1438 Busi-ment

Surprising economic news continues to pour in. And it’s leading to an unsettling conclusion. Unsettling for some Tea Partiers at least. If they don’t want the news to rain on their party they may have to reconsider their opinion of the use and value of a tarp. Because it turns out the Federal TARP may have been a pretty good thing after all.
One of the big rage items of the Tea Party agenda was the government’s meddling in the natural highs and lows of business, even to the point of taking over some businesses like General Motors.
General Motors is now profitable. They are paying back huge chunks of the money the government invested in them. And they actually managed to keep some people employed in the process.
The American car industry generally has benefited. Americans are buying American again, even Japanese cars made in America.
And the banks, anxious to get out from under government’s financial scrutiny, are paying back their TARP funds too—posting profits and generally getting their motors running more efficiently.
And here’s the latest news: The fund set up by the US Treasury to take toxic assets off the hands of financial firms, so they could return quicker to the solvency they are now showing, is itself turning a profit. Managed by private managers, selected by the government, the toxic funds have earned a 27% return. They’ve turned 5.2 billion into 6.3 billion.
A little ironic, considering the big election drubbing in November that swept the Tea Party into prominence was based on getting government out of business.
The unsettling conclusion is, it’s looking like the government is better at running business than they are at running government.
America, ya gotta love it.