Christy Romero, TARP Inspector General, on CNBC last week.
'Geithner's use of Libor for bailouts is wrong.'
'Libor is broken, unreliable, and remains subject to manipulation. Tim Geithner is putting taxpayers at risk.'
Treasury and the Fed are ignoring Romero, who told Congress yesterday that Libor should be removed from the bailouts immediately. As an example, after Geithner took over at Treasury, AIG's bailout loan was changed from an 8% rate to 3%, based on Libor. He told Congress that he doesn't know how much the use of an artificially low Libor might have cost taxpayers.
But it could be in the billions of dollars.
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Further reading:
SIGTARP Report to Congress (pdf)
Libor Is Useless, But That's Not Stopping Tim Geithner
Shahien Nasiripour Libor Bailout Story - Financial Times
Geithner Admits Banks Bailed Out With Rigged Libor, Costing Taxpayers Billions