Inspector General Neil Barofsky said in an interview with CBS’s “The Early Show” that it was “unrealistic” to believe that the entire $700 billion supplied by the government during the height of the banking crisis will be repaid. When pressed as to how much he thought taxpayers could expect to see returned, Barofsky declined to provide an amount saying it was too early to say with certainty.
Despite being unable to quantify how much taxpayers can expect to lose, Barofsky described TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) as a “substantial success” saying that the “credibility of the program and of the government itself, and the anger, cynicism and distrust created must be chalked up as one of the substantial, albeit unnecessary, costs of TARP.”
