Bang For Their Bucks... '$1 Of Lobbying Money Made Banks $500 in Bailout Funds'

[WillyT]

Interview: $1 Of Lobbying Money Made Banks $500 in Bailout Funds
By DANA LIEBELSON - POGO
Oct 03, 2011

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The 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)— the Bush Administration's $700 billion response to the mortgage crisis—was designed to provide capital injections to banks that needed it. But according to a study published last week, banks that lobbied or had other types of political connections were far more likely to see TARP cash than those that didn’t.

Benjamin Blau, Tyler Brough and Diana Thomas, three professors from Utah State University, authored the report. Corporate Lobbying, Political Connections, and the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program takes a comprehensive look at the lobbying expenditures and political connections of banks that were recipients of TARP funds. The researchers found that for every dollar firms spent on lobbying during the five years prior to the TARP bailout, they received between $486 and $586 in TARP money. Firms that lobbied also had a 42 percent higher chance of receiving TARP support than those that didn’t.

POGO interviewed one of the researchers, Diana Thomas by email about the findings, political investments and what the Super Committee can take away from this kind of research (but probably won’t).

<snip>

Link: http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2011/10/interview-1-of-lobbying-money-made-banks-500-in-bailout-funds.html

Full report (this is a .docx file which opened in OpenOffice.org): http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=benjamin%20blau%2C%20tyler%20brough%20and%20diana%20thomas%20utah%20state%20university%20corporate%20lobbying%2C%20political%20connections%2C%20and%20the%202008%20troubled%20asset%20relief%20program%20&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhuntsman.usu.edu%2Feconomicsandfinance%2Ffiles%2Fuploads%2Fbbttarp11.docx&ei=clSsTt7mEKGeiQLeraSfBA&usg=AFQjCNG2CAGbWQDE3dxEe0nb57h9S99eRQ

OpenOffice can be obtained here: http://www.openoffice.org/

:hi:

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, WillyT.:hi:

[WillyT]

3. Anytime Uncle Joe, Anytime...

:D

:hi:

[dkf]

2. Bank Bailout Returns 8.2% Beating Treasury Yields

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-20/bailout-of-wall-street-returns-8-2-profit-to-taxpayers-beating-treasuries.html