Government report card: TARP is a success!

It is bad enough that most people in the U.S. now know that TARP stands for Troubled Asset Relief Program. Of course, TARP has not really relieved anyone of their troubled assets but it has paid for billions in bonuses and precious few loans. But that has not stopped the U.S. from creating an even longer, new acronym for us to learn -- special inspector-general for the troubled asset relief program (SIGTARP).

SIGTARP is run by a fellow named Neil Barofsky. And SIGTARP has conducted a survey that concludes TARP is a big success! Unfortunately, there is no independent verification of the results of the survey and the research conducted privately contradicts its findings -- but who cares? Actually, I do -- because SIGTARP now says the cost of the financial bailout -- only $700 billion of which is the TARP -- could nearly double from $12.8 trillion to $23.7 trillion, nearly twice U.S. Gross Domestic Product!