In an interview with FOX Business Network’s Peter Barnes, Gene Sperling, Counselor to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, says “no” to refunding banks that pay TARP fees and that Geithner will set the record straight. What’s really interesting on the video is how feisty Sperling was in the interview with Peter. Peter is asking the right questions and clearly he touched on a sore spot.
Here are excerpts from the interview: Courtesy of Fox Business News
On whether banks will get a refund after paying back TARP:
“No. And the reason why is what we’ve said, is that it would last at least ten years. I think when you look at both the extraordinary benefit, the windfall that many have received and when you look at the breadth of the cost imposed on our economy on the taxpayers from the depth of this recession and very much contributed to by the financial industry. And I think this is a very reasonable amount that can be paid back.”
On Geithner’s upcoming testimony regarding AIG and the NY Fed:
“Secretary Geithner is never upset to have to set the record straight again and again and there’s no problem doing that.”
