NACBA
Member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2010
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- 784
For example, when newspapers run stories about the government making profits off the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), they usually leave out the fact that the federal government can make money virtually any time it wants by virtue of controlling the money supply and, by association, receiving ultra-low borrowing rates. The government does not have the same goals as a hedge fund; its purpose has more to do with the public welfare than whether it can turn a buck.
Moreover, almost half of the banks that repaid TARP funds did so with money from other federal programs, in particular the 2010 Small Business Lending Fund. It’s impossible to view TARP “profits” in isolation without looking at where the profits came from. And it is meaningless to attribute TARP “working” in any sense to its making money. But that’s the intent of news stories that play up the government’s profit.
This narrative formation works in more subtle ways, too. Take this interview between Vox Media’s Ezra Klein and The New York Times’s Paul Krugman. At one point, Klein discusses the current “dangerous period” in American politics, and how polarization in a system with biases toward divided government virtually ensures legislative dysfunction, outside of responding to crisis. Krugman takes it one step further, noting that he often speaks with leaders in international finance
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/paul-krugman-ezra-klein-wrong-111500291.html
Moreover, almost half of the banks that repaid TARP funds did so with money from other federal programs, in particular the 2010 Small Business Lending Fund. It’s impossible to view TARP “profits” in isolation without looking at where the profits came from. And it is meaningless to attribute TARP “working” in any sense to its making money. But that’s the intent of news stories that play up the government’s profit.
This narrative formation works in more subtle ways, too. Take this interview between Vox Media’s Ezra Klein and The New York Times’s Paul Krugman. At one point, Klein discusses the current “dangerous period” in American politics, and how polarization in a system with biases toward divided government virtually ensures legislative dysfunction, outside of responding to crisis. Krugman takes it one step further, noting that he often speaks with leaders in international finance
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/paul-krugman-ezra-klein-wrong-111500291.html
