Did Bush and Paulson Do Something Right?

Daniel Gross, author of Dumb Money: How Our Greatest Financial Minds Bankrupted the Nation, takes on a simple question in this column from Slate. Back when TARP - the Troubled Asset Repurchase Program - was created, there was a lot of skepticism about the program. From what I heard, a lot of people believed that we had seen the last of that $700 billion dollars. As Gross explains that pessimism was incorrect. The banks and other companies bailed out by the government have paid back around a third of the money, with interest. We, the taxpayers, may be making 17% on the money invested. This article provides a good account of the current situation with our $700 billion.