Job Well Done: Neil Barofsky, TARP Watchdog
Check out Gretchen Morgenson’s column in the Sunday Times:
“The American taxpayer will lose a rare straight shooter when Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, leaves his post on March 30. In his frequent testimony before Congress and in the nine quarterly reports and 13 audits his office has published, Mr. Barofsky has served taxpayers well by speaking truth to the powers at the Treasury.
This has often put him at odds with the Treasury officials whose work he is charged with overseeing — a natural consequence for any watchdog with teeth. Using facts, figures and extensive interviews, Mr. Barofsky has questioned the effectiveness of the administration’s loan modification program and the Treasury’s initial refusal to require institutions that received taxpayer-financed bailouts to account for their use of TARP funds.
He has also criticized the bank-friendly terms of the rescue in 2008 of the American International Group; that deal was led by Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, who at the time was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New YorkUnlike others in Washington, Mr. Barofsky has also spoken passionately about the continuing problems posed by too-big-to-fail financial institutions.”
This is more than mere noise: Barofsky actually saved the US taxpayers some big dough:
“In addition to his candor, Mr. Barofsky delivered a solid prosecutorial record. Since it was created in the fall of 2008, his office has won criminal convictions of 18 people, helped keep $555 million in taxpayer funds from being lost to fraud and provided the Treasury with 68 recommendations to protect taxpayers from losses in its programs. The office — known as Sigtarp, for special inspector general for the TARP program — continues to work on 153 civil and criminal investigations, including 74 involving executives and senior officers at financial institutions who received or applied for TARP money”
Nice to see when someone actually dies their job well . . .
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Source:
TARP’s Watchdog: A Tough Act to Follow
GRETCHEN MORGENSON
NYT, March 19, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/business/20gret.html
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March 20th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Nice to see someone do a great job! What is not nice is to see a President systematically favor those who do a bad job for the people, but a nice job for guaranteeing the dough (kissing banks’ asses) for his re-election.
Economic history won’t be kind to Obama, that is for sure.
March 20th, 2011 at 2:46 pm
We need to place Neil Barofsky, Brooksley Borne, Ted Kaufman, Elizabeth Warren in charge of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, SEC and US AG and get rid of Paulson’s protoge Geithner. Then perhaps, perhaps we can get “change we can believe in”.
March 20th, 2011 at 3:20 pm
The problem is that this accomplishment by Neil Barofsky is an anomaly in the era of money politics, decriminalization of fraud, TBTF financial institutions and oligarchic central banks.
March 20th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
It is just too damned bad there aren’t more Neil Barkofskys around. Courage, integrity and personal honor are in very short supply in Washington DC and the rest of America as well…….and now the women in the Administration drag us into Libya….it is getting harder and harder to laugh at the sheer incompetence and lack of intelligence that prevails in our government….
March 20th, 2011 at 5:18 pm
Let’s hope he lives and continues to DO his job well ;)
March 20th, 2011 at 5:56 pm
“Economic history won’t be kind to Obama, that is for sure.”
Under Bush, an American citizen, Jose Padilla, was subjected to inhuman TORTURE by the US military. Under Obama, a US soldier, Bradley Manning, is being introduced to the machine. True natures are being revealed. Obama is no different than any other one.
Don’t forget that US forces under Tyler in Mexico, after the battle of Churubusco, tortured every Irishmen captured (alleging they were all deserters) and then executed them. So all you micks nursing a hangover, remember, ‘you ain’t in the club, either.’
March 20th, 2011 at 6:12 pm
His next job, then, can be to help BP clean up their mess in the Gulf of Mexico (yeah, it’s still leaking):
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/possible-new-oil-spill-100-10-miles-reported-gulf-mexico#comment-1078299
March 20th, 2011 at 8:16 pm
“dies their job well.” BR – Freudian slip or intentional word play?
My question is, why is he “retiring” while doing such a great job? To take an adjunct Prof position and a research post.
