FinancialStability.gov: Treasury Launching Major New Site With TARP, Contract Info

The Treasury Department is launching a new interactive website on Tuesday that officials say will bring unprecedented amounts of transparency to the administration's financial stability, housing, and economic recovery programs.

The site, FinancialStability.gov, includes a bevy of data, charts, contracts and other Treasury-related information. Of particular pride to its designers, the site includes an interactive map of the country that shows which state's banks have received what amount of money through the Capital Purchase Program (a part of the TARP). Localizing the program even further: a simple click of a particular state provides a list of when that transaction took place and how much was paid for specific assets. As for March 2009, banks in 48 states had received investments "ranging from as small as about $301,000 to as large as $25 billion." The two states left out: Montana and New Mexico.

For the more dogged watchdogs, the site also links to the physical contract signed by each institution and the Treasury and a published list of bank lending surveys, which, the site's designers say, will become "a much more robust way to track bank lending." (Find anything interesting in the data? Drop us a note.)

Hoping to make the text a bit easier to navigate, the site's creators included a list of economic data charts and a "Decoder" section -- "a brief list of frequently used terms and acronyms that you may find throughout FinancialStability.gov" - as well as a list of the specific programs being overseen by Treasury:

Capital Assistance Program

Consumer and Business Lending Initiative

Making Home Affordable Program

Public-Private Investment Program

Capital Purchase Program (CPP)

Asset Guarantee Program (AGP)

Targeted Investment Program (TIP)

Automotive Industry Financing Program

All told, the site tries to strike a more educational tone -- as opposed to, say, political -- walking visitors through some notably complex topics of finance. "To protect taxpayers and ensure that every dollar is directed toward lending and economic revitalization, the Financial Stability Plan will institute a new era of accountability, transparency and conditions on the financial institutions receiving funds," reads the About section.

But that doesn't mean that the authors didn't frame the administration's policies in the best possible light. Take, for instance, the description of the public-private investment program designed to purchase toxic assets from the banks.

"This approach is superior to the alternatives of either hoping for banks to gradually work these assets off their books or of the government purchasing the assets directly," reads the site. "Simply hoping for banks to work legacy assets off over time risks prolonging a financial crisis, as in the case of the Japanese experience. But if the government acts alone in directly purchasing legacy assets, taxpayers will take on all the risk of such purchases, along with the additional risk that taxpayers will overpay if government employees are setting the price for those assets."

Comments

[alamoscout]

09:12 PM on 03/31/2009

It doesn't tell under what Article of the US Constution, Congress has such powers to hand out TARP money to any bank. If Congress would pass HR 384 IH, then these bills being passed by the Congress would have to explain where in the Constution the have such powers. It would stop all the crazy spending by both sides of the Congress; and force Congress to obey the US Constution.

[goodog]

07:57 PM on 03/31/2009

Mind you, this website has been there all along, but it didn't present the information in the pretty colors and shiny buttons to attract the press's attention. None of the information is new, only the design.

If you suddenly find yourself informed, it's because you weren't really paying close attention.

[Renee27]

07:33 PM on 03/31/2009

They did a wonderful job with the site. I love the decoder link, its needed and very helpful for us laymen.

http://www.financialstability.gov/roadtostability/decoder.htm

[Lovepolitics2008]

04:48 PM on 03/31/2009

The new site is impressive. LOTS of data. There will surely be some critics and suggestions about the site but it is already very good. What I like the most is that it creates a new standard. It will be very difficult for any future administration to go back to less transparency.

[V4Vigilance]

03:00 PM on 03/31/2009

That's nice but I'd prefer they get back to Elizabeth Warren, the person who's job it is to provide oversight of the TARP program.

[westreal]

02:12 PM on 03/31/2009

Innovative. I can see where the money's going.

[Donnat]

01:00 PM on 03/31/2009

It's a great innovation and a good start, but how about not buying those toxic assets and taking over zombie banks? Or shuttering them? If they don't want their bad assets why should the taxpayers? This would also reward and encourage responsible banks.

[PLUTim]

04:59 PM on 03/31/2009

The issue is not about not watching them...it's about valuing them at a price that is in line with the actual price that people are willing to pay for them.

A lot of people want these assets. They aren't as toxic as they're portrayed if they can be purchased at a discount.

[BrianShields25]

01:00 PM on 03/31/2009

I love Alphabet Soup!!

that being said, I'm glad these sites are out there. However, isn't the TARP auditor testifying that she doesn't feel the Treasury is treating them as a priority? Does that office put these sites together or are we simply going around the auditor and making it all more transparent?

[iridium53]

12:20 PM on 03/31/2009

yes. this was promised several months ago.

Apparently it takes the government a long time to get a site together.

[dillydawg]

12:28 PM on 03/31/2009

Complaints is all life has to offer for you. How sad.

[aOsO]

12:15 PM on 03/31/2009

I like the uniformity on all he web sites that they launch. We finally have grown ups running our government.

[Bcasey11]

11:37 AM on 03/31/2009

obama is nailing our coffin in terms of the economy. gold standard is all that can save us. end the fed

[Marie62866]

11:50 AM on 03/31/2009

Bush nailed the coffin, Obama is trying to pry it open!

[TrooAmerican]

12:06 PM on 03/31/2009

Bush had put us all in the ground and covered us up with dirt...
At this point, Obama and the Dems are still Digging our coffin up.

[chocolatecity]

11:54 AM on 03/31/2009

Do you know how many depressions we had when we were on the gold standard? Do you know about the disaster we had when Andrew Jackson created a U.S. Central bank. We've had one depression in 96 years of the Fed's existence. We probably would have come out of that depression faster had the Fed acted more aggressively.