The Rise and Fall of Hope and Change

The Rise and Fall of Hope and Change



Alexis de Toqueville

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
Alexis de Tocqueville

The United States Capitol Building

The United States Capitol Building

The Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional Convention

The Continental Congress

The Continental Congress

George Washington at Valley Forge

George Washington at Valley Forge


Friday, March 9, 2012

TARP Encouraged Looser Lending

From The Heritage Foundation:


InsiderOnline Blog: March 2012

TARP Encouraged Looser Lending

Bailing out big banks that messed up their balance sheets by making bad loans appears to have encouraged big banks to make even riskier loans. That’s what a new Fed study of the Troubled Asset Relief Program finds, anyway. Here’s the nut, as quoted by James Pethokoukis (The Enterprise Blog, March 7):
The results from the event study illustrate that the average risk rating at large TARP recipients increased more than at large non-TARP recipients following the capital infusions. Conversely, the risk of loan originations by small TARP recipients appears to have decreased relative to non-TARP recipients.
In our regression results, we find consistent evidence that the TARP capital injection significantly increased the risk of loan originations by the large banks receiving the funds and significantly decreased the risk of loan originations by the small banks receiving the funds.
Supporting evidence from interest spreads also indicates that the spreads on loans from large TARP recipients widened substantially following the TARP capital infusions.
Overall, we find that the degree of risk in commercial loans made by TARP recipients appears to have increased for large banks but decreased for small banks.
As Pethokoukis notes, estimates of the the taxpayer cost of TARP (which Treasury now pegs at $68 billion) certainly understate the real costs. If today’s bailouts make banks less averse to making unwise loans, then there will be more bailouts in the future.
Posted on 03/08/12 10:53 PM by Alex Adrianson | Blog Archive

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