The Troubled Assets Relief Program — TARP — was the formal name for what we often just call "the bailout." In 2008 Congress allocated $700 billion to stabilize the U.S. financial industry. Congress and President Bush assigned one man to build a team, and police all that spending.
Overseas markets are sliding this morning on new worries about Spain. After last week's bank bailouts, that seemed like an end to the country's crisis, Spain's borrowing costs are up again to 7.5 percent.
The tiny Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus is formally asking for a bailout from Europe. The country says it needs more than $10 billion from its eurozone partners to avoid default.
After U.S. markets closed yesterday, the rating agency Moody's delivered more bad news — this time to 15 of the world's largest banks, including the biggest American banks. The fine print of the downgrade hints at more bank bailouts down the road.
A conversation with Neel Kashkari, the former head of TARP and now head analyst with PIMCO, on what Europe can learn from the U.S.'s own financial storm.
If yesterday was all about Greece, today belongs to Spain. Concern about Spanish banks has pushed the government's borrowing costs over 7 percent. That's a level that pushed other smaller European countries — like Greece — over the edge.
The stabilizing election result in Greece does not change the reality that banks are on the brink in a number of European countries. And there's hot debate in Europe over just how much the European Central Bank should do to bailout the banks — a problem we can relate to here in the states.
Today, Ireland is holding a referendum on whether to ratify Europe's new fiscal discipline pact. A vote against the treaty would challenge German-backed austerity measures.
