The Obama bank bailout that didn't

Today, we're looking at the Obama bank bailout that didn't happen under an administration routinely noted to have simply followed its predessessors's lead.

A Tale of two Bailouts?

Marin Independent Journal

"According to GAO, the government has disbursed approximately $339 billion and promised $102 billion more. That leaves some $259 in the fund plus the $70 billion banks have repaid."

— Guvmnt Accounting Office

More: Bailing on the bailout

Of the $700 billion bank bailout passed in a panic last October, then-treasury secretary Hank Paul gave $350 billion to the banks, with the rest pending the new administration's request and approval by Congress.

There's $328 billion unspent or uncommitted left in the fund.

Mind you, the amount spent includes cash allocated to each of the following programs, collectively known as a bank bailout, but little understood in its parts:

Capital Purchase (100s of banks, big & small): $133.068 Bln

Automotive Industry (GM & Chrysler): $79.966 billion

Automotive Supplier Support: $5 billion

Targeted Investment (Citibank & BofA): $40 billion

Asset Guarantee (Citibank) $5 billion

Systematically Significant
Failing Institutions (AIG): $69.835 billion

Consumer and Business Lending: $20 billion

The Home Affordability Modification plan: $18,669 billion

See the TARP Transaction Report @ FinancialStability.gov

Since Obama took office, , only five no-name banks have taken more than $100 million in bailout funds in exchange for company shares.

Starting on page 4 of the July TARP Transaction Report, only two no-name banks have sold $200 million in shares to the Treasury. Only Discover, at $1.2 billion, and Hartford, at 3.4 billion, have broken $1 billion.

Gone are the money-salads served to BofA, Citibank, Goldman, JPMorgan-Chase, Morgan Stanly, and Wells Fargo... $10-25 billion per plate... between October and January.

They don't say so here, but it seem that the semblance of conditions the Obama administration put on bailed-out banks, weak though that criteria seems, compared to what you'd think is needed, have been onerous enough to keep the banks from being particularly interested in taking the rest of the money.