Where Your Tax TARP Dollars Are Going

The Treasury Department has updated its list of financial institutions that are participating in the bailout's "capital purchase program," through which the feds buy preferred stock in a given bank.

In the $25 billion club are Citigroup (tough luck to those pink-slipped yesterday!), JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. Bank of America is in for $15 billion, and Goldman Sachs (thanks Hank!), Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch are pulling $10 billion.

Read the rest of the list, two dozen-plus strong, here.

Update: The excellent website ProPublica, dedicated to "journalism in the public interest,"[*] is keeping a graphically rich, continuously updated tally of who's getting what, why, and how. According to their math, we're at $177 billion of commitments so far. Geez, that $700 billion toe tag on the economy just seems to be getting smaller every day, dunnit?

[*]: I should add that I don't believe in the "public interest," for the same reasons I believe that Szaszians, public-choice economics, and Marxists give a deep critique of "helping" institutions.

But the ProPublica website, which covers all sorts of topics ranging from government to media to national security, is really worth checking out.