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BBC News - US to make profit from bailouts, Treasury saysThe US will make a profit from bailing out the nation's banks and car makers at the height of the financial crisis, the Treasury Department has said. The bank bailouts may result in a return of $2bn (£1.3bn), the Treasury said in its latest projections for the government's response to the crisis. And the recovering auto industry has added 230,000 jobs as a result.
The recession was the worst since the Great Depression and $19.2tn of wealth was wiped out, it said. "Although the economy is getting stronger, we have a long way to go to fully repair the damage the crisis has left behind," the Treasury said.
The vast majority of the projected returns - more than $179bn - come from the Federal Reserve's huge investments and loans to banks. The Fed and the Treasury together invested $182bn just to save insurance giant AIG. In terms of the bank bailouts, the much-maligned Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp) that provided money to more than 700 banks has already realized a $19bn profit.
This is a feather in both GWB and Obama's caps.
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