WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC-One year later, gov't can't track TARP

One year later, gov't can't track TARP

 CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - One year ago, America's biggest banks were failing. And the government was more than willing to bail them out.

We now know it as TARP.

But at the time it was called the "Healthy Banks Program."

Wheel barrows full of cash - billions of taxpayer dollars - were spent in an effort to keep our financial institutions healthy.

However, they were far from healthy. They were toxic.

Now, some say that first bailout was a big waste of our money.

Like Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren.

Lawmakers asked Warren to head a bipartisan group called The Congressional Oversight Panel. She's charged with the task of evaluating how well financial firms have used their billions in bailout over the past year.

But Warren says she really can't do the job, because banks either can't or won't help her track their loans.

Warren's candor caught the attention of filmmaker Michael Moore, so he interviewed her in his latest lefty film.

"Where's our money?" Moore demanded in Capitalism: A Love Story.

Warren says she can't find a single string attached to the first $200 billion handed out through TARP.

"When Secretary Paulson first put this money out into the banks, he didn't ask 'what are you going to do with it?'" she told Moore. "He didn't put any restrictions on it...he didn't put any tabs on where it was going to go."

Well, we do know this: where a good chunk of taxpayer money went was to Goldman Sachs, the company Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson used to run. Goldman, and our own Bank of America, plus a whopping 680 other banks were all told to "just take it..." Warren says.

No rules, no stipulations, no accountability attached.

Treasury watchdog Neil Barofsky is working with Warren, and he's disgusted too. In fact, he says if we can't track the taxpayer's billions, "

 "I don't know," Warren answered, after a long, uncomfortable pause.