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Asking for TARP Funds Takes Only 27 Minutes
Journalists have written so much about the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), better known as the federal bailout, that it's hard to find a new angle. Seems like everyone's clamoring for a piece of the collective capital. Maybe that's because it takes less than half an hour to ask for it.
It turns out that the application for TARP funds is surprisingly simple. Interested parties can find the complete guidelines for the TARP Capital Purchase Program here. The application is just two pages long. As a test, we decided to fill it out. Including the time it took us to explain this project to our chief financial officer, the TARP application took a mere 27 minutes to complete.
To put it in perspective, here are five things that take longer than filling out the TARP application.
- Applying for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): 4 hours.
- Watching Wall Street: 2 hours, 5 minutes.
- Making a tuna noodle casserole: 1 hour, 20 minutes.
- Applying for New York State unemployment insurance benefits: 30 minutes.
- Applying for food stamps in New Jersey: 30 minutes.
One of the only things that takes less time is filling out a credit card application: 2 minutes.
—Alexis Fitts and Daniel Luzer
Image by flickr user JRP Photo
When you hear that the automotive industry is getting bailed out while we are war in Iraq because we have the biggest terrorist and enemy of the US located in Detroit and Washington?an industry that is so protected from change that in Washington we have leadership that are willing to commit mass murder built on fictive grounds so that you will be able to afford to buy the very reason we are at war?because as long as the automotive industry can sell you its gas guzzling pollution bombs?no money down and get two for the price of one we can see why innovation, the number one reason this country rose from a backwards frontier of gun slinging idiots into the masters of the modern world is being oppressed.
This genius that offered us a position of being the world leader was due to a knack for our innovation?Rockefeller whose business acumen was in part built upon his ruthlessness was also due to his faith that oil would stand as that substance that would revolutionize the entire planet. Henry Ford saw in Rockefeller's oil a means to transform the world via the automobile, but also his concept of how the factory must be organized. Ford's innovation was a combination of those he employed?by paying them with a piece of his reward?proving Marx wrong (showing that welfare capitalism could benefit the employee and factory owner in a positive symbiotic manner), but also his Model T was simply a decade ahead of the rest of the planet.
Thus the genius of our nation is a combination of innovative people with a knack for business but who were not aristocrats. Edison used his genius to abide and care for other geniuses by offering them an opportunity to bring their dreams to life?one of his prize pupils was the young and industrious Henry Ford. (One might ask where this innovative nature comes from and I think it resides in the metaphysical yet transformational belief that we our free?tis a joy to be merry tis a joy be free in the land where I truly want to be)
Still I think that one of the keys to our advance was the pragmatic innovator in regards to our system of education?the philosopher John Dewey. Unfortunately his system of education has been totally destroyed. Dewey sought out experimental education and to brake from the regimentation styled education system?his orientation towards learning was Project Based Learning?whose heart resides in the belief that we are social creatures who learn from one another. I guess that it is LBJ who in a sense ruined our great society via the Vietnam War?but whose philosophy was Dewey's concept of the Great Society. Thus Johnson failed to seize on Dewey's essential message of the power of the Communicative Society?yet the American people showed what they had learned by rising up in opposition to that stupid war. The death of Dewey's genius and sense of liberalism is the rise of McCarthyism. Today the stupidity of McCarthyism and its anti-American ideals has taken us into a new era of depression. Hopefully this depression will rekindle the meaning of being communicative and instead of dividing us it will unite us and like Annie from the great depression whose heart would sing Tomorrow so as to endure today but whose true strength was that in spite of having nothing at all we find that we have each other?because our greatest asset is each other.
