Reuters – The projected long-term cost of the U.S. government’s bailout of the nation’s big banks is going to be at least $200 billion less than previously thought, a Treasury Department official said on Sunday night.
The Obama administration had estimated the cost to taxpayers of the $700-billion Troubled Asset relief Program, or TARP, would be $341 billion but now says it can cut that by $200 billion.
“That improvement is driven by the fact that Treasury’s investments to stabilize the system are delivering higher returns than anticipated and that Treasury does not anticipate having to draw upon the full $700 billion in TARP authority,” the Treasury official said.
