The amount of taxpayer dollars directed at the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) continues to grow but with little economic progress being made, particularly in the housing market.
Total taxpayer support for the mortgage market rose by $700 billion in the past year to $3.7 trillion, Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for TARP, said his quarterly report to Congress.
"Indeed, the current outstanding balance of overall Federal support for the nation's financial system…has actually increased more than 23% over the past year…the equivalent of a fully deployed TARP program – largely without congressional action, even as the banking crisis has, by most measures, abated from its most acute phases," said Barofsky.