Still I think that we must not loose heart in Barack Obama. He represents an other aspect of our country in which we remain ahead of the rest of the world?we are a mixed people and Barack Obama is the product of not just our nation but of the world beyond our nation?he is not just black but he is from a mixed racial background?he is raised in a broken home by a single parent and yet he excelled. To that end he is a symbol of hope and we are a people whose faith is hope of something better and greater than our present world. This makes us a people whose inner nature grasps the power of being positive and that the outcome when standing against all odds is we will not falter but we remain standing. No doubt we are about to enter the crucible but we will endure it and will come out the other side whole yet changed like that song?we must remember that beneath the ice and snow lies the seed that with the sun's love in the Spring becomes the rose. Or my favorite (whose strength is derived from the Japanese sense of being positive?though I think the Haiku meaning is directed towards the Buddha nature) is
My Storehouse having burnt down
Nothing blocks my view of the bright moon
My love of interns has never been greater. Bravo.
How can you plan for a financial future when the feds allow identity theft to go on? If you can not make your house payment and get food why can not others do this? This woman has 7 social security numbers on her credit report used in finacial crimes. Senator Tim Johnson, who's home state this is happening it blamed her ex-husband, and the state courts for allowing federal crimes to go on. In addition to the financial crimes with the 7 social security numbers, she has used different social security numbers to pass no account checks. The feds will not prosecute her even though they have the evidence. How can you prevent this from happening when the feds look the other way and blame it on what appears to be custody issue in a state court. How bizarre is this? If you can not make your house payment why can not others do this to pay for food and clothing as they let her. Contact Sen. Tim Johnson for bizarre answers why the feds don't enforce federal laws.
google southdakotagov.info for letters and copy of her credit report. $ 1/4 million over the years fo far if you contact the FBI in Minnesota.
Where's the form you fill out if you don't have any assets but you want to get some? I'm troubled that I don't have any and I would be relieved if I did.
-Wexler
WHY AN ECONOMIC STRATEGY
GET THE FACTS BEHIND THE NEWS
Elizabeth Warren head of the oversight panel setup by Congressto monitor the Federal Bailout says, "THE GOV'T STILL DOES NOT SEEM TO HAVE A COHERENT STRATEGY FOR EASING THE FINANCIAL CRISIS. " Instead the gov't seemed to be lurching from one tactic to the next without clarifying how each step fits into the overall plan. The overall impression is one of confusion by a leadership(?) that does not know what it is doing.
One of the reasons for Ms. Warren's observation is the US does not have an economic strategy. As Yogi Berra a modern day philosopher has observed. "If you don't know where you are going you may not get there. "
Professor Michael Porter distinguished Harvard Business School Professor has written in the Nov. 10 issue of Business Week an article explaining why he believes the development of a economic strategy is critical.
Professor Porter notes the American political system as it has evolved with piecemeal reactions to current events. Each candidate during the election presented a set of disconnected policy proposals for theirpolitical appeal. Each "approached the economy with long held ideologies and policy positions, many of which no longer fit with today's reality. I believe Professor Porter would like to see an ORGANIZED APPROACH TO POLICIES THAT PROMOTE LONG TERM GROWTH AND COMPETITIVENESS.
Where does the US really stand? Prof Porter says the US has prospered because of unique competitive strengths. 1) The US has an unparalleled environment for entrepreneurship and starting new companies. 2) US Entrepreneurship has been fed by a science, technology, and innovation that is by far the best in the world. 3) The US has the world's best institutions of higher learning. 4) The US has been the country with the strongest commitment to competition and free markets. 5) The task of forming economic policy and putting it into practice is highly decentralized across states and regions. This decentralization maybe the US greatest competitive strength. 6)The US benefits from the most efficient capital markets of any nation. This especially true of risk capital. 7) The US has remarkable dynamism and resilience to take losses and move on.
Prof Porter warns us that what has driven our success is starting to erode.
TO BE DISCUSSED IN OUR NEXT BLOG.
When you hear that the automotive industry is getting bailed out while we are war in Iraq because we have the biggest terrorist and enemy of the US located in Detroit and Washingtonan industry that is so protected from change that in Washington we have leadership that are willing to commit mass murder built on fictive grounds so that you will be able to afford to buy the very reason we are at warbecause as long as the automotive industry can sell you its gas guzzling pollution bombsno money down and get two for the price of one we can see why innovation, the number one reason this country rose from a backwards frontier of gun slinging idiots into the masters of the modern world is being oppressed.
