Lessons in Cooking the Books

U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D) is wondering why $16 billion in TARP money went overseas. It's still none of our business! Wednesday, on Fox News, Kucinich said,

“The Treasury could have kept track of this but
they have, so far, decided not to... Citigroup
arranged a loan for $8 billion dollars in Dubai,
the Bank of America helped to …ah… involved
in a stock deal for $7 billion dollars in a
Chinese construction company. That a division
of JP Morgan – Chase [got] a billion dollar
deal going in India and all of these transactions
came just after they got TARP funds.”

Now why would a Chinese construction company get $8 billion US dollars? It sounds like TARP is making people happy all over the world. Is anyone else having a hard time reading between the lines?

Under the guise of TARP, the Federal Reserve Bank website states, “Treasury announced a voluntary Capital Purchase Program to encourage U.S. financial institutions to build capital to increase the flow of financing to U.S. businesses and consumers and to support the U.S. economy. Under the program, Treasury will purchase up to $250 billion of senior preferred shares on standardized terms.” Ownership sure has its advantages.



Emphasis added by Denney Crane.