TARP Came “Out Of The Air”

Don’t read this from today’s Washington Post if you have a weak stomach or blood pressure problems. In a remarkable story, Neel Kashkari, the many who conceived of and ran TARP for Bush Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, admits that the $700 billion figure came “out of the air.” Here’s the money quote:

“Seven hundred billion was a number out of the air,” Kashkari recalls…. “It was a political calculus. I said, ‘We don’t know how much is enough. We need as much as we can get [from Congress]. What about a trillion?’ ‘No way,’ Hank shook his head. I said, ‘Okay, what about 700 billion?'”