraud, insider trading, mortgage servicer misconduct, mortgage fraud, public corruption, false statements and taxes.

"Treasury's continued unwillingness to provide basic transparency despite the many recommendations of SIGTARP and Congress and the repeated demonstration that meaningful data from TARP recipients can be gathered and easily disseminated is unacceptable," said a memo prepared by members on the oversight committee.

Nothing has changed folks; the "new transparency" promised by the President is as opaque as ink.



Previous Day's Trading Room Results:

Trade Date: 7/20/09

E-Mini S&P Trades*
(before fees and commissions):

1) B/away buy @ 8:30am at 943.25 = +1.25 (1 lot)

2) OTF sell @ 10:00am at 940.75 = -1.75 (1 lot)

3) FT buy @ 12:10pm at 942.25 = -.50 (1 lot)

4) Algorithm positions (5)

5) "Reading the Tape" positions (2) ...combined Secret's, Algo, & "Reading the Tape" total...+1.75


Electronic (YM) Mini-Dow:

1) None today



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