Rob Brodsky Watches Committee Hearings on TARP So You Don't Have To

My colleage Rob Brodsky emails the following observations from the Senate, Banking and Urban Affairs Committee hearing:

In his first report to Congress, the Troubled Asset Relief Program Inspector General Neil Barofsky said he is starting a pair of audits: one will be a case study on how Bank of America received $45 billion of government funds in three separate bailout programs; the second will investigate how lobbyists are influencing the application process for banks to receive capital infusions.

Barofsky also told the panel that he has begun sending letters to companies that received TARP funds during the past few months and how they plan to spend future funds. The IG will also probe how the companies plan to comply with President Obama’s order, limiting the executive compensation of TARP recipients to $500,000.

And Rob also writes:

Professor Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program just told the committee that her team has conducted an analysis of the 10 largest TARP transactions made in 2008. Warren found that the Treasury paid $254 billion for assets worth approximately $176 billion, a shortfall of $78 billion.

Warren further told the panel that Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson “was not completely candid” with the American people about how the bailout funds would be spent.

Committee Chairman Chris Dodd called the findings “infuriating.”