This genius that offered us a position of being the world leader was due to a knack for our innovationRockefeller whose business acumen was in part built upon his ruthlessness was also due to his faith that oil would stand as that substance that would revolutionize the entire planet. Henry Ford saw in Rockefeller's oil a means to transform the world via the automobile, but also his concept of how the factory must be organized. Ford's innovation was a combination of those he employedby paying them with a piece of his rewardproving Marx wrong (showing that welfare capitalism could benefit the employee and factory owner in a positive symbiotic manner), but also his Model T was simply a decade ahead of the rest of the planet.
Thus the genius of our nation is a combination of innovative people with a knack for business but who were not aristocrats. Edison used his genius to abide and care for other geniuses by offering them an opportunity to bring their dreams to lifeone of his prize pupils was the young and industrious Henry Ford. (One might ask where this innovative nature comes from and I think it resides in the metaphysical yet transformational belief that we our freetis a joy to be merry tis a joy be free in the land where I truly want to be)
Still I think that one of the keys to our advance was the pragmatic innovator in regards to our system of educationthe philosopher John Dewey. Unfortunately his system of education has been totally destroyed. Dewey sought out experimental education and to brake from the regimentation styled education systemhis orientation towards learning was Project Based Learningwhose heart resides in the belief that we are social creatures who learn from one another. I guess that it is LBJ who in a sense ruined our great society via the Vietnam Warbut whose philosophy was Dewey's concept of the Great Society. Thus Johnson failed to seize on Dewey's essential message of the power of the Communicative Societyyet the American people showed what they had learned by rising up in opposition to that stupid war. The death of Dewey's genius and sense of liberalism is the rise of McCarthyism. Today the stupidity of McCarthyism and its anti-American ideals has taken us into a new era of depression. Hopefully this depression will rekindle the meaning of being communicative and instead of dividing us it will unite us and like Annie from the great depression whose heart would sing Tomorrow so as to endure today but whose true strength was that in spite of having nothing at all we find that we have each otherbecause our greatest asset is each other.
Still I think that we must not loose heart in Barack Obama. He represents an other aspect of our country in which we remain ahead of the rest of the worldwe are a mixed people and Barack Obama is the product of not just our nation but of the world beyond our nationhe is not just black but he is from a mixed racial backgroundhe is raised in a broken home by a single parent and yet he excelled. To that end he is a symbol of hope and we are a people whose faith is hope of something better and greater than our present world. This makes us a people whose inner nature grasps the power of being positive and that the outcome when standing against all odds is we will not falter but we remain standing. No doubt we are about to enter the crucible but we will endure it and will come out the other side whole yet changed like that songwe must remember that beneath the ice and snow lies the seed that with the sun's love in the Spring becomes the rose. Or my favorite (whose strength is derived from the Japanese sense of being positivethough I think the Haiku meaning is directed towards the Buddha nature) is
My Storehouse having burnt down
Nothing blocks my view of the bright moon
At point number 4 Professor Porter reveals himself to be a typical conservative free-marketer, thereby identifying himself with the problem, not the solution.
It is the unplanned and unregulated misuse of our resources, including the systematic erosion of workers' rights, safety, and pay, that has gotten us into the mess where we are today. If it were true that we have the best environments for entrepreneurship, scientific support for innovation, educated work force, and whatever else Porter asserts, why is it that companies have offshored jobs by the 10s of millions?
