TARP saved us, but banks aren't lending -- and we're not getting our money back

It was an unfortunate acronym to begin with for the troubled asset relief program -- TARP -- suggesting as it does something you use to cover up an ugly mess. Now here we stand a year later and what started as a gigantic $700 billion bank bailout has ballooned into a $3 trillion behemoth covering everything from toxic assets to mortgage relief.

Is it working? Well, yes and no, TARP inspector general Neil Barofsky said Sunday on NPR's "Weekend Edition." If the goal was to save the financial system from complete and total collapse, then TARP was a success, the inspector general said.

But if the intention was to get banks lending again? Meh, not so much, Barofsky said.