The government made money on TARP. Those were not interest free loans, they were preferred shares on which the banks and other companies had to pay a 5% dividend. Also, these programs began in 2008, as you said. Obama was not president in 2008, though his transition team was involved late in that year. TARP had bipartisan support in Congress.
> In total, U.S. government economic bailouts related to the global financial crisis had federal outflows (expenditures, loans, and investments) of $633.6 billion and inflows (funds returned to the Treasury as interest, dividends, fees, or stock warrant repurchases) of $754.8 billion, for a net profit of $121 billion.
Post 2008, bank earnings were effectively subsidized by ZIRP+QE. Pre GFC, banks had to pay interest on deposits to savers who wanted a risk free return. Post GFC, that risk free return went to zero, leaving the banks to scoop up the margins between cost of funding (0%) and the return on lending.
The banks paid back TARP with money that would have accrued to the public pre-GFC. So yes, TARP resulted in a profit for the government, but the organization of the banking system post GFC was a net loss to the public at large - money that savers would have once earned was handed to banks. This government backstop socialized the losses accrued pre-GFC by distributing it across the public; banks were recapitalized at the expense of savers. Of course it wasn't distributed equally. Everyday workers and savers took enormous losses - just spread out over time as the purchasing power of their savings eroded against housing, healthcare and education.
Obama spent his first two years with a Democratic Congress on healthcare - when he should have nationalized, recapitalized and reformed the banking system in favor of workers. Why didn't he? Well, it should be no surprise that the banking industry is one of the largest political donors in any given election year:
The government made money on TARP. Those were not interest free loans, they were preferred shares on which the banks and other companies had to pay a 5% dividend. Also, these programs began in 2008, as you said. Obama was not president in 2008, though his transition team was involved late in that year. TARP had bipartisan support in Congress.
> In total, U.S. government economic bailouts related to the global financial crisis had federal outflows (expenditures, loans, and investments) of $633.6 billion and inflows (funds returned to the Treasury as interest, dividends, fees, or stock warrant repurchases) of $754.8 billion, for a net profit of $121 billion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program#...