Stunning: TARP's Cost to Taxpayers Increases

Via Twitter, the Wall Street Journal reports that the original TARP estimates were woefully understated.

In January, the CBO pegged the ultimate cost to taxpayers of the $700 billion TARP at $189 billion. When the agency issued revised numbers in late March, it revised that to $356 billion, a change that drew little attention...

...The larger estimate reflects, among other things, the Treasury's move to use the TARP to help avoid foreclosures, as well as the changing details of its aid to American International Group Inc., and the deterioration of financial conditions and of banks in which the Treasury has invested TARP money...

...The CBO's new figures suggest its estimate of the ultimate cost to taxpayers of coming up with $750 billion for financial institutions would be closer to $375 billion than the administration's $250 billion projection.

Let's look on the bright side: we're not completely a Marxist country yet.