Congressional Oversight Panel. April Oversight Report: Assessing Treasury's Strategy: Six Months of TARP. April 7, 2009

摘要

With this report, the Congressional Oversight Panel examines Treasurys current strategy and evaluates the progress it has achieved thus far. This report returns the Panels inquiry to a central question raised in its first report: What is Treasurys strategy. While there is disagreement among Panel members about whether it is appropriate to present alternatives to Treasurys strategy at this time, this report also examines potential policy alternatives available to Treasury, in the event such alternatives become necessary. This report comes on the six month anniversary of the passage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA). In a letter received by the Panel on April 2, 2009, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner described four major challenges that Treasurys strategy seeks to address: (1) the collapse of the housing market; (2) frozen secondary markets that have constrained the ability of even creditworthy small businesses and families to get credit; (3) uncertainty about the health of financial institutions and the valuation of assets on their balance sheets; and (4) the existence of troubled legacy assets on the balance sheets of financial institutions that affect their capitalization and limit their ability to make loans. The Panel appreciates Treasurys explanation of its goals, and it hopes this report inspires a more informed conversation over the fundamental questions raised by Treasurys strategy.