The Bailout Makes A Profit*

Ticker

Monika Bauerlein,
CEO

Dear Reader,

The next few months are make-or-break for Mother Jones’ fundraising, and we need more online readers to pitch in than have been of late. In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we take a level-headed look at the brutal economics of journalism, why investigative reporting like you get from us matters, and why we're optimistic we can grow our base of support in a big way—starting with hitting a huge $300,000 goal in just three weeks. Please learn more and donate if you can right now.

The next few months are make-or-break for Mother Jones’ fundraising. We need to raise $300,000 quickly, and we need more online readers to pitch in than have been. Please learn more in "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," where we go into the brutal economics of journalism, and what makes Mother Jones unique and worth supporting if you can right now.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that the $700 billion bank bailout has finally made a profit. The bad news is that it’s for this week.

Paul Keil at ProPublica reports that $125.2 million came in and only $45.5 million went out through the bailout program over the last week, for a “profit” of $79.7 million. More from Keil:

As always, it’s time for your weekly update on the bank bailouts.There were seven more TARP takers this week, totaling $45.5 million:

Village Bank and Trust Financial Corp	$14.7 million
CenterBank	$2.3 million
Georgia Primary Bank	$4.5 million
Union Bank & Trust Company	$3.2 million
HPK Financial Corporation	$4 million
OSB Financial Services	$6.1 million
Security State Bank Holding Company	$10.8 million

These investments are through the Treasury’s program for “healthy banks,” the Capital Purchase Program. The Treasury currently has $197.9 billion invested in more than 550 banks all over the country. You can see the entire list of bailout recipients here.

Of course, bit by bit, banks have been returning bailout funds because of the bailout’s taint and restrictions on executive compensation. Yesterday, the 12th bank returned the money: Sterling Bancshares of Houston, Texas, returned $125.2 million. As you can see from our list of banks that have refunded their bailout money, the 12 have returned $1.16 billion so far. Lately, Capital Purchase Program investments have slowed down considerably, and more bailout money has been coming back to Treasury than has been going out.

This story first appeared on ProPublica.

It is the latest from ProPublica’s new bailout blog. Check out the all-seeing database of the bailout billions.