Good TARP News Doesn't Fit; Media Are Flummoxed (NPR)

[Writer]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2010/10/04/130323666/the-narrative-imperative-a-glimpse-inside-the-media-mind&sc=fb&cc=fp

What do we do with the end of TARP?

And what do we do with the news that TARP will not have cost anything like the $700 billion we thought it would? What if it really cost $50 billion, or less?

What if, in the end, the Toxic Asset Relief Program so controversial at birth and vilified throughout its two years of life turns out to have turned a profit for the government and the taxpayer?

We — most of the news media this is — simply don't know what to do with this news.

A couple of points about this article:

First, note the grammatically correct 'Media Are.' There are many media, therefore the media 'are.' The singular form is medium. Don't read the nonsensical footnote in the Oxford English Dictionary. They're lying to you.

Second - and MUCH more important - is the journalist's discussion of media narratives. More than media ownership, and any supposed overall political skew by all Washington news media, is the collective building of political narratives. Those who work in the Washington press operate with a pack mentality, and the ideologies that govern the standards and practices of the Washington press define their work into particular narratives. This being one.

[bluestateguy]

1. I would have done many things differently with the TARP

Like more strings attached to the banks, and bans on the big banks simply using the money to buy up smaller banks, among other things I don't have the time to get into.

[zipplewrath]

3. Likewise

Probably would have paid something less that 100 cents on the dollar. And we never found a way to help the home owners in the houses that were the toxic assets. There are alot of people who, still today, lost money in their homes that they're never getting back.

[AngryAmish]

10. I hated the idea of buying stakes in the banks and stock warrants

I was wrong. It financed the programs - somewhat. THe banks were guaranteed a profit for many years and got to get rid of the hot garbage on their balance shhets - prices we are still going to pay for.

So next time there is a financial crises that threatens commerce as we know it, maybe telling me to stfu is a good idea.

Next up, ask me about next weekends NFL games. If I was betting this year I would have no money left.

[zipplewrath]

2. A third point

It was known, and mentioned at the time that the toxic assets could end up turning a profit for the government. But the owners of the toxic assets got 100 cents on the dollar for them, but the people in the homes that WERE those toxic assets got virtually nothing. THAT is why the TARP was very unpopular and why it continues to be so.

It was the right idea, and it was executed poorly. But of course we had never really done anything like it before so it isn't surprising that, in all the haste, alot of things got missed.

[vaberella]

4. Seems as though Geithner came through.

But that won't stop the haters on this site. Anything to bitch against the admin really. I'm glad this was eventually paid off and this situation sort of makes the teabaggers anger even less legitimate.

[girl gone mad]

12. He came through for the banks..

but not for the rest of us.

[RandomThoughts]

5. I think I just figured out that comment.

Maybe the media is being lied to.

[Whisp]

6. and it's STILL not good enough! *looks up at threads.

LOL
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:rofl:

[Clio the Leo]

7. Well alrighty then! nt

[BlueIdaho]

8. But... But... But...

A successful government program doesn't fit with the narrative imposed by the filthy rich on their lap dog lackeys in the M$M...

[Demoiselle]

9. The English display some confusion over collective nouns...

They insist on saying "The team are very upset.." THAT's wrong, dammit. Team takes the singular verb. And you're right about "media." It, unlike "team" is plural.
Thank you for allowing me my grammar snark of the day.

[girl gone mad]

11. Start to finish, it was the wrong way to go about things.

Banks have only been able to get out of their TARP obligations because of other backdoor government bailouts, tax forgiveness schemes and those 0% loans from the Fed.

We never should have handed them billions of dollars unfettered. The auto bailouts came with many strings, including bondholder haircuts and management shakeups. Yet after wrecking the economy through fraud, the banks were just given piles of cash, no questions asked.

Worse, nothing has really changed. We've simply reanimated this same Ponzi financial system, which continues to erode our real wealth. Americans will see a permanent reduction in their standard of living as a direct result of the bailouts.

TARP was a failure on every level. Morally, politically, socially and economically, we failed to do the right thing.