-Wexler
Let us face the truth . The total lack of controls is the main reason we are in this quagmire and we will not get out of it until we put back the controls . REPLACING THE OLD CONTROLS WILL NOT COST THE TAXPAYERS ONE PENNY , BUT THESE BAIL-OUTS WILL . Raising health care costs has killed more U.S. citizens than most of the other major crimes combined . And lets face it , raising health care costs to where almost one fifth of our citizens can not afford it is a crime that kills . With the present congress in place the more money we put in the pockets of our citizens the more money the health care and energy industries will get and the higher they will raise their prices . Please Think ! Because of these uncontrolled raising prices the number of U.S. citizens able to pay decreases and our manufacturing industries have trouble which compounds the problem . PRICE CONTROL IS THE ONLY REAL FIX .
Nice article it interesting. Nice reading your article i like reading your blog.
If there ever needed to be some answer to the spiralling costs and diminishment of the dollar to 4 cents of its original value in 1913, the madness that is grinding the USA into a 'Greater' Depression the likes of which the world has yet to see, printing money to pay debt is devaluation = Poverty
I've become hugely influenced by a website called:-
"Chris Martenson"
and a set of remarkable films you can find there called the
"Crash Course"
...Simply speaking, to know where you're going, you must indeed know where you've come from.
Google:-
"Chrismartenson.com"
The point for some is squarely on their heads, and they have their heads parked where the sun does not shine.
Our jobs are offshored due to gov't intervention in a free market place. The gov't has regulated some of these industries off our own shores. A few examples are steel, natural resources (gas and oil), textiles, et cetera.
Each time I come to the comments section I expect to be entertained but sometimes I'm totally underwhelmed.
The reason why businesses offshore is because of tax advantages, primarily. It's true that some government regulations have cost industries money, but you have to ask yourself... how many severed hands are "OK" due to poor safety regulations? How much lead do you want your kids to breathe? How many Love Canals do you want seeping into your basement?
And so on. You get the picture. (At least most of us do).
;-)
-Wexler
WHY do most of these responses have absolutely nothing to do with the article? WHY OH WHY are a number of them fascistic? This is Mother Jones, for God's sake! If there is any place in the world that isn't going to buy into the free market bull**** it's here! And to top it off, a number of them are nothing but spam, soliciting for other web sites!
Nice entertaining article folks. I enjoyed it. Let us know if you manage to obtain any bail out funds, please!
I second the praise for intern brilliance that's above.
I think MJ should post the completed application, as well as any communication received back from the TARP folks.
Great article. Thank you interns for the good idea.
This is a nice bit of commentary on the difficulty of applying for other forms of assistance -- especially those received by individuals who don't have the resources to deal with a multiple-hour application process. I don't think it really implies that there is any likelihood of Mother Jones actually receiving any money.
So, did you apply, and are you going to get anything?
Give me some advice, I owe $20,000 in student loans, should I apply?
Mark Dulcey, that's exactly what went through my head...
The form for SSI (poverty support for disabled/elderly) takes anywhere from an hour to a few weeks depending on your impairment, plus 1 year of bank statements, all medical records, letters from doctors, and exam by SSA docs. All but the absolute mind-blowing worst get rejected by policy a few months later, most are approved if they have the emotional steel to spend a year or two to appeal a couple of times.
We get to re-do it every few years, too. Some in gov't think it should be quarterly so there's more chances to yank support from people for accidentally sounding less disabled or turning in papers late.
Yet requesting TARP funds takes less than half an hour, including explaining it to someone else...
We didn't actually send in the application on the 9th. We were just interested in seeing how long the application took relative to filling out other forms. Given the interest this has received, however, we decided to go ahead and send the application in. We're not expecting an immediate response but we'll let everyone know what happens.
I wish someone had that answer. My real estate industry has been starving for bailout money for months now.
I have a Better Answer to the Housing Crisis than we're getting
Obama is coming to our town, in AZ, Wednesday and we will get "details" on TARP +... which early indications don't reassure me.
I spent 30 years in financial services (WallStreet) ... even worked on developing the first Brokerage Firm money market accounts that now hold a few trillion$.
I need someone to read the following "solution" and tell me why we can't be smarter about this crisis.... as this seems a better idea.
Will take any questions you have.
Fallow the link
http://redoit-fixingamerica.blogspot.com/