Force out=killed on the job.
March 20th, 2011 at 8:24 pm
“We need to place Neil Barofsky, Brooksley Borne, Ted Kaufman, Elizabeth Warren in charge of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, SEC and US AG and get rid of Paulson’s protoge Geithner. Then perhaps, perhaps we can get “change we can believe in”.
It is way too late for them to do us any good now. You have been bamboozled and it will most likely not be un-done in your lifetime. I hope I am wrong.
March 20th, 2011 at 10:01 pm
The Morgenson article is a bunch of horse hockey.
Anyone that has been following the events surrounding TARP for the last 3+ years knows that Mr. Barofsky fancied himself not as the “auditor” but as a “director” and “formulator” of policy. This grandiose view of his office led to some rather signficant confusion among the many banks that took TARP money, particualry those that were initially reluctant to do so (in retrospect, a good intial reaction to the “free” money offer). When it became clear that he was causing more problems than solutions, he was politely thanked for his efforts and asked to go sit at the children’s table.
His office spent much of its tenure throwing darts at the various programs being developed by Congress and the Regulators, including Treasury, to help stem the tide of financial decay. Even if you want to cut Barofsky some slack and suggest that his role was exactly that (i.e. to throw darts), you can’t suggest that his batting average was any good. $555mm and 18 convictions in 3 years??? TARP was a $700Billion program! Let’s see how those 80 plus cases they have pursued turn out. Let’s measure that against the costs associated with his office and their activities over the period before we confirm he saved US taxpayers $500mm.
Does anyone remember how fast events were unfolding in 2008?
If anyone can put their hand to their heart and say that they knew all along how the government bailout programs were going to work out, I will buy them a first class ticket to Tokyo to help resolve the nuclear plant crisis. The real heros in this story are the folks in the trenches at Treasury, the FDIC and even the SEC that were responsible for all the heavy lifitng. Neil was like the guy who jumps on the tackle pile last at a football game, so that his name and number gets read off by the TV announcer (“tackle by #80 Barofsky”).
I am sure that we’ll next be reading about how he was personally responsible for saving the US economy from the crisis; possibly even the invention of the internet!
Mark F. Ferraris
Managing Principal
Orchard Street Partners LLC
March 21st, 2011 at 3:34 am
You gave the tarp money to the wrong people ,$20,000 should have been given to the people that paid taxes and made less than $ 1oo,ooo per year then you would see a kick start in the economy it would have been spent to pay down debt, purchasing goods etc etc
March 21st, 2011 at 5:13 am
Which perhaps explains why Timmy doesn’t want another future hit to his accrued GS bonus pool from Elizabeth Warren?
March 21st, 2011 at 6:32 am
Well now, look what radiation does to property values:
Germany freezes $2.2bn fund
http://cryptogon.com/
March 21st, 2011 at 7:59 am
[...] Barofsky steps down as TARP's watchdog. (TBP) [...]
March 21st, 2011 at 10:18 am
Also damning was the White House calling in Paul Volker, another rare straight shooter, as a senior economic advisor, then insulting him by freezing him out, ignoring his recommendations, sitting him at the children’s table (picture that) and shamefully trotting him out for use as a prop at photo-ops.
March 21st, 2011 at 1:57 pm
The real heros in this story are the folks in the trenches at Treasury, the FDIC and even the SEC that were responsible for all the heavy lifitng.
Please, are you serious? What heavy lifting is there when extending below.
A.In unusual and exigent circumstances, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, by the affirmative vote of not less than five members, may authorize any Federal reserve bank, during such periods as the said board may determine, at rates established in accordance with the provisions of section 14, subdivision (d), of this Act, to discount for any participant in any program or facility with broad-based eligibility, notes, drafts, and bills of exchange when such notes, drafts, and bills of exchange are indorsed or otherwise secured to the satisfaction of the Federal Reserve bank: