Okay, yes there are still people investing in Real Estate In America. Check out our dear friend George on a tour to check out areas outside of California which is now broke. (July 2009).

Now onto the news:

Update (at bottom): White House does not know how TARP funds were used

House Domestic Policy Subcommittee plans probe of TARP funds

Ohio Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich wants to know: If [the Troubled Asset Relief Program] isnt about keeping people in their homes or providing credit to businesses, what is it for?

Expressing his frustration before the Government and Oversight Committee, the two-time presidential candidate suggested that the Federal Reserve may be paying banks to hoard money and avoid making loans.

Before the committee — which assembled Tuesday to hear the testimony of Neil Barofsky the Special Inspector General for TARP, along with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke — Kucinich wondered aloud if banks are parking a historic amount of taxpayers money in the Federal Reserve while the businesses and consumers across America are starved for credit, and whether the Federal Reserve is paying banks to avoid making loans.

Is the Fed paying banks NOT to loan money? a Kucinich media advisory pondered.

To support his line of questioning, he cited a Bloomberg report which noted that banks excess reserves at the Fed rose to a record $877.1 billion daily average in the two weeks ended May 20, from $2 billion a year earlier.

Link to bloomberg article: http://tiny.cc/wOk86

Excess reserves — money available for lending that banks choose to leave with the Fed instead — averaged $743.9 billion in the first two weeks of this month, the report continued.

First, Congress was told that TARP was for the purchase of toxic assets, to help keep people in their homes, the Congressman said. Then the Bush Administration switched the program. Next, Congress was told that the TARP funds were instead needed to bail out the banks, in the form of a direct capital infusion, to keep credit markets alive.

He continued: If TARP isnt about keeping people in their homes or providing credit to businesses, what is it for? I think the vast majority of Americans would be outraged to learn their tax dollars were facilitating hoarding at the Fed and increased profit making for banks.

In his testimony, Bernanke said the pace of Americas economic decline seems to have slowed, but he expects continued unemployment near 10 percent of the population through the end of 2010.

Full article here at: http://tiny.cc/TFV5k

Duration : 0:2:37

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