In a recent interview with Yahoo Tech Ticker's Aaron Task, Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, said she was "speechless" over record-high banking bonuses. Here's Warren:
"I do not understand how it is that financial institutions could think that they could take taxpayer money and then turn around and act like it's business as usual. I don't understand how they can't see that the world has changed in a fundamental way, that it is not business as usual when you take taxpayer dollars."
Warren roasted former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for his handling of TARP, saying that he claimed the money would be funneled "into the banks to increase lending, specifically to increase small business lending, because that is the engine of our economy." But "that's not what happened with that money," and she said there is "no chance" there will ever be a full accounting of TARP funds because "we never asked on the front end."
She saw little improvement over a year ago: "All the things we were talking about that were serious, serious problems for the financial institutions seem to me are still serious, serious problems," she